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Switching from PLA to ABS

Posted by rGlory 
Switching from PLA to ABS
February 17, 2012 11:24PM
After some time tuning my new prusa I got results with PLA that I am pretty happy with:
IMAG0097.jpg
From Prusa


Now I am trying to calibrate my prusa for ABS and have some issues. Here is the same part printed:
IMAG0098.jpg
From Prusa

Which direction should I move to make this print better?

Thanks,
Slava
Re: Switching from PLA to ABS
February 18, 2012 03:28PM
When I switched from PLA to ABS I had to change a few things, the main ones are:

Adjust the Filament diameter to the new ABS

Change the filament packing density to ~0.97 (or re-calibrate your e-steps / mm)

I decreased the retraction distance from 4mm (PLA) to 2mm (ABS) with an extra restart distance of 0.15

Temperature obviously

And the infill perimeter overlap I increased to 0.25 and may go to 0.3
Re: Switching from PLA to ABS
February 18, 2012 04:04PM
> Adjust the Filament diameter to the new ABS
> Change the filament packing density to ~0.97 (or re-calibrate your e-steps / mm)
Yes I calibrated parameters in skeinforge so printed size matches model before printing this part and adjusted temperature.
What I don't like with my ABS print:
- Structure of extruded filament I see on printed part. Of course it is there for PLA but way not so visible. Does it have to be for ABS because of material properties?
- Top layer somewhere structured somewhere "smashed". Maybe it is not very visible on that picture but top layer on my PLA printing is much smoother and looks like one peace, not this set of lines, with some of them smashed.

> I decreased the retraction distance from 4mm (PLA) to 2mm (ABS) with an extra restart distance of 0.15
> And the infill perimeter overlap I increased to 0.25 and may go to 0.3
Thanks, I will try that
Re: Switching from PLA to ABS
February 18, 2012 04:26PM
try increasing the heat by 5 or 10ยบ. The flatness of the top layer is governed by the shape of your nozzle. It should have a flat tip with a diameter slightly greater than your extrusion width.

eg: 0.4 layer height * 1.8 extrusion width ratio = 0.72mm at least
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