ABS Juice... I have printed many cameras (300+) now on a heated (100C) borosilicate

3D Printing
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ABS Juice… I have printed many cameras (300+) now on a heated (100C) borosilicate glass bed with hairspray and I’ve been so smug about my hairspray results that I’ve ignored comments about using ABS juice, mostly because the pics I’ve seen show very heavy and blobby amounts of ABS on the bed. The cameras (my “Pinhole Printed” Kickstarter) are tall and heavy-walled so they warp badly if they don’t stay stuck.

Well, I’m a convert now - no more hairspray. I dissolve about 18" of clear ABS in about 4 oz of acetone, dip the corner of a paper towel in it, and wipe the cold (not hot!) bed with it, and start my print and walk away. The amount of ABS is minuscule, but my prints stay stuck at 100C on the bed (with the printer well enclosed) and easily pop off with a mirror gloss finish after cooling down past 60C. To get that mirror gloss finish, it seems the bed has to be under 40C during application, you can’t make more than 2-3 passes over the same area, and the amount of ABS in the acetone has to be low. The glass should not look as though paint was applied. If I do it right, I can’t see it. If I put it on a hot bed, it looks like frosted glass and I have to cool down and start over.

So for hairspray advocates, I’d urge you to try it - the mirror gloss finish is impressive. I’m only speaking for my results with ABS, I have not used PLA much.

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That is great info thanks. Can you post a couple of pictures of your bed before and after application?

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To be honest, the pictures will look the same but I’ll try. If you can see the wash, the finish won’t be a mirror gloss. A YouTube video might be more helpful. I’ll see what I can do on pics.

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wow, that’s almost half a meter of filament to dissolve in 115 ml.
What filament diameter are you using, 3 mm of 1.75?

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1.75 clear - turns a milky white. It might be 6 oz of acetone, I don’t have a beaker to measure (will order one). Wipe on with paper towel, just a couple of circles on a cool bed, should not leave any streaks. I can’t see it when done right but prints stick! And come off after cooling down with a mirror finish.