How to make ABS stick to bare aluminum or copper?

Hi,

I built a Prusa i3 for my son with a heated bed which heats up reasonably well and a sheet of glass on top.

ABS does not stick on glass, therefore we tried painters tape (not much success), hair spray (not better) and ABS juice which works very well

However, ABS juice based on acetone is not something I want my son to manipulate and inhale.

I am therefore trying to find an alternative printing surface.

I have tried with an aluminum sheet and a 1mm thick copper sheet, both of them are fairly flat very smooth. I cleaned them with acetone to remote any oil or finger prints, but not applied ABS juice on purpose, and ABS does not stick at all !

Is there any trick to make ABS stick to bare aluminum or copper?

J3d

Just buy some kapton tape and apply that to your bed. You can find 10/20 cm tape width for cheap on Amazon.
If you are careful enough when removing the parts, the tape will last for several prints.
Clean with alcohol or with moist microfiber cloth.

That being said, printing ABS on a I3 (clone) is not easy (if you want to print big parts), best is to enclose the printer and set the heated bed as high as it can go (90-110 °C)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2018 11:21AM by whosrdaddy.

I have just ordered kapton tape but that will take ages to arrive and it may not work either...

We are not printing large parts, so not much issues with warping but the main problem is that ABS does not stick from the beginning, it just glides on the surface

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2018 12:00PM by J3d.

Afraid of Acetone fumes, but cancerous ABS fumes are OK?

If the printer is not enclosed and kept warm you will not be able to print ABS without warping and delamination. This is one of the sad facts that 3D printing noobs usually have to learn the hard way. You can enclose the printer by putting a box over it, but it may not stay warm that way, so making a box out of foam insulation will probably work better. The bed may or may not throw off enough heat to keep the enclosure warm (or even get hot enough for ABS to stick reliably). Upgrading a bed heater will probably require upgrading the power supply and maybe even the controller board. If you do manage to enclose it and keep it warm, you have to worry about electronics overheating. It is best to move the electronics outside the enclosure.

Here's a blog post on what it takes to print ABS.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

ABS is carcinogenic? It does not smell that bad...

Anyway, we are printing in room which is well ventilated, it is more to avoid my son manipulating acetone, it would be great to print without adding things to the surface

Which other material would you recommend instead of ABS?

How about PLA? Much easier to print with, and generally less nasty to be around when printing, emissions wise. I personally can't be around my printer printing ABS without developing a headache and a raw throat, even with all the windows in the house open. That being said, I'm a bit of an extreme example since I was blessed with wonderfully dysfunctional airways.

o_lampe has a good point though, if you wanted to keep him super safe, don't let him near machines that have parts reaching several hundred degrees Celsius and extrude molten plastic. Better to make him aware of the hazards and how to keep safe, i.e. wear gloves with acetone or wash your hands after handling it or whatever.

Last thing, gluestick works for some people as a way to stick parts down, although bare metal is a difficult surface to print on.

Give PET tape a try. Its easier to work with than Kapton tape and when it heats up the surface turns slightly gummy. Its good for around 210c which is more than anyone needs. It solved my ABS sticking problems.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2018 08:31PM by Shank man.

I will try to source PET tape locally

What sort of thickness is the most appropriate for these tapes, I can see rather thin ones (a fraction of a mm) or much thicker ones (1mm or more)

PEI Sheet of 175um thickness is used on a standard prusa mk2 (Ultem)

Main issue is adhesive.. you need something that isnt going to melt at bed temperatures


Or you can use abs juice on glass (some abs dissolved in acetone)
Paint it on, let it dry, print...

We gave up using the aluminum and copper sheets, not only it does not stick but it radiates so much heat (especially with copper) that the whole printer was becoming way too hot.

So back to glass & looking for a local source of PEI, PET or similar tape

I have ordered some from China but it is going to take over one month to arrive

Any idea where this sort of material is used and where we could salvage a bit?

You can get tape, but then you'll have to keep replacing it, and contend with seams, bubbles under it, etc. If you spend a few $ more, you can get a piece of 0.7 mm PEI via amazon and you shouldn't have to replace it for a couple years. 30 mil (0.7 mm) costs less than $20 for a 300x300 mm piece.

I use 0.7 mm PEI on my own printer and put a piece of 1.4 mm PEI on a printer at the makerspace about 3 years ago, and no one has managed to destroy it yet. Almost everything sticks to clean PEI.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Be aware, there seem to be fake PEI sheets around.
Mine isn't real ULTEM, but at least it works ( ABS sticks well at 90°C ). Some others have reported, their sheet melted away at around 60°C.

I use purple glue stick on clean glass for ABS and PLA with great results. 60c for PLA and 105-110c for ABS

If you really want to make a good print bed, one that doesn't require releveling or autoleveling, and prints stick to it reliably, see: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

PEI / Ultem is the way to go for ABS. Be it a plate or a thin sheet glued to something else, both work.

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