mrbaddeley
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ABS...
🕑 Added 2017-04-08 21:09:19 +0000 UTC I pretty much only print with ABS and one of the most frequent discussions I have with people is how to stop warping. For me, both delamination and warping has been an issue. Here's my experience so far but would love to hear from others.1) why use ABS in the first place? I love ABS, acetone welding is a godsend. It's cheap, quick and as strong as the plastic. Also Acetone is relatively ok compared to some real dodgy chemicals.
2) An enclosure, really have to print in a warm, consistent environment. This makes a huge difference and probably (along with a heated bed) is the most important factor to warp free prints.
3) A heated bed :-) I run mine around 105, hotter can make warping worse and lower equally makes for more warping. The bed also heats the enclosure.
4) bed levelling and bed adherence. Looking for that slightly squished first layer even across the print bed. The choice of bed cover is critical also. I used to swear by Kapton tape and ABS juice for a thin coating but went through lots of Kapton and ABS juice. Then I discover PEI, a brilliant covering and now gives me by far the best results I've every had.
5) helper discs. Theses are 20mm round discs, around .4 or .3 thick. You place these onto your print, one in each corner and they provide extra surface area for adherence. Superb and I swear by then.
6) infill. Recently I've ran tests and (logical really) but the higher I fill or density the more warping you get. It gives more 'pull' as the filament cools if there's more of it. Secondly honeycomb seems to be the best pattern. Criss cross gives straight lines which can pull more as the model cools. This combined with height densities can seriously contribute to warpage.
I think it's worth persevering as ABS is easy to sand, easy to chemical weld, strong and flexible.
Mike,
Comments
Michael Baddeley
Hi Chris, helper discs are thin discs (typicallly .4) circles which are printed flat on the bed. You add them in the slicer to the print on each corner of the print to hold down the corners and minimize warping / lifting.
could someone explain more on how to use the "helper discs"? Are they part of the print, or do you print on top of them? Thanks!
Then I used several 3 layer help disks on every corner and midlle..
Here's how I solved my warping problems on this particular project.. set my first layer bed temp to 130 and drop Down to 100 from layer 50.
Michael Baddeley
I've not, I've got a reel just not printed anything with it. I use pei bed so a little concerned it may stick too much. Will get round to using it though. Also I'm a little addicted to acetone welding :-)
stormtrooperguy
have you tried PETG? I've switched entirely to that. Many of the benefits of ABS and fewer of the disadvantages. It feels like a great compromise between ABS and PLA.
