After several hours/days of printing the parts were finally ready to be picked up! However, there are still a few more steps left in order to really make the 3D printed Eye bezel look amazing.

First, clean any print supports off with a flat blade knife or scraper. You may also want to sand or file the parts at this point to remove any pieces that are clearly aberrant.

Second, prepare an acetone bath chamber (see this excellent tutorial from Make). I simply used a steel gallon paint can, a few paper towels and four magnets. I placed the dry towels along the inside of the can and secured them there with magnets. Then I saturated the towels with pure acetone and shook out any excess (do this outside away from any flame sources). Using the lid as my base, I bathed the front of the bezel in acetone vapor for 3 hours and the back for 2 hours. Make sure you don't let the acetone touch the actual print. Also, use a metal lid to support the back of the bezel so that it can sit flat. Allow the parts to dry in the open air for about thirty minutes prior to handling.

Once I was done I had shiny smooth prints, but I also noticed that the back of the bezel was sagging towards the center. A quick hit with a heat gun (or a blow dryer on high) was all it took to flatten it out.

The acetone bath did a great job of smoothing out those print lines, however the spray paint adheres best to a surface that isn't smooth or shiny. Using my fine steel wool, I sanded around all features of the front and back of the bezel, including inside the "eye lids". Steel wool allows for you to get into all those crevices around the front of the bezel. I then taped off the inside of the bezel, this is necessary to protect surfaces you will later need unpainted to help with bonding the parts (see Assembling the Eye).

Next, paint the front and back of the bezel with thin, overlapping coats of gold spray paint. You may chose to first prime the surface, but I found this unnecessary. I used at least 8 thin coats of paint, allowing 10 minutes in between to dry, then repositioning the parts. Hanging the front of the bezel inside a box using two sticks (one long one on top of a box and another small one inside the bezel) yields the best results. Just make sure you paint the inside of the "eye lids", but not the inside of the bezel, which you should have taped off.