Make your own ABS colour masterbatch for filament extrusion.

Mix 5 ml ( teaspoon) colour pigment (colourant) with 200 ml acetone. The pigment available in hardware shops for colouring of paint.



Add same amount of plastic pellets to dissolve in the acetone. When fully dissolved spread out on glass and let it dry for a day or two.



Cut up in small pieces the same size as yor plastic pellets. Mix at 2-5 % ratio with your plastic pellets and extrude. For different colours filament change the ratio of different colours for example to get green filament add 1% blue masterbatch and 2% yellow masterbatch.



Use your own imagination and play around with the mixture to get what you want.
Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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You only learn when you change your mind.
[www.deltaprinter.co.za]

Your colors look great.

I was thinking you would need a higher percentage of color pellets to get such vibrant colors, good to know it is only 2-5 % ratio.

thanx

How does the filament turn out? Is it still flexible, not brittle? If you get the pigment sheet thin enough, I wonder if it could go through a paper shredder. How many grams of pellets goes into that? Are you matching the amount of colorant, or the amount of acetone?

IanJohnson Wrote:
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> How does the filament turn out? Is it still
> flexible, not brittle?

No, not brittle at all. The same as the natural filament.

> If you get the pigment
> sheet thin enough, I wonder if it could go through
> a paper shredder.

Keep in mind that you want the pieces the same size as your pellets to get a more uniform distribution in the mix.
I use pruning shears to cut it.

>How many grams of pellets goes
> into that?
>Are you matching the amount of
> colorant, or the amount of acetone?

the same amount of acetone and pellets - no hard rule here. Play around with the mix.

Have you run this through a printer yet? I'd be curious to know how well it goes through the hotend and what the finish and strength of the parts printer with it are.

Definitely an interesting concept though. Opens the world wide for any color you can come up with.

Quote
pourcirm
Have you run this through a printer yet? I'd be curious to know how well it goes through the hotend and what the finish and strength of the parts printer with it are.

Yes, on a daily basis with this hotend -[forums.reprap.org]. Printing at temperatures ranging from 245 to 260 degrees C depending on the what I want to do with the print. Structural printer parts where I do not want any delamination I print at 260 and the arty type of prints at 245 for a glossier finish.

this is awesome...
I recently put together my filament extruder and was looking for sources for pigments. Can you please share the source of your color pigments?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2014 05:18PM by salilkadam.

Bought the pigment at my local hardware shop in the paint department.

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You only learn when you change your mind.
[www.deltaprinter.co.za]

thank you.
there is so much out there. Did you have any recommendation on names or brands of the pigments? Which work well and which do not. Sorry for the niave question, but what should I be looking for specifically?

thanks.

How much time does it take to fully dissolve that 200ml ABS pellets in that 200ml acetone?

I've been doing something similar. I use acteone and some ethyl acetate as the solvent. I do about 100g of ABS and 150 grams of Acteone and stir it up with a wooden popsicle stick. I stir it up a few times over 12 hours. When it seems like I have it pretty well dissolved (really check the bottom) i add the ethyl acetate. It is in hardware stores as "M.E.K Substitute". I'd rather have MEK, but this seems to help slow down the evaporation of the acetone to make it easier to work with. Stir it up and add pigment. Stir it up to get the pigment dispersed. Then I pour it into a sandwhich plastic bag with a sliding seal on it. Evacuate the air out of it and seal it. I then 'massage' the bag to make sure that there aren't any pigment agglomerates in the mix. Spend a few minutes doing this, trying to 'smear' any soft resin bits that aren't dissolved or pigment agglomerates that aren't dispersed. Work the mixture into a corner of the bag with your hand above the material. Then I use the bag like a cake icing dispenser by snipping a small 1mm or so hole in the corner of the bag. Then I squeeze the bag to expel a thin stream of liquid concentrate onto an aluminum foil sheet (I'm trying waxed paper tonight). The key is to move quickly to lay down a thin (think the size of the ABS pellets) stream. I think the ethyl acetate helps to keep the stream 'open' and not skin over. I still get some clumping, just drag the nozzle a bit and it will fall off. If the pigment isn't dispersed or the resin totally solvated, it can clog the hole, causing issues.

