ABS Settings?

[harley573 0]

I have spent the last 30 minutes searching and am not finding anything on this, so here goes... I have gotten some really great prints in PLA off my new UM2 and am very happy with the print quality. Now I want to try ABS. I saw a manual for Cura v13 that shows a button to switch between PLA and ABS, but I don't see that in the version I am using, (15.02.1) I also saw somewhere that the easy thing to do is just set up 2 "machines", one for PLA and one for ABS. Is that what everyone is doing? I also read something about a default ABS "profile" somewhere, but can't find anything else about it. I'm assuming that would just be something I download? Otherwise, can someone give me the appropriate settings for Cura 15 and an UM2 printing ABS? Or is that already out here somewhere?

All help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[stu_le_brew 42]

Hi harley573

you can changer the materiel settings on the front panel of the UM, click "materiel" then "settings", also here you can define your own settings

good luck

oh and welcome to the forum too

[harley573 0]

Okay, so just change it at the printer? Does Cura not set anything concerning temp when the G code is written?

[gr5 2,172]

The answer to that question depends on the type of UM printer you have.  Please update your user profile to indicate that you have a UM2 and what country you live in as many answers vary depending on the country.

On the UM2, normally, you control the temp in the material settings.  However you can also alter them in the UM2 TUNE menu live as you print or using a plugin inside Cura, or by editing the gcode file manually, or by switching to "reprap" gcode style (not recommended).  The main way to do it is in material settings.  

ABS needs high temperatures for good layer adhesion - if not you will get parts that break easily along layers.  It helps immensely to use low fan.  Or no fan at all.  I usually do 30% max fan and only for bridging or overhangs.  If the part is simple (say a cube, lol) then no fan at all. The fan settings can be tweaked in material settings also so that you can slice a part and not worry if you print in PLA or ABS. But I tend to mess with the fan settings only in Cura.

It's kind of bad to mix PLA and ABS often.  ABS needs higher temps which can mess with the isolator more quickly and then when you switch to PLA suddenly you get underextrusion.  But if you stick with only ABS you will be fine printing happily at 260C for months.  I don't print much ABS so I usually do 245C but that tends to be weaker than normal parts (but plenty strong for most things!).  ABS experts I believe tend to print at 250-260C.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Guest