Mastering 3D printing ABS

Now I'm back into 3D printing one of my curiosities is in printing with different materials. The stock Makerbot Replicator 2 as designed for printing PLA only. Many of the upgrades I added to the printer where to be be able to print different materials. Why? Different materials have different strengths and weaknesses and are therefore better or worse for particular applications. I like t have the option to pick the best material for a particular part depending on what it will be used for. 

For example my action camera mount for on your dashboard when printed in PLA suffers from warping when your dashboard heats up in the sun. That is because the glass transition temperature for PLA is between 60-65 °C.

​A common plastic used for 3d Printing is ABS. ABS has a glass transition temperature ~105 °C. Glass transition temperature is not the only property to look for. Depending on what you are printing you might care about some of the following:

• Glass transition temperature (heat resistance)
• Strength (Layer bonding/impact and wear resistance)
• UV resistance
• Weight per volume
• Resistance to certain chemicals

There are plenty of websites listing the pros and cons for each material. I highly recommend exploring and reading what's available on the market today.

Printing ABS

First attempt settings that required changing later:

• Heated build platform: 85°C
• Extruder: 235°C all layers
• Raft offset from part: 3mm
• First Layer speed: 50%

I want to master printing ABS. As a reference I used simplify3d tips for printing ABS as a start. In the first photo below you see my first attempt. Here are some of the important things for the first print that I optimised for the second print. And for your reference. The settings in this post might work on my 3d printer but that doesn't necessarily mean they will work for you. Try, learn, adjust and try again.

First attempt settings that required changing later:

• Heated build platform: 95°C
• Extruder: 
  • Layer 1-3: 245 °C
  • Remaining layers: 235°C
• Raft offset from part: 7.5mm
• First Layer speed: 35%

As you can see in the second photo the raft stuck a lot better to the print bed. The corners came loose a very small amount. But because the offset from the part was increased the part itself wasn't affected by this. 

I'm excited to try new materials in the future.

For more information on my Simplify3d configuration for a Makerbot Replicator 2 with Heated Build Platform (HBP) see Simplify3d Configuration.