Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?  

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Posted by: @tango

I have two chihuahuas that I have trained to go on command (believe it or not) and to use an indoor pet potty (with a vent fan that goes on after they use it - I'm adding a PIR detector to do that). There are parts of this I'd like to print. I thin it's obvious that if I'm printing out parts of a pet potty, those parts will get, well, dumped on. I've searched for info on PLA or PETG being exposed to pet waste and have found there's some kind of medical condition called PLA, but I have not been able to find anything useful on whether PLA or PETG would have issues with frequently being soaked or otherwise exposed to pet waste.

Has anyone seen any info on this or aware of anything, good or bad, about it?

PP (polypropylene) is best but it's expensive and not easy to print. In your particular case I would go with PETG over PLA. It's reasonably chemical resistant. 

Whatever you use is going to be a nightmare to clean as, er, stuff gets into the interlayer gaps ... I suggest you coat it with a layer of resin or at least paint, to fill the gaps and make it much easier to keep hygienic.

Cheerio,

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

you could also print it with ABS/ASA and then post-process it with acetone vapor chamber (or just spray with acetone and let it evaporate) so it would melt and create clean unified solid surface.

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Posted by: @diem

Whatever you use is going to be a nightmare to clean as, er, stuff gets into the interlayer gaps ... I suggest you coat it with a layer of resin or at least paint, to fill the gaps and make it much easier to keep hygienic.

Glad you brought that up - the thought about the porousness of printed material didn't hit me until I was falling asleep - then forgot about it in the morning until I just read your reply.

you could also print it with ABS/ASA and then post-process it with acetone vapor chamber (or just spray with acetone and let it evaporate)

Will this work on PLA or PETG? (I don't have an acetone vapor chamber, so I'd only be spraying it. And no ABS or ASA in my shop right now.)
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Putting the two comments together, I see the main thing is to put some kind of coating on the final print to seal the pores and gaps. I'll be buying the non-printed parts at a local big box store and they have a corrugated plastic in sheets that's not too expensive. This is replacing a "test" puppy potty I've used for a few years. I built it out of plywood and a few 1x4 boards, then put the plastic on the inside and sealed it with silicone and it's worked well. If needed, I could put the same plastic sheeting over any parts I print, but I don't want to encase them all around, so it sounds like painting is a good option.

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

I wanted to add a note or two after some research.

For my test puppy potty, I used some corrugated plastic sheets and fastened them to my plywood shape with silicone caulking, which I also used to seal the joints. That's worked for a while. For the one I'm making now, I was hoping to find something I could use other than that same sheeting - something I could use to just paint over the plywood to protect it from damage and from the smell that would build up after a while. I found pretty much every kind of paint anyone would have thought would have worked did not. Rustoleum? Their own reps say their paint is not designed to stay too wet! Same with almost everything else I looked at.

I searched for acetone and urine and found more about tests finding acetone in urine than about how it holds up to repeated exposure to urine. Considering that it's possible to find acetone in urine, and that I would rather not spend days researching that and if it's just in humans, or in dogs as well, I followed up on a list of suggestions I've found throughout different sites. (And if someone can cite anything that, for sure, shows acetone paint or covering will stand up to urine, that will be appreciated!)

What I did find was Plasti-Dip. The makers actually cite it as working well to protect against animal waste, including urine. (Actually, there's a typo on the website and it says "Nimal Waste," instead of "Animal Waste!") (Also, just a few minutes ago, got a statement from their reps, in email: "Thank you for reaching out to Plasti Dip. Plasti Dip Multi-purpose Rubber Coating is used on many surfaces, such as wood, plastic, chrome, glass, metal, and more, and can be easily applied by dipping, brushing, or spraying. It offers protection against moisture, acids, abrasion, and corrosion. It does stand up well against urine.Plasti Dip does not contain any heavy metals, and when completely dry, it is considered harmless. Plasti Dip products are considered non-toxic once fully cured. We advise testing your application in a small, inconspicuous spot to see if it meets your expectations. Please reach out if you have any further questions.")

So it looks like I'll be using that on the wooden part of this project and, likely, on the printed part as well. This also should let me completely cover the printed parts of this in my protective coating, so I don't think the actual filament choice would matter at that point.

It's called "Plasti-Dip," but all their products are spray-on and this is the kind of thing I wish I could just dip it into.

If anyone has more information or anything I've said that could be corrected, please let us know.

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Plasti Dip does indeed come in a can for dipping. Here in the northwest US all the hardware chains seem to carry it. The can is similar in size to a rattle can, so might not be obvious on the shelf.

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Random thought: If you're considering polyurethane products - very common - for treating the surface, it apparently bonds well with PETG and PLA. The latter, why not, it's probably a part that gets replaced regularly anyway, why use"forever plastics".

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Plasti Dip does indeed come in a can for dipping. Here in the northwest US all the hardware chains seem to carry it. The can is similar in size to a rattle can, so might not be obvious on the shelf.

Ah - missed that. yes, I see it on the website. I'll have to check if the big box stores carry it. (Sadly, not any "real" hardware stores near me at this point.) Have you used the dip version? How many dips does it need for good results? And is it enough to cover a decent area? I could have missed the details (since I missed the can in the first place!), but I don't see how much the dip in a can would cover.

he latter, why not, it's probably a part that gets replaced regularly anyway, why use"forever plastics".

I'm not 100% sure I get your meaning here. Are you suggesting that, say, PLA is a good choice since it degrades? (Not sure if PETG degrades - I know PLA degrades in UV light and that PETG does not.) I've made pet potties before. We moved out to a wooded area where we do NOT want to let the dogs out without direct supervision. Just too much that can go wrong. But, due to scheduling, we can't always be sure we walk them when they need it, so I've been using a version of a litter box, but upgrading the design, for a good while and for multiple dogs over time. I've had some designs last for years and years.

(This one is in a closet under the stairs, and part of a shelf/storage design for the space, so the doggies will have their own "home within a home," which will work when we go out for the day and can just set their auto-feeder in there, with water, and they have all their needs met and can't play head games with the cat. This puppy potty will actually have a small IR detector to detect when they leave the potty and I'm using an ESP32. When they leave, a minute or two later, the ESP32 will turn on a vent fan for a few minutes. I don't want it to go off right away, in case the sounds startles them or discourages them from going into the puppy potty. It's also on sliders, so it slides out from under the storage shelves for easy cleaning. This is the result of a lot of experiments and each version gets a bit more added - once I can figure out how to solve the previous issues in a simple way.)

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

From the Plasti Dip FAQ page, "The 14.5 oz. liquid can will cover  approximately 5 sq. ft. at 10 mils thickness. The 11 oz. spray will cover about 6 sq. ft. at 5 mils thickness." One dip was plenty for the things I coated. Take a look at their videos and blog entries, their spray sounds like the right thing for your project. --no affiliation, just a past user...

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Posted by: @ssmith

From the Plasti Dip FAQ page, "The 14.5 oz. liquid can will cover  approximately 5 sq. ft. at 10 mils thickness. The 11 oz. spray will cover about 6 sq. ft. at 5 mils thickness." One dip was plenty for the things I coated. Take a look at their videos and blog entries, their spray sounds like the right thing for your project. --no affiliation, just a past user...

I have no idea why, but I have been getting a VERY basic website for Plasti Dip. VERY basic - just products and simple info. Not even a FAQ. I did some searching on Google and found more information and thought, "Great! Guess I had a landing page before that was just to push the products." But then I looked and saw it was a .aus site! But it had a lot more than what I had been seeing. I don't know whether it's me, if there was a problem somewhere else, or what, but I was not getting much info unless I went to the .aus site.

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

If the link I sent didn't get you to the FAQ page, I guess we're at the mercy of the vaguery of the internet. Some of their pages are very slow to load here too. They list Amazon and the big box stores as outlets.  This page from wikiHow gives a pretty good idea about dipping, spraying or brushing/rolling the stuff on.

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Thanks! I had some equipment start malfunctioning on me today, after a power flicker, and I'm stuck fixing that for a day or two. After that, I'll be back on this project. For now, my best guess is that they may have had issues when Amazon was having server problems and may have put up a temporary site that would have less traffic. But I'm just guessing. Once I can get back to this, I'll be looking over their info - like how many coatings I need and so on. It'd be easier if I could dip the printed parts instead of spraying, but I'm not sure the printed part I'm making will be small enough (once assembled) to be dipped in a decent sized container. (I also have to check if I can get it locally without ordering it online.)

RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?

Best filament: PETG → durable, water/urine resistant, easy to print.

Better (if you can): Polypropylene (PP) → excellent chemical resistance, but tricky to print.

Seal it: brush or spray on a food-safe epoxy (like XTC-3D) or polyurethane clear coat to fill pores and block odor absorption.

Avoid PLA for long-term use — it softens with heat, absorbs moisture, and can degrade when exposed to waste or cleaners.