Hi everybody!
Here I proudly present a chemical solution to dissolve PLA without harming ABS: The BetaSolution
picture of the bottle
One of the basic differences to commercial 3D printers is the use of support structures made of different materials.
Now it is possible to use PLA as support material while printing your object with ABS!
There are many mods for almost any kind of DIY 3D printer (Darwin, Mendel, Repman, Makerbot, etc.) to add a second extruder. In most cases it is only a nice to have but there is no real need to print two identical objects in parallel.
Since skeinforge creates support structures it is easy to change the extruder and insert a wiping step when printing support structures. This makes it possible to generate PLA/ABS
co-prints. After the print you put your 3D object in addition of BetaSolution into an
ultrasonic cleanser (e.g. used for cleaning glasses) for dissolving the PLA support structures.
It is tested and capable of about 20-40 g PLA / kg BetaSolution.
It was also tested with many different sorts of coloured PLA with ABS in different colours. ABS doesn't change the shape or the colour.
After washing with water the prints are ready for use:
overhang,
stacked objects
The dissolving process is a chemical hydrolysis of PLA and thus not as fast as the dissolving of sugar in hot coffee - but if you warm it a little and stir it well PLA dissolves in 1-2 h.
You can read more about this - just follow this blog:
ifeelbeta
If you want to buy it visit the shop:
2PrintBeta
But please note: Until now it is only possible to ship to certain courtries because it is restricted as dangerous good as known from drain cleaner or nail polish remover which also have warning symbols on their flasks.
I hope you are now encouraged to tune your 3D printer to print with two printheads :-)
Greetings from the lake of constance
BonsaiBrain
2PrintBeta - solutions for 3D printing: www.2printbeta.de
