Hey guys, today i am borrowing a role of abs from my school in order to test printing (with me just and my teacher) a propeller then putting it into a acetone vapor to smooth/thin/strengthen out the propeller. This will be my very first time printing with abs both on my simple metal and for me. I have the heated bed upgrade along with the ed3 v6 installed. I have painters tape if needed and i have kapton tape already on the bed. Any warning or tips to getting a good print? sadly i don’t have an enclosure.
Thanks
Matt
You want to keep the heated bed at 100-110c, try to place the printer in a place that’s not too much below room temperature and free from drafts or air ducts blowing toward it, and let the part cool to at least 70c (if not lower) before removing from the bed so it’ll pop off more easily.
If you get excessive warping you can try painting the bed with ABS slurry first by dissolving some ABS in acetone so it has a very thin consistency then painting that on the bed and letting it dry.
If the object is especially tall, or the room is especially cold, you will get inter-layer cracking and the only solution for that is to heat the room or put the printer in an enclosure. That can be as simple as a large cardboard box, so in a pinch you can hack just about anything together, it doesn’t need to be too fancy.
I just use a very large plastic tote that fits over my printer when I print abs. I want to try a heat lamp some day to see if that will help on larger parts.
If the part is only, say, 1-2cm tall off the bed, you’re fine without an enclosure. If it’s taller than that, you’ll definitely want SOMETHING to trap the heat in. I don’t recommend printing ABS in cooler than 35C air, it’s just going to cause more pain than is worth the effort. You can use a cardboard box, cheap plastic bin, or an oven bag for cooking turkeys. Just do SOMETHING to hold the warm air.