PLA Treating. Where do I buy Chloroform?

[cloakfiend 995]

What effect does ethyl acetate actually have? Just curious as ive not tried it. So chloroform melts completely? Acetone slightly and goes white, ethyl acetate slightly and goes white, so which is stronger? Ethyl or acetone? I think more experiments are needed my last chems did not do much lol.

Dioxane is next on my list but its very expensive, like 70-90$ a litre! I hope my mate comes through with the chloroform! Lol.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Guest

[Labern 774]

I will try them all in a drip test and vapor polish test to compare. Will post results later.

[bananapunk 0]

I thought I'd chime in with my findings. I tried 2 solvents, one is dichloromethane, another is so called "liquid quartz", marketet as acrylic glue and alternative to chloroform. Still haven't figured out the active ingredient. I didn't bother with the vapor yet, I hope to get away with the bath alone. These are not the best prints, straight out of printer with 0 cleanup, so it shows how far you can take it without any sanding. Also theyr'e quite small, 2cm pyramid and 4 cm alien head.

[bananapunk 0]

treated with dichloromethane

treated with liquid quartz

[lyonbra 0]

The Weld-On 4 you used for the dichloromethane (AKA Methylene Chhloride) is only 30-60% DCM: https://www.tapplastics.com/uploads/pdf/MSDS%20IPS%20Weld-On%204%20New.pdf

A cheaper and more concentrated source is Klean-Strip Premium Sprayable Stripper:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-1-gal-Stripper-GKS221/100207981

It has 60-100% DCM: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/1e/1eefe9ef-a288-415f-974a-5852129185cf.pdf

I have a suspicion that the "Liquid Quartz Glue" you used is merely a more concentrated formula of the same chemical.

[designsoul 18]

MEK, methyl ethyl ketone, is another solvent for PLA.

Has anyone tried to use that for part smoothening?

[Labern 774]

Yeah I have but it doesn't work as well as Chloroform

[cloakfiend 995]

Looks interesting for low resolution prints, but far too destructive for fine details. I may buy some and carry out some dilution tests for various prints. Might work well for large surfaces where finer smoothing might not suffice.

[mattgriffin 28]

Hey cloakfiend, I'm hoping that you are testing these things in lab ventilation hood. There should be some hackerspaces or uni labs in London where you can get permission to run your tests in that kind of gear. I'd suggest reaching out to some chemists there if you are eager to test things but don't have access to this kind of gear. (Maybe you already have these resources?) Most of these vapor smoothing options we are discussing here are rough on soft tissues and brain cells. In the US you cannot get chloroform for example outside of a national lab or a dry cleaner. Not necessarily because it is as rough as some of these other chemicals, but because unsafe usage by general public lead to way too many harmful effects. You are looking deeply into this so I hope you do so safely AND share your results. ;-)

[cloakfiend 995]

Safely, well, I do try. But no I have no hood, I have respirator mask and always use gloves now (lessons learnt!!). I just finished playing with water-clear polyester resin the other day and boy did my brain cells take a beating, my throat too! even running through the house momentarily left a stink for hours! Acetone is great and it can be applied sparingly and reused (most importantly), but a good quality print is required to begin with and a certain braveness to keep it bathing or brushing on for the desired effect and right filament. 0.1 mm prints are more challenging as it requires more destruction. Im after quality and that means i rarely use 0.1 but for those that do, don't expect sharp edges as with acetone/ ethyl acetate. The only issue with ethyl is that its more destructive than acetone but in the cracking area rather than the smoothing. acetone will whiten but ethyl won't. I've just ordered some of this Methylene Chloride (99.5%pure) and its just a touch more expensive than ethyl acetate. Im finding many Methyl Ethyl type names lately even with catalyst hardeners and stuff. There are far more chems out there that are more potent, but they tend to be more expensive and even more toxic than the safe acetone i admire so much.

The main issue with 0.1 smoothing is the eveness of the gap filling potential, otherwise you get a slight wobbling effect as seen in the pics above, that is why 0.06 is recommended. I also hate waiting for prints and to get high quality prints fast, i am forced to print hollow and with manual supports. However it takes a certain amount of care to smooth properly it seems, and a desire to get good results.

Going into the garden or outside anywhere with a small jar of acetone and a brush should not really be a big problem for anyone as it evaporates off the model in seconds which makes it handleable again to go back inside.

When i get the chems ill keep you posted. I've done many tests so far since 2015 but acetone still seems to be king in my honest opinion ( sometimes ill use ethyl acetate for customers to prevent whitening but don't trust it anymore as its not as reliable as acetone). I've simply not seen any other chems leaving sharp details in the model. Even with no sanding its better than others. Im not into the vapour routines I've no time to build a fanned setup to distribute the vapour and have no need to.

....if I'm still alive, lol. The main problem is treating the chemicals as you can't sense the destruction in your throat/body/brain until much later. They appear odourless like in 12 Monkeys at the end when the airport guy sniffs the vile, but still cause damage!! so be careful. I actually like the smell of acetone now! lol, ethyl acetate stinks worse though.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Guest

[mattgriffin 28]

Well, just remember that you might need to continue to remind yourself to be careful, as you get used to working with this stuff. There are a heck of a lot of early DIY SLA and DLP desktop 3D printing folks who are now allergic to those resins because they "got used to" those chemicals and didn't always wear gloves. This is why laboratories have procedures you are meant to follow so mechanically that you don't have to think about them anymore.

[cloakfiend 995]

Acetone is the best and safest in my honest opinion. Ill post a little vid later, but unless you are an idiot and do it indoors, and don't wear gloves, then its completely safe in my opinion, but I'm sure others would disagree. When i was casual with it I did get over exposed and suffered from hypersensitivity and all that, but now all is good, I've adapted and learnt to respect chems more than before. You just need to be sensible really.

[cloakfiend 995]

Look what santa got me! woop woop lol.