Printing With ABS, And Temperatures Above 240 C

RTCE

New Member
#1
I am having a lot of difficulty getting my ABS prints to stick to the print bed. Using temperatures in the 220 to 237 degree range are not helping. I've tried various starting Z-axis heights along with blue painter's tape, Kapton tape and acetone/ABS "juice". So far the best results allow half a dozen layers to be printed before the corner's lift enough to destroy the print. Everything works great in PLA, but I have a large stock of ABS that I would like to use up.

I suspect that I need a higher first layer temperature for my brand of ABS, which may be of higher temperature than normal. However, the firmware shuts down the print if the print head hits 240 degrees. With a first layer temp set to 238, the controller's overshoot triggers the 240 degree shutdown. Is there a way to disable this from the LCD menus? Can it be set higher without any Arduino programming gear ?

Perhaps someone else has some ABS printing tips that would help. I may try PET tape, but it would take a couple of weeks to mail order.

Thanks in advance for any help ... /Glenn
 
#2
Hey Glenn,
We might end up discussing a heated bed solution here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=126

Here's the deal. The nozzle's PEEK insulator (the non metal part) will start to melt at roughly 246 degrees, hence the limit. I got an E3D all metal hotend today that would let me go to 300 degrees, or even higher.

From my research, ABS does need a heated bed/ entire heated build chamber to prevent warping but I have read that it will stick to Acrylic sheet without heating. You're not having luck with this? And you're sure that the first layer is set to these high temps? I'd actually be worried that if I printed the first layer to Acrylic at 230 it would be bonded permanently... This is true of PLA at anything over 200 degrees.

As I started saying above, there is a way to make a heated bed with roughly $150 and a lot of labor. See my post in that other thread.
 

RTCE

New Member
#3
raykholo: Thanks for your reply. The ABS in question is all labeled ABS-H, and some searching reveals that "H-Type" ABS is a modified ABS, and is indeed designed for higher temperatures. I have an "UP" 3D printer here that does well with this material, however, it extrudes at 260 C. Perhaps some readers here may have experiance with "regular ABS". I suspect it sticks to the bed just fine at 230 or 235 C first layer temps using the masking tape and ABS/acetone "juice". I'll get some lower temperature ABS in the next few week and see how it goes.

Thanks for explaining the 240 C hardware temperature limit.

/Glenn
 

GORDON.LAPLANTE

Administrator
Staff member
#4
It is on our schedule to work on the troubleshooting and tips portions of the forum this week and we will be giving tips on how to print with ABS. Here's some tips from an email we sent to hold you over:

As for ABS I recently experimented with zen toolworks bronze ABS with much success. I tried several methods including heating the bed/print area with a heat fan (which I don’t recommend since it causes the extruder parts to warp due to the plastic getting so soft) and the best solution is this:

1. Sand the bed and clean it with alcohol or acetone to make sure its oil free.
2. Print your model with a single layer raft to ensure great adhesion. You can go for a thicker raft if you like.
3. Make sure the print is about half the speed of a PLA print. You can simply turn the knob on the LCD screen during a print to speed up or slow down the print speed which is very useful.
4. Do not change the print speed throughout the print or you will see a very clear line where the filament cools differently. (see our recent tweets)
5. ABS shrinks a LOT as it cools and I had a few models literally split apart as they printed. Its best to make sure you have dense infill (40% and above) and you turn off the extruder fan during a print. Since we do not have a heated chamber what you want to do instead is cool the print as slowly as possible which is why you want the fan off.
 

RTCE

New Member
#5
Thanks for your help Gordon.

I now have two other samples of ABS here, and neither are the "ABS-H" variety. Both work much better. I have the extrude speeds slowed to half of the 85 mm/s normally used for PLA, and the first layer speed at 25%. Along with the 235 degree temperature, this excruciatingly slow first layer speed helps adhesion greatly. However, it is still not great. I still find models with bases around 10 square inches or larger will still curl and sometimes break loose. Small ABS prints seem OK.
 
#6
I tried out printing at higher temps with PLA by placing a $5 piece of glass from Homedepot upon the bed, clipping it to the existing plastic bed, and adjusting the Z-endstop screw to account for the added thickness.

I was able to print at 260 degrees with my all metal hotend even though this apparently did not do anything for PLA.
At those temps any plastic would be glued to the acrylic but still comes off the glass.

Try this at 240 if you want to give glass a shot. I don't know that ABS will print on cold glass, but I felt like mentioning it anyways.