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Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 9 years ago

Fascinating. Thanks for posting this. After never being able to get good and consistent results, I sort of gave up and haven't touched it in awhile. This might get me excited again.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 9 years ago

I'll give this workflow a try. Thanks for posting it.

by RobH2 - General

Re: HIPS soluble support - 10 years ago

Ha, no one said it was safe. They just said it can be done. Seriously though, with precautions, it's not too bad from what I read. Just don't splash it around. It's drain cleaner. We use it all the time and rarely have issues because we know it's nasty stuff. Treat dissolving PLA the same way. We reprappers are manufacturers now. Manufactures have all kinds of user "unfriendly processes". Right?

by RobH2 - General

Re: HIPS soluble support - 10 years ago

QuoteUkIan 1) People keep saying PLA, when I think they mean PVA. Nothing useful disolves PLA (Or so I thought ) No, I think they are using the correct names. PLA (not PVA) dissolves in a heated sodium hydroxide solution.

by RobH2 - General

Re: HIPS soluble support - 10 years ago

Have any of you tried black HIPS with black ABS or white HIPS with white ABS to see if staining occurs? I've been trying PVA support material and am dismally disappointed. I've wasted $50 of PVA filament without one successful support print. It just won't stick to anything. I'm looking for an alternative and HIPS sounds a bit better than dissolving PVA as far as the success rate. From what I see

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Hi Sheldon, very cool. Besides the snippets of electroplating insights, the T-800 is amazing looking. I liked the weathering technique with oil paint. I'll definitely use that one day. I've had adhesion issues with my plating. I think I'll try one thing he said. He mentioned spraying with auto primer. I think I'll try that and then use my copper conductive paint and see what happens.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

I like your blog. You are a busy guy... Thanks for the help.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Thanks Chris. Here is what I have already. I just haven't had the chance to use it yet. I tried some "water based" copper conductive paint and it did not work well at all. So I ordered this. I just need to find time to test it.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

chris33, what is the "copper paint silver" that you mention? I've investigated spectra chrome. I don't have a shop and spraying it without a proper booth and collection facilities is problematic. I wish I could use spectra chrome. I'm in a tiny home basement that has little ventilation. I just don't have the facilities to use it. I'm having to electroplate in 2gal buckets. I have room for that.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Thanks for that. It's encouraging. I've still not been able to get back to my plating experiments but this will motivate me to carve out some time. Where I left off was collecting the chemicals to do a good etching stage. I see in the video that he mentions that. I think it might be the magic bullet for me. I was starting to get some good plating but no adhesion. Good to see that, thanks again.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

I've been away from this project for a month or so as I've gotten very busy with my normal work. I hope to get back here soon with reports of success.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Flexible/Softer filament? - 10 years ago

Here is a good test that I found. It might help you: Flexible Filament Tests

by RobH2 - General

Re: Printing with Nylon 618 Sucess! A post for anyone having issues printing with Nylon 618 - 10 years ago

NjEmt527 (Clark), I just made my first Nylon print with my Makerfarm Prusa i3 8" and followed your directions to the letter. It worked perfectly. There are a few tweaks I need to make of course but for a first print I'm thrilled. It was not difficult to remove the part either. I printed 6 skirts and did find that it does take a bit longer for the filament to settle down and get consistent. Here's

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

A2, it's incredible the amount of info you provide on a regular basis. Makes me feel guilty sometimes. Don't you have other work that needs to get done...lol...? Here's the mesh table I've been using for reference: Mesh Table I'll read your reference info and as I mentioned, I did order some powder. We'll see what it does. It will be interesting and I'll certainly report back. It will be few w

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Ok, good advice to try a ceramics store. Thanks. I did order the power. It only cost $9. We'll see but I bet you are right, it will just float around. I didn't read that it was insoluble. Edit: Just reporting back. I tried every ceramics supplier, chemical supplier, electroplating service and laboratory supplier in a 50-mile radius of Baltimore and no one uses or sells Manganese Dioxide liquid.

by RobH2 - General

Re: Anyone know how to upgrade to dual print head? - 10 years ago

I'm very interested in a dual extruder too for my Makerfarm i3 8". Have you guys see this: Dual extruder for Prusa on YouTube

by RobH2 - General Mendel Topics

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

JimG, thanks for the recipe as a chemist. And now that A2 feels like it's a good one also I'm going to try it. Not to initially doubt you but online you don't know anyone. So all I wanted was someone else to give a thumbs up. I hope you understand. I'm trying to pull the necessary etchant components together. I can order H3PO4 easy enough, well, 85% pure food grade from Amazon. I can get Sulfur

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Thanks again A2. I'll make up your etchant and I look forward to attacking this again. I'll report back in a few weeks. Adhesion is my big problem so I'll be a good boy and heed your warnings and suggestions...