Let the solvent evaporate overnight. Then when its warm and the sun is out, I place it outside to help 'dry it out more. Even with all the solvent out, it can seem a bit 'spongy'. I peel it off the foil and have done everything from put it into a blender or just taken a knife and chopped it like a bunch of green beens.

I've been using inorganic pigments and done pigment to resin of about 1:1, and that seems to work. I aim for about 2% pigment when I mix the resin with the color concentrate.

Be sure to do it in ventilated area for safety and personal protection. I do mine in the garage with the door open for a few hours. I've been using a 250watt heat lamp to help drive the solvent out and keep it warm since its winter time.

I like the 'icing method' because it helps to get the concentrate to similar size of the virgin resin so that you get less separation in the feed hopper.

I also take the bag and leave it open. The resin/pigment blend there will peel off the bag when all the solvent is out.

That's my version of it. I wish PLA was soluble in something handy like acetone.

I took a crack at it, and here are my results : http://www.soliforum.com/post/76437/#p76437

Quote
MileHigh3dII
I've been doing something similar. I use acteone and some ethyl acetate as the solvent. I do about 100g of ABS and 150 grams of Acteone and stir it up with a wooden popsicle stick. I stir it up a few times over 12 hours. When it seems like I have it pretty well dissolved (really check the bottom) i add the ethyl acetate. It is in hardware stores as "M.E.K Substitute". I'd rather have MEK, but this seems to help slow down the evaporation of the acetone to make it easier to work with. Stir it up and add pigment. Stir it up to get the pigment dispersed. Then I pour it into a sandwhich plastic bag with a sliding seal on it. Evacuate the air out of it and seal it. I then 'massage' the bag to make sure that there aren't any pigment agglomerates in the mix. Spend a few minutes doing this, trying to 'smear' any soft resin bits that aren't dissolved or pigment agglomerates that aren't dispersed. Work the mixture into a corner of the bag with your hand above the material. Then I use the bag like a cake icing dispenser by snipping a small 1mm or so hole in the corner of the bag. Then I squeeze the bag to expel a thin stream of liquid concentrate onto an aluminum foil sheet (I'm trying waxed paper tonight). The key is to move quickly to lay down a thin (think the size of the ABS pellets) stream. I think the ethyl acetate helps to keep the stream 'open' and not skin over. I still get some clumping, just drag the nozzle a bit and it will fall off. If the pigment isn't dispersed or the resin totally solvated, it can clog the hole, causing issues.

Let the solvent evaporate overnight. Then when its warm and the sun is out, I place it outside to help 'dry it out more. Even with all the solvent out, it can seem a bit 'spongy'. I peel it off the foil and have done everything from put it into a blender or just taken a knife and chopped it like a bunch of green beens.

I've been using inorganic pigments and done pigment to resin of about 1:1, and that seems to work. I aim for about 2% pigment when I mix the resin with the color concentrate.

Could you possibly clarify some things please?

You are mixing 100g (weight) of ABS (I presume clear/white) with 150g (weight) of acetone to produce a slurry. Right?
Then how much MEK/Ethyl Acetate?
How much pigment?

I am a little confused with the last statement. Pigment to resin 1:1 means equal parts. But equal parts of what? Does that mean you mix 250g (abs+acetone) with 250g of pigment (500g total)? Or are you mixing 100g of ABS, 100g of pigment and 150g of acetone (350g total)?


And lastly, is pigment available in raw colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black? If so can you make up the 4 concentrates individually producing color concentrates for C, M Y and K. Then use those in ratios to make specifically colored filament? That way you only have to make and store 4+1 (CMYK and White) colorant bases instead of individual colorant bases for every color of filament you wish to make.

Are there any florescent additives available to make, say florescent green that would glow under UV (blacklight)?

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