What materials does acetone disolve?

Hi,

I've just started getting my very first prints going.

I've jammed my extruder nozzle a couple of times and am interested to know the best ways to clean it when I need to.

I know that ABS will disolve in acetone (and that helped clear my nozzle nicely).

I've switched to PLA for now (since that seemed easier to work with for now - though I'm less convinced than I was). I'm also interested to know what extruder parts I don't want sitting in acetone overnight and what are safe let do so. So, can anyone tell me which of the following would disolve in acetone:

ABS - Yes, it does
PLA -
PTFE (Thermal barrier) -
PEEK (block) -
Kapton Tape -

Any other materials I might come across ?

Thanks

Pete

... there's maybe another problem you have to deal with solvents - some materials (i think most plastics do) won't dissolve, but the solvent will 'soften' the surface, what's reversible but need long time and/or heating to remove the embedded solvent completely.

So when bathing an assembly in the solvent several times, the fittings can go loose because of the mechanical stress (changing volume and diameters by some ten microns) while repeated softening and drying the plastic parts ...

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PLA will dissolve in acetone. I have actually used acetone as a glue for PLA and ABS. It will also dissolve your acrylic.

PTFE, PEEK and Kapton won't dissolve in acetone.

The only solvents which will attack PEEK are concentrated nitric acid and sulphuric acids (http://www.netmotion.com/htm_files/wh_properties.htm)

PTFE is insoluble in almost all solvents at temperatures up to about 300°C. Fluorinated hydrocarbons cause a certain swelling which is however reversible; some highly fluorinated oils, at temperatures over 300°C, exercise a certain dissolving effect upon PTFE. (http://www.gcip.co.uk/EP/materials/ptfe.htm)

KAPTON® is chemically inert to a high degree, and has no known organic solvent. (http://www.krempel-group.com/englisch/home/products/electrical-insulations/kapton.html)

I've cleaned nozzles with acetone before, but the best method that I've found is to use a very small drill bit (0.001" smaller than what the nozzle was drilled out for) in a pin vise to clear out the blockage. Much faster than waiting overnight, too...

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[haveblue.org]

We're already off topic here but a blow torch and rubbing alcohol works really well for cleaning the nozzle and it doesn't do any damage. Spacexula has a video on youtube on this.

This might help

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