Printing ABS

Flushed with success at completing the Ormerod and printing my first few things including some parts for a part built Prussa
the part quality is great.

I would now like to try printing with ABS, having read up on this it seems that fan cooling of the part is only for PLA ?

Do I need to do anything to use ABS in the Ormerod other than change the extruder/bed tems and load ABS ?

Would blocking the fan outlets make it better for ABS ?

Chris

Hi chriscain

We have done very little printing with ABS - I think like just one or two prints - we just haven't had the time. It's worth taking a look at the ABS guide in our Tricolour instructions, for general guidance, here: [www.reprappro.com]

I think the fan nozzles may cause problems. The fan MUST run all the time, to cool the hot end; without it, heat will creep up the hot end, and eventually fail. The hot end design is identical to our Mendel and Huxley kits, except for the fan and nozzle duct, and they print ABS happily.

I think try printing ABS as-is. If you get warping, remove the fan duct, so air isn't directed over the nozzles, and possibly fit a smaller 40mm x 40mm x 10mm fan, to avoid so much air blowing around - ABS doesn't like it! We may need to come up with a separate, controllable fan mount of some sort.

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

I tried some small parts in ABS,
Using exactly the same settings (Omerod 0.5 in slic3r) as for PLA except temperatures of 240/110.

Works fine, part quality not nearly as good as I am getting with PLA but that is probaly more about the fact that
it needs some tweaks for ABS than anything else.

Will concentrate on getting PLA as good as I can before playing much more with ABS but at least it does all work

Chris

Quote
droftarts
It's worth taking a look at the ABS guide in our Tricolour instructions, for general guidance, here: [www.reprappro.com]

Its a pitty we have lost this Troubleshooting article.

No we haven't - [reprappro.cheeseandham.me.uk]

Thank you.

I was hoping for some tips on settings and extrudsion values.
If you remove the standard duct and vent all the hot end cooling air to the top, how will this lack of cooling to the nozzle affect bridging?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2018 03:56PM by Karoo Klong.

Quote
Karoo Klong
Thank you.

I was hoping for some tips on settings and extrudsion values.
If you remove the standard duct and vent all the hot end cooling air to the top, how will this lack of cooling to the nozzle affect bridging?

I find ABS bridge OK without cooling, BTW, regarding PLA bridging, best to turn down cooling after first layer for better fusion of layers (depending of length of the bridge)

No big problem in "cooling" ABS with hot air, aka if you build a heat chamber around the printer and circulate same air

Erik

Ok thats good to know.
I noticed a significant change in the heat chamber temperature since printing on 115'c bed temperatre from 120'c.
I will spend some time rebuilding the heat chamber in order to isolate the power suply and duet housing outside of the chamber.