# Can a sandstone 3D print be printed as a solid object?

I've been asked to prepare a 3D model for 3D printing in sandstone. I've been told that it needs to be 3" tall and the walls have to be at least 2 mm thick. It's an absolute pain in the neck having to make sure everything is the right thickness. So, I was wondering, can the whole model just be printed as a solid object, with 100% infill, and does that work for sandstone?

• Why you have to decide between shell and solid? Wouldn't it be ok to use 15% infill (with 2mm wall thickness)? I'm just curious? Apr 9 '16 at 10:36
• What is the problem with the 2mm wall thickness. That should only be a setting in your slicer. The Hight is a property of your model,.. Apr 9 '16 at 13:31
• @darthpixel Because if we go with 100% infill then I don't have to worry about having to model the 2mm wall thickness, which is hard because it wasn't originally designed with 2mm walls... Apr 9 '16 at 20:12
• @Matthew ok - you have your reasons :) but you wrote "at last 2mm" so i understand there is a room for some... "flexibility" Apr 10 '16 at 12:28

Yes, you can just print it solid. However, it might be significantly more expensive to print your object entirely solid. For instance, Shapeways charges \$0.75 per cm³ of material for their full-color sandstone. A solid cube of 5x5x5 cm would cost \$96 to print, whereas it would only cost around \\$6 if you printed it hollow with 2mm walls.