Are your abs prints looking as good as your pla prints?

Mine aren't and I'm starting to think that PLA's properties are more conducive to better looking prints. Have you guys found the same?

No. MY ABS prints far far better. The reason is, PLA has hysteresis, which means it melts about 100C but won't resolidify until it hits ~45C and stays there for a while. As a result, bridging is a disaster, and small prints where heat builds up turn to mush.

This effect is ONLY useful for medium prints where you have some cooling time but want to avoid warp. IF you get to large prints again, it may begin to warp again.

Not a common finding, most people will say PLA is better and leave it at that.

Also, there are two kinds of PLA, crystaline and amorphous. Most of you have never seen crystaline PLA - that is because it is more like polycarbonate than amorphour pla - it is clear, extremely brittle, and super rigid - this is what is used to make a clamshell package in the stores. The amorphous pla is the crappy kind that makes compostable utensils with that milky creme color, that you can chew into with enough effort. Most PLA is amorphous and kinda crappy, frankly.

Simba I'm using a fan with a duct, .5 nozzle and on a mm1.5. I am printing at 230-240 and I am just not getting the detail I want. I am still dialing things in but I don't think I'm really far off. What setup is working well for you?

I would.back the temps down a bit I know filaments are different but my filament flows well at 210

jzatopa Wrote:
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> Simba I'm using a fan with a duct, .5 nozzle and
> on a mm1.5. I am printing at 230-240 and I am
> just not getting the detail I want. I am still
> dialing things in but I don't think I'm really far
> off. What setup is working well for you?

No fan for abs. ~235c for abs

I agree with ABS prints looking better. I just started testing out PLA and so far I am not impressed with the prints. It also took me a little while to get it to stick to itself, had to increase the flow rate. I still have some more testing to run before I can say my final word yet.