ABS printing with Cura and Pronterface

Hello all!

Our experience with ABS prototypes printer with our reprap machine has not been extremely successful.
Most of our models require thin walls (1.5-2.5mm) and because of the ring structure of the printing the models "slice" through very easily when medium pressure is applied and are very brittle.

Even with our thicker solid models that have flat surfaces, we face the same problem.
Has anyone else run into this issue?

Better yet, has anyone got any solutions?

Cheers,
PDD

Google acetone vapour smoothing and you will get lots of advice on this technique, but essentially what I do is this.

I place the part on an elevated platform inside a storage tub which sits on my heated print bed.
I pour a little acetone in the base of the tub.
With the lid on I heat the print bed to 90c which is hot enough to turn the acetone to vapour.
I leave the part for around 5-10 minutes until the ridges on the parts exterior disapear.

This creates a much stronger part with a smooth surface. I also experimented with painting parts with abs paint (abs dissolved in acetone) which kinda works but looks messy.

Interesting technique. I never would have thought of that! Will try giving it a go and letting you know what the results are.

On the internet a lot of people are saying ABS is more durable than PLA but it doesn't bond very well.
We had no idea ABS required some post-printing processing.

Thanks heaps Justblair and kudos!

PDD

Quote
Justblair
Google acetone vapour smoothing and you will get lots of advice on this technique, but essentially what I do is this.

I place the part on an elevated platform inside a storage tub which sits on my heated print bed.
I pour a little acetone in the base of the tub.
With the lid on I heat the print bed to 90c which is hot enough to turn the acetone to vapour.
I leave the part for around 5-10 minutes until the ridges on the parts exterior disapear.

This creates a much stronger part with a smooth surface. I also experimented with painting parts with abs paint (abs dissolved in acetone) which kinda works but looks messy.

Hey Justblair,

We tried this technique today and it totally works!
Thanks for the heads up!

Although we only set the part in the vapour for about 2 minutes and the part itself started to warp.

Another solution we tried with warping during printing was that we found that the heat coming from the HBP was too high so we set it to about 60c and we no longer have a warping issue.

Thanks again!
Maggie