Abs temps

I've got some abs printing to do. So far I am getting good results with a 90degrees bed and a light wipe of slurry over kapton, all at 235degrees.

I know the hotter you go the more noxious gas vents, but I don't know what temps people are using, and just as important, why.

I using 110 bed, and 245-250C nozzle temp. No fan.

This is why
Any lower on bed and will affect larger print jobs.
Any lower temp on nozzle and will have bad layer adhesion (your temps might be a bit different)

I was printing on knapton and ABS glue, then moved to nabs glue on ABS glue straigh on the glass.
also i had to put cork board as insulation, to help get to the temps and help keep it at the temps.
then i had no problem getting to the temps and maintaining it.

I'm building a new heated bed at the moment, mine won't go over 100degrees as it is and that's with cork backing :/

I print ABS at 230 deg C on 110 deg C bed using Kapton/ABS juice. I have a 0.35mm jhead mk V. I usually operate it with a small fan on the peek bit but I have also run it with no fan as well.

It also works OK higher at 235 deg C, the ABS viscocity is a bit lower, but I like to leave a good margin and operate well below the max peek temp. to avoid damage.

I got some thermal insulation "wool" out of the loft of my house and I use it underneath the bed. It is not fibreglass and it is not rockwool. I don't know what it is made from exactly. Also my heated bed is both 12v and 24v. If used on 12v, two of the -ve pins need to be connected together, else it gets half power.

I made that mistake. I soldered to only one negative. I fixed it and was rewarded with the brightest blue led in existence.

100c is not needed for the bed. It's been discovered (not sure by whom) that 80-90c is more than adequate. I print a lot of ABS and in the last year I have been using 85c and it works great. Oh, and 230c hotend).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2014 09:26PM by tmorris9.

That's good to know, I'd like to keep temps to a minimum generally for all sorts of reasons.

The best temperature varies with many things: The obvious one is the ABS composition including the colourants used in it - the manufacturers may have added carbon black to remainders of other colours to make black for example.

I had been happy with 236 hot end, 100 bed and no cooling but found that a design with crossed holes in close proximity caused delamination in the body of the print. Better ABS, higher temperatures (250 hot end and 110 bed) along with a change in the infill were all needed to cure it. A different print with a different ABS needed 230 hot end, 100 bed with the bed being turned down to 80 after the first layer to avoid contraction of the upper layers.

My best solution is, unless you need the higher temperatures of ABS, or need to acetone polish it, use PLA instead. (or maybe Nylon, PET, chocolate etc..)

Mike

Good answer Mike, thanks. I'm pla all the way usually, but I've got some x carriage bits, hot end fan cowls, etc to print, so need the extra hest resistance. I was reading about chocolate printing BTW, it seems it's less suitable for structural parts even if they are tasty

If you could recommend a good alternative to abs with good heat resistance and good strength that is easier to print, I'll splash on a roll. I only need one, so don't mind splurging.

That is the same reason that I was looking for low warp ABS in the printing forum - [forums.reprap.org]

I have heard of a few that may fit the bill, the first two claim to be low warp ABS and I have ordered some ABS+ from Trideus.

• [www.trideus.be]
• [www.formfutura.com]
• [e3d-online.com]
• [www.proto-pasta.com]

I hear that proto-pasta are trialing another high temperature version of PLA as even the one can't be used to make a glasses case that can be left on the dashboard under the Arizona sun wilthout slumping. There are some other possibles on that last site.

Mike

On Summer, I use bed temp to 60ºC, on Winter, bed temp is 100ºC
hotend temperature starts at 235ºC, althought some plastic need more temperature, I have used 260ºC on some of them (E3D v.5 full metal hotend)

No body uses hairspray instead ABS juice?? At Clone Wars Spain (RepRap google groups) we use that one to stick ABS to the bed. You can buy on any supermaker at the lower price (or you can steal it from your wife...if you have what a man must have ), there are two kind, we use "Extra-hard" hairspray and it gives good adhesion.

I need to wait bed temperature get lower than 40ºC to remove the piece from the bed, otherwise you can move your whole 3DPrinter. Sometimes I use water around the piece, since it disolve harspray. But be carefully with you bed contacts

Cheers