Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?
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?
RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?
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.
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Printing a Puppy Potty - problems with filament types?
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.