Anyone printing with PS?

Is anyone out there experimenting with printing with Polystyrene? I have a friend who builds a lot of prototype models that is curious if it is possible to use a 3D printer for PS.

finding it in filament form might be more of an issue, what would be interesting though is somthing that can expand the PS as it prints, which would make building large objects rather interesting,

PS or High Impact PS?

It should be possible, but an extrusion grade PS would have to be used to make the filament. I plan on trying it out by this time next month in 3mm filament.

Keep me posted on your results, if you could!

Ah, Polystyrene! Just mentioning it brings back the smell of my shoes. My first big electrical customer was a polystyrene plant. They brought in rail cars of Styrene Monomer and bales of Ethyl Diene rubber, Ethyl Benzene and mineral oil and polymerized it in a series of reactors. Finally it devolatolized in a vacuum vessel and extruded through a die head with a line of 100 holes. The strands passed through a water bath to cool then through a pelletizer that chopped it into little pellets. 8,000 lbs an hour 24/7/365 at $0.79 cents a pound in 1973.

The big extruder herringbone gear pumps had steel shafts running on hardened steel bearing lubricated by polystyrene passing through the bearing to a weep hole that extruded a strand continuously. You knew when a bearing was failing because the white polystyrene strand from the weep hole would suddenly turn grey then black. Shortly afterwards the pump bearings would sieze!

I have been printing with polystyrene on my Printrbot+. i love it. i plan to get more. it provides a very detailed and well controlled printing experience. its also very white. i've printed the "nautilus gears" in PLA, ABS, PS, Nylon 618 and LAYWOO wood. the print in PS is just lovely, very detailed and precise. its almost as accurate as the PLA print which was the most accurate and smooth moving of the 5. however PS is the most fragile print. its somewhat flexible but not as strong as ABS or PLA. so for detail and a clean print PS wins but its not going to be any good if you need strength. Nylon 618 on the other hand is crazy strong and flexible but its horrible to print with in that it oozes like mad and creates lots of hard to clean off strings between open areas.

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@Plexus:
Could you please tell me what Hot End you use? As far as I know, PTFE starts showing signs of thermal decomposition at 200°C already, so I am having doubts about using one of the standard hot ends for material that needs higher temperatures like 618 and PC.
Theoretically, if the not-so-hot end of the Hot End (connector, PEEK part) was to be actively cooled, temperatures should stay acceptable. Or am I totally off with this assumption?

Ubis hotend. PEEK. so it should be ok <300C. so far no problems printing PS with it.

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Isn't there a PTFE liner in the Hot End? I am less worried about mechanical than about chemical safety.

I could care less about chemical safety, so I am not sure. maybe. it looks like there is a PTFE liner. maybe i'll take a wiff and see if anything bad happens.

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