Starting My ABS adventures

[Burkeomatic]

Ok, so we all know that you need an enclosure to print ABS and it also releases fumes. I had been wanting to do this for a while, but I finally got the motivation when I found this shelf on the side of the road on trash day. I rearranged it, and it made a perfect 3d printer enclosure frame. 



Had some random OSB laying around where I was going to make a lacks enclosure of the ender. 



Top supported with paintsticks, then I found another scrap of OSB, the paint sticks were later removed for aesthetics, but if you wanted to duplicate, they would have been enough. 



I scavenged more OSB from work and some construction sites. This stuff was thin and super elcheapo, this must be the 8 dollar a sheet stuff from lowes lol. It makes you itchy when you cut it, and splinters everywhere. Oh well, it was free and works. 



I was initially going to ventilate outside, but then I found where people used a filter. Activated carbon plus a hepa filter should be good enough they say. I found a set up on thingiverse that was for 120mm fans. Well, all I had were 80mm fans. So I got on to fusion and made a prettier piece. 




Here it is all printed out. Looks like it should work. I wired the 24v fan straight to my PDB or whatever it is called inside my printer, so no external power. When the printer is on, the fan is working. I had purchased a speed controller, a waste of 6 dollars, but whatever, It didn't work. 




Here is my first print going. I also instaled a filament cleaner in the pass through. I had to relocate the spool holder and filament sensor to the top. I had some acrylic I had acquired for my lack enclosure as well, I spent another 8 bucks on wood for the door, plus another 6 bucks for the door hardware and snap, and another 5 bucks for the window/door foam that keeps the door relatively airtight. Oh, and 10 bucks for the LEDs, because we need LEDs in our enclosure, right? 



Here is a view of the top. It has the vent filter (not to move too much air, we want to keep the heat in there) and the spool holder. I sealed it up mostly with latex caulk which was 3 dollars. 

I would say I am about 10 bucks on the filter set up. Overall, I am less that 60 bucks into this if I include the acrylic sheet in there, which is right at the price of one of those floppy fabric covers, but I have a sweet airtight door, externally mounted spool, and lots of other goodies in a sturdy case, and now I can stack filament on top of the printer too, another plus!






Oh, and the filter actually works, I can stand next to it and build. I am cutting out flerkin plans right now, and I am not nauseated by the fumes, you can barely smell it, and the printer is eerily quiet. I call it a success!

[Burkeomatic]

Alright, I have the bed adhesion thing licked.

I read Kapton tape works well, especially in conjunction with ABS slurry/glue.

Ok, so I started with the painters tape/abs slurry, and it worked fine.

I was able to print my kids an articulated caterpie like this, as well as benchy.



I tried to print a flerkin part, and it was big and flat. It pulled off the bed the first time, this is when I started using the slurry.

I had a failed print with the body section of the P-47.

Then I reluctantly moved up to kapton tape.

Most people wouldn't have this hanging out, but I use it for battery construction, but it is 8 bucks a roll which is why I was reluctant.

Well I applied some slurry over that and it worked.


This is my first thinwall print. It succeeded, and is strong inspite of the little holes, but we can do better.




I am currently running 105 degree bed temp and printing at 250 degrees and it is working. I might up the heat some more.

Having a 300 degree capable hot end (for 20 bucks none the less) is awesome.

[Burkeomatic]

Well, I have printed that damn fuselage section like 5 times, but with the help and guidance from the folks on rcg and a little trial and error, I think it is safe to say I am ready for ABS prime time.

The one on the right is my last attempt and I am very happy with the result.



Oh, I am also back to using painters tape, it turns out I was having some wonky bed level issues due to heat cycling that high (my bed had never been ran at 110C in it's life). I probably wouldn't need to use tape either, since the ABS goop works so well for bed adhesion but I heard tales on the internet of it pulling pieces of glass bed off with it, so I figured it better to sacrifice some tape rather than a glass bed. Although I may purchase a PEI build sheet or something. 

[Burkeomatic]

Alright, I am going to collect my thoughts/try to consolidate lessons learned.

- First and foremost, ABS is a delight to post process. You can concoct any sort of ABS goop with the thickness you want (just adjust the ratio of ABS to acetone). This can cover for a myriad of mistakes. You can print most things warp free, but wings are tough. I finally figured it out, but I had managed to reduce the warp to a tolerable amount, so I just glued the middles together, and filled the rest with ABS putty I had made up, you would never even know, sure as hell couldn't do that with PLA/PETG.

- That said, ABS can be chemically bonded with acetone, and chemically smoothed by it as well. Not to mention it is very easy to sand. This is makes it even cheaper, but CA glues it like stink.... it is never, ever, ever coming apart, CA makes both a chemical and mechanical bond with ABS, it effectively welds/glues it together. If you scuffed it up too much by sanding, you can just run a little acetone over it and it looks almost like fresh.

- The trick to warp free wings is a mix between using helper discs and enabling one bottom layer.

- You print one bottom layer so the whole inner wing effectively has a brim, and the helper discs add more stick where it is needed.

Just something like this placed under the parts where it likes to warp (the leading and trailing edges) and you are good.

www.thingiverse.com/thing:346317

- The fuselage parts print without warpage, or it is minimal, and better than trying to remove the brim from the part.

- Your bed temperature can never be too high, I am at 110 right now.

- Your retraction needs to be lower than you thought, lower than with PLA actually. I am down to .7mm retraction, where I run on .8 with PLA and 2 on PETG. I mistakenly thought that this would behave more like PETG instead of PLA with regards to retraction, and I was wrong.

If I think of any more, I will let you know.

[Burkeomatic]

The plane is supposed to weight 740g for the printed parts in PLA... I am at 590g printed in ABS! I always come in over the rated weight too!

[Burkeomatic]

Ok, so flashforge and form futura titan ABS suck (but flashforges PLA freaking rocks). They claim to be "non warping" abs, and they may warp a little less, but the layer adhesion sucks, and they don't dissolve in acetone. ABS is actually a mix of 3 polymers. So I don't know what they do or add to it, but you can dump it into ABS for a day, and it never gets beyond squishy and mushy. It will warp and disfigure, but it will never actually melt. Which is half the fun.

The only ABS I have had good luck with is hatchbox, and I am still experimenting with zyltech, which is half the price, but was the green stuff I was sort of having issues with (but it behaves like ABS) but it was also old stock. I bought a fresh roll of the zyltech and we will give it a go.

I was putting together the sabre v2 I printed out of abs and it kept pretty much crumbling so much, it ended up in the trash.

[Burkeomatic]

I guess this thread doubles as my P-47 build thread.

I was about to trash it becauae the esc wires got messed up and I was too lazy to fix it.

I figured I owed it to the plane and the designer to at least try it. After some trimming, it flew great. The esc was a little toastey, not sure if it was the 3536 only spinning a 10x5 prop or more the fact that it was 107 degrees out. Probably the latter.

[ratcheeroo]

That looks sweet! Surprised you even have any green grass there with the heat you have been having.

[Burkeomatic]

Jul 17, 2023 15:26:07 GMT ratcheeroo said:

That looks sweet! Surprised you even have any green grass there with the heat you have been having.

That is a football field. It is owned by the government, so they don't have to follow water restrictions.