what I have found with trying to print with ABS

I have been testing being able to print with ABS for about a month now and here is a list of what I have found so far.

ABS will print from 130 C. and up I have found it starts to stick to it's self at 170 C. it at 200 C. it seems to stick the best.

so I have found nopheads formula for the extrude temp is kind of true here of using the temp it melts at *2 -20 Deg. C.

I have also found that it does curl on the secound layer at 200 C.

I have found it has extruded best for me on foam board using a sheet of HDPE from a milk bottle glued onto the board. Right now I am working on trying to find a glue that can withstand 200 Deg. C. and have found that my original Glue stick to work the best if the glue has only dried for 5 min.

ultimately it seems to be a little more stable in it viscosity from 130 to 220 C. then HDPE and that ABS will stay in a strand and not pool till after 220 C.

My tests I am working on now is to try contact cement and rubber cement as an adhesive to hold down my HDPE raft to try top extrude onto sand paper, and also to try to extrude onto different foam boards.

Bruce Wattendorf

Interesting stuff Bruce,
Where did you get your ABS filament?
Are you using the standard extruder or have you had to modify it?

Have you tried extruding onto PP or HDPE chopping board?

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

he got his ABS filament from me... the RRRF store sells it.

Sorry Nophead for not mentioning that.

yes the ABS came from the RRRF store.

my extruder is of the original direct drive design made from wood. and one of the issues I have with my extruder is that the motor bracket is not in the best alighnment with the drive screw and the drive coupling is made from CAPA and hand molded I have had to replace them every 10 hours of operation. I have also changed my drive screw bearing to CAPA because the brass ones I made originally have worn quickly so now I have to re due them every 10 hours also.
I have found I am able to extrude HDPE and ABS and I have to use a c-clamp which part of why my brass bearings have worn quickly also.

as for trying to extrude onto a chopping board I have tried to use a new board that has square indents on it and the ABS would curl on the 2nd layer as for the materal it is made of I have not yet tested it to find out what it is made of but I did see the link on your blog to the plastic test and will try to find out if it is HDPE or PP (thanks for that by the way)

Bruce Wattendorf

I made my bearings out of stainless steel and they seem to have held up well to the extra pressure required for HDPE but they will have more friction than brass.

If you can get it to stick to the HDPE milk bottle you should be able to get it to stick to HDPE chopping board but you may need a slightly higher temperature.

It might make sense to extrude ABS onto an ABS sheet. A good source I have found recently is scanner lids. I just scrapped an old A3 scanner and it had a nice flat A3 sheet of ABS as the lid. I scrapped an A4 one as well but they had got round to putting some design style into the lid so it is not as useful. Old stuff makes much better scrap than new stuff!

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

You would think I would try Stainless steel but no I have not thanks for the thought I shall give it a try. I did get it to stick but it would curl on the 2nd layer by raising my temp I should get it to fully stick good point I will have to give it a try because it does stick just not enough to stop a corner from curling off.

I have ordered some sample sheet of ABS from a supplier Forrest gave me. I will look for an old scanner and try that also..


I also was thinking we need a surface that melts lower then ABS? I am also trying different foam products from the Home Supply store.

Sugar?

"let me explain. no, there is to much. let me sum up"

I wonder if a sheet of sugar would work as a base to build on. It has a lower melting point (160 - 186

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2008 04:49PM by d0ubled.

HDPE melts at 130C, ABS and PLA are lower I think so sugar actually has a higher melting point than all of them.

That said, I find low melting point materials don't work as a base for HDPE because they are still molten after the HDPE has set and started contracting, so they don't hold it.

So it might well be worth a try, it has been suggested as support material. It can also be made into sugar glass [uk.youtube.com], which might be any easy way to make flat sheets.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2008 06:08PM by nophead.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Ahh my bad I was mistaking extrusion temperature for melting temperature.

However the extrusion temperature does look like it is above or slightly above the sugar melting point. It would be interesting to see how much heat transfer and melting results from extruding the different polymers would result in and whether the sugar would re solidify in time to grip it adequately.

Interesting video on the sugar glass, I wonder how its melting temperature and other behavior would differ from pure sugar.

well I just got home and tried my adhesive test I was working on..

I just found that contact cement and rubber cement will hold up to high temp. where other glues have failed. For the test I used a paint striper heat gun and let it sit 6 inches away from a foam board that had pieces of HDPE milk carton glued to it.... and I melted the foam board and the HDPE that is held on with contact cement is not moved curled at all..... Now to test printing on it with ABS. the rubber cement curled a little but it also did not fully spreed out easly on the HDPE.

Now to try printing on this and also try to print on sandpaper. I will post pictures on the Blog tonight or tomorrow..

Bruce

Bruce eD is coming to the US i think, it might be worth seeing if he has an old bit of foam base from their commercial machine just to try as they use ABS. I will try to remember to mention it to him when I see him next.

---

Ian
[www.bitsfrombytes.com]