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Hi, A2 asked for an update. I got side tracked with a project. 3d Animation is my primary business and plating these parts is an avocation at this point so it gets sidelined easily. I've designed something that I think I can market to some of my 3d clients and built a 3d printer. I've successfully learned the 3d printer and printed a number of the parts. The final stage is the plating. Once I ge

by RobH2 - General

Re: Lumpy 1st layer issue. - 10 years ago

Thanks Stephen. I think I'm doing a pretty good job with glass cleaning but will be more fastidious going forward. I've been using KISSlicer and getting incredibly nice prints for about a month. I just started a test with Slic3r and it's not doing the lumpy problem so I think it might be KISSlicer that's malfunctioning somehow. I spent about 4 hours trying to get the problem solved before posti

by RobH2 - General Mendel Topics

Lumpy 1st layer issue. - 10 years ago

I've just started getting this issue out of the blue. I've changed nothing else on my Prusa i3 printing ABS at 230C with a bed of 110C. The first layer is lumpy almost all the time now. The rest of the print is beautiful as I have my printer nicely calibrated. I've tried enclosing the printer to minimize drafts and that's not helping. I'm using AquaNet on the glass and that's always worked perfec

by RobH2 - General Mendel Topics

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Jim, that is exactly what I was looking for. I will corroborate your "take" on it with another chemist (don't know who that is yet) and if you two have the same result I'll assume that it is sound. I feel confident that you nailed it though. I am familiar with the safety precautions when handling sulphuric acid. I do appreciate your reminding me of them. And I do know to never pour water into a

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Thanks for mentioning safety but I'm old enough and wise enough to be cautious and prudent... Molar Mass Calculator "The concentration of a solution is commonly expressed by its molarity, defined as the number of moles of the dissolved substance per litre of solution." Mole (unit) -Molar mass of H2O is 18.01532 -- I then take this to mean 1 litre of distilled water. -Molar mass of H3PO4 is 97

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

QuoteSulfuric acid (H2SO4), (concentration was 11.8∼12.7 M). Manganese dioxide (MnO2), (concentration was ?). Phosphoric acid (H3PO4), (concentration was ?). Interestingly, you found every single article that I did. I read all of those this morning. Since I'm not a chemist, what I don't even know is what 11.8~1.7 M means (I see your RED text above now...I missed that earlier). I'm researching th

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Here is something interesting I just found: ABSTRACT The adhesion strength between electroless copper and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin can be improved significantly by an environmentally friendly etching system containing H2SO4–MnO2 colloid as a replacement for conventional chromic acid etching solutions. Adhesion Improvement of ABS H2SO4–MnO2 Colloid Now all I have to do (I'm

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

QuoteVacuum metalizing was always a high volume production thing... Yikes, that's out then. A few samples would be fun but that won't help me once I need to do my 5 parts per month. I have to develop a sound workflow so that I can make the parts I need on demand. I'm encouraged by all of the excellent comments in this thread. You guys jumping in on this with enthusiasm and interest is fantast

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

A2: Intrestingly, I found that conductive ABS last night after some searching. I actually found 3 sources of it. It's all black I guess due to the addition of graphite, etc. To answer your questions: - Post pics of the copper powder container, etc. = I'll do that when I get it. -Got a link of where you purchased it? = Correction, I decided to hold off on ordering the powder until I make s

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Wow, someone who works as late as I do. Looks like you are Pacific Time though. I'm Eastern. Thanks for that link. I've done a lot of searching here but had not seen that thread. I believe that too much info is not a bad thing. Too little is the worst scenario. I appreciate it...

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Ok, fantastic info and a lot to assimilate. The cracks and faults you were analyzing were from failed attempts where I did a lot of things wrong. Those were from my first two plates in my life. I've solved those issues with the proper protocol but, it's really good to hear you analyze them so that if it crops up, given my new and improved methods, I can diagnose better. That's the kind of exper

by RobH2 - General

Re: Electroplating ABS prints from Prusa i3 - Problems - 10 years ago

Yes, I like that idea. I already keep two jars of solved ABS for gluing and for smoothing. I look forward to trying these ideas out this week. I should probably still dip in some tinning solution to close up microscopic conductive breaks. What do you think?

by RobH2 - General