How do I print with ABS?  

Re: How do I print with ABS?

Hello,

I have printed with ABS a bit and here is an incomplete list of things you have to pay attention to:

Build yourself an enclosure so the ambient temperature is stable and above 50° C.

Print very slowly if you print small items.

Turn your fan completely off to minimize shrinking/warping.

Always print a brim surrounding your object (e.g. 1 cm width) to ensure better plate adhesion.

Use glue to further improve plate adhesion.

A plate temperature of 110° C is also beneficial.

If the object are tall, split them to minimize the effects of shrinking/warping.

Feel free to chime in to complete this list. This is just a few first throughts.

Re: How do I print with ABS?

Hello,

I have printed with ABS a bit and here is an incomplete list of things you have to pay attention to:

Build yourself an enclosure so the ambient temperature is stable and above 50° C.

Yes - though 50ºC may be a bit high. Especially if the electronics are still inside. 35-45ºC is quite usable. 50ºC and you'll start melting the extruder body as the air near the hotend will be above the 75ºC that PETG can handle (which is why I have a polycarbonate extruder).

Print very slowly if you print small items.

Not necessary. I can see why this may be suggested, if you are trying to print without a fan.

Turn your fan completely off to minimize shrinking/warping.

Not in my opinion. That's just a quick way to screw up your prints.

Always print a brim surrounding your object (e.g. 1 cm width) to ensure better plate adhesion.

Yep. Usually a good idea.

Use glue to further improve plate adhesion.

A plate temperature of 110° C is also beneficial.

If the object are tall, split them to minimize the effects of shrinking/warping.

Feel free to chime in to complete this list. This is just a few first throughts.


Sounds like the main issue for the OP is inadequate bed adhesion. Glue would be the first thing I'd try.

Re: How do I print with ABS?

Thanks for the list! I'm going to try it 🙂
Thanks!

Re: How do I print with ABS?

First test with the provided hints was sucessfull, thanks a lot 🙂

What I did:
- Print in a housing (did that before)
- set bed temp to 90 degrees on the first layer and 100 on the all other
- set fan to on all the time (25 %), found this in another thread
- set brim enabled.

The result now looks very good, but not perfect yet. Its 4x5 cm big and 2 cm high.
What temperature would you suggest for this print?

Thanks!

Re: How do I print with ABS?

Depends on the filament.

If it's too low, you'll have weak layer bonding (and often stringing). Not sure what happens if it's too high. Too high and it becomes harder to cool sufficiently and you get increased shrinkage.

Do a temp tower.

Re: How do I print with ABS?

If the temperature is too high, you could end up with black spots. Stick to the specs provided by the filament manufacturer and do a few test runs. It is really hard to tell, each filament is different.

Also make sure the room is sufficiently ventilated or at least you can close the door. ABS isn't particularly known to be beneficial when it comes to your own health.

As for the enclosure we discussed about before, I would place the PSU outside of the casing to ensure it does not overheat and fail. I can send you a picture of mine if you like.

Re: How do I print with ABS?

Turning up the bed temperature reduces layers detaching on the lower layers and increases enclosure temperature, but it can also give you an elephant's foot on the bottom of the part, everything ends up being a tradeoff.

With the generic ABS I've been experimenting with, I can get pretty good/consistent layer adhesion with a 33-34C enclosure, but this doesn't scale with print size. A <6 hour print will basically never have a problem, 10 hour prints may have a couple of short defects (visible as lighter layer line seams using a gray filament), and longer prints can start to have some warping. Print geometry also plays a big role - if I print a shorter print that's a long stick along the bed (not a ton of contact area), the length of each layer means it is MUCH more likely to peel up from the bed and warp, whereas shorter lines in the print mean less warping overall.

I'm going to be swapping out my side panels in the enclosure for a bit thicker ones soon for a bit more temperature, but I may look towards a very small heater (25W incandescent bulb, maybe) to increase it further - I think my target is 40-45C because the printer's and some supporting electronics are still inside (but the power supply is outside and this is important). I've read that industrial printers in ABS run enclosures MUCH hotter, but I don't think that's viable for configurations with electronics/printed parts inside the enclosure as well, and I don't think it's necessary for good layer adhesion and minimal warping, even if it is somewhat better at both.

Re: How do I print with ABS?

As an alternative to using ABS you could start using PET(G) which has similiar properties. This is what I ended up doing as ABS is a tough material when it comes to finding the right settings. PET(G) is more expensive, but I find it a lot easier (i.e. forgiving) to deal with.

Just a side note.