Notifications
Clear all

Heated chamber - reprint the printables in which material?  

  RSS
Spyros Rallis
(@spyros-rallis)
Active Member
Heated chamber - reprint the printables in which material?

Hey there. Either I'm going with the official enclosure, or a DIY one, either way I want an (actively) heated chamber to ease printing tough materials in the winter (where the room's temperature is arount 15-16 °C). The stock ones from PETG should withstand up to 75-80 °C (and I'm not going to go that high!). But nevertheless, I'd love to have a little extra headroom.

So, which material should I chooose? Maybe ABS? That will go a tad higher, but it doesn't have great dimensional stability and/or accuracy. And I can't print big parts either. Next up the list, PC with carbon fibers, maybe? Somewhat more exotic and it seems like a great fit. What are your views? It's not a requirement the material to be available from Prusa, it could be any manufacturer. 

Electronics et.c will definitely be outside the chamber (don't want to damage my MK3S after all) and I'm targetting temperatures around 50°C max. A 230V 400W heater will take care of that, and alongside with (2) thermocouples. Extra MCU of course, as I'm pretty sure the mainboard can't handle yet another heater. 

Posted : 17/09/2022 9:24 am
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
RE: Heated chamber - reprint the printables in which material?

For me, the printers heat bed is enough to heat up an enclosure for ABS, PC Blend, ASA, and Nylon.  

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 22/09/2022 9:03 am
Spyros Rallis
(@spyros-rallis)
Active Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Heated chamber - reprint the printables in which material?
Posted by: @cwbullet

For me, the printers heat bed is enough to heat up an enclosure for ABS, PC Blend, ASA, and Nylon.  

Depends on the ambient, reallly.

Right now in the summer I can easily get past 35°C using only the heat bed, just like you said. Works nicely.

But in the winter I struggle to get > 22-23, which is an issue for large prints w/ ASA/ABS. Unfortunately, my "lab" room, actually being my garage, is not warm at all. And I also get min temp errors all the time, haha! 

Posted : 22/09/2022 9:10 am
Thejiral
(@thejiral)
Noble Member
RE:

If you want to get ABS like features (even though it is probably a heavily modified form of ABS+) try either TitanX or easyABS from 3djake. These are supposedly the same material. It is almost entirely warp free and has good dimensional stability and layer adhesion and can be printed also without enclosure. 

If you target 50°C enclosure temperature this is getting too close for my taste to the limits of PETG for longer exposure times. TitanX does just fine under those conditions, I know because my Voron 0.1 is printed in black TitanX (don't choose the white one) and runs at enclosure temperatures of 50-60°C. 

This post was modified 2 years ago by Thejiral

Mk3s MMU2s, Voron 0.1, Voron 2.4

Posted : 22/09/2022 10:19 am
Spyros Rallis
(@spyros-rallis)
Active Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Heated chamber - reprint the printables in which material?

If you target 50°C enclosure temperature this is getting too close for my taste to the limits of PETG for longer exposure times. TitanX does just fine under those conditions, I know because my Voron 0.1 is printed in black TitanX (don't choose the white one) and runs at enclosure temperatures of 50-60°C. 

 

Yup, that's what I was thinking. Probably PETG can handle 50°C but we're getting too close to its limits for me to be confident.

On the other hand, TitanX looks promising! I'm looking into it! 🙂 

Posted : 22/09/2022 11:17 pm
Thejiral
(@thejiral)
Noble Member
RE:

Yes, the thing is that if PETG is not mechanically stressed, it probably would also survive 50°C undamaged. However, I am not so sure about long term creep behaviour so close to its thermal limits. That factor is what kills also supposedly "thermostable" PLA in the long run, no matter the heat deflection temperature manufacturers are reporting. 

If you print TitanX, while it can be printed without enclosure, the warmer it is, of course, the better. Cold basements might be an issue but maybe not, I have no experience in this regard. Like proper ABS, the rule is, the less part fan cooling the better. Rather print slow than with stronger part cooling fan. If have no overhangs, turn it off completely, if you have overhangs, cool just as much as you need and not more. Layer adhesion suffers if you cool too strongly, even though TitanX is quite forgiving for being ABS based in this regard and if printed correctly layer adhesion is very good. Just one last tip: Definitely use some adhesive/release agent on your build plate. TitanX has the tendency to stick even too well to PEI sheets and even to some adhesives maybe. Kores and Magigoo PC work fine though from what I know. 

This post was modified 2 years ago 3 times by Thejiral

Mk3s MMU2s, Voron 0.1, Voron 2.4

Posted : 23/09/2022 7:04 am
Share: