ABS help

[will3053 0]

I finished my heated bed about 3 weeks ago, and have not been able to get any ABS or PLA prints to work. I have been looking around on the internet trying to find solutions, but to no avail.

I am using a mk1 heater, with a kapton covered piece of glass as my bed. I have boxed in the ultimaker with Plexiglas. those are the only changes I have made to the ultimaker.

settings for abs.

extruder temp=220

heated bed=100

speed=40

I thought those settings would be ok, but I could not get the ABS to stick to the bed. I set the temp to 240, and was able to print out the Ultimaker robot, but none of the layers stuck together, and the whole print just fell apart.

after testing the different tempters, my filament feeder will no longer feed the ABS or PLA unless i use a zip tie to keep pressure on the filament.

I tried to print in abs today thinking that I might get lucky, but I am still unable to print. I am starting to become very annoyed with the Ultimaker, after having it for about 4-5 months, and not being able to print out anything but a couple of Ultimaker robots due to having a ton of problems with the printer.

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[gr5 2,271]

unless i use a zip tie to keep pressure on the filament.

 

What? Picture please. This doesn't sound good.

Also try turning off the fan completely.

Why did you stop at 240C?

 

[thingster 0]

240 °C might be far too low depending on the ABS filament you are using. For example black filament normally needs much higher temperatures. Nature colored (not white) filament usually needs lower temperatures. But it truly depends on the material.

I NEVER print ABS below 250 °C because I want really tough layer bonding. The stock extruder is NOT designed for those high temps, at least for ABS where temperature is really critical compared to PLA.

Please share some pictures of your modified Ultimaker. I'm curious.

[am001 0]

Hi Will3053

Also worth thinking about your enclosure. You will also be heating the thermocouple amplifier chip on the top of the head which can cause the temperature to be offset as it uses an internal measurement to apply compensation. You may find that if your chamber is at 40deg, your 240 deg is actually 220deg which isn't going to bond well. This is probably also why your drive is struggling.

I also usually print ABS at 250 or 255. Some brands require 265. As Trion says, you will have problems at those higher temperatures with the standard ultimaker hotend setup, which is why you will find so many mods on here for using ABS. I have settled on the E3D hotend, but there are plenty of other options including longer makerbot brass tubes which by all accounts work well. This may be the other reason your drive is struggling. You are getting ABS 'plugs'

My experience is that the fan works great for ABS - in an enclosure. In ambient air, it cools the ABS too abruptly, causing uncontrolled shrink. In an enclosure it is circulating warm air, which helps it freeze off and improves your detail and overhangs, but doesn't cause the problems.

Andrew

 

[phanc60844 0]

Im getting similar problems which was improved slightly by turning off the fan. Im still unable to print anything which is wide and thin (thingiverse fan cover) as the bottom layers just curl off the bed after 2-3 layers. I've been extruding at 25-260C bed temp 85-95C.

Paul

 

[thingster 0]

ABS needs a bed temp of at least 100 °C. Some people also use "ABS glue" (a slight amount of ABS filament dissolved in acetone) coating the kapton-covered heatbed with. And don't forget to use brims. Cura and Slic3r can do that. KISSlicer not, so do it manually in your 3d modeling tool.

 

[am001 0]

I have an aluminium bed, and I generally run it at 55 for PLA and 70 for ABS. More than that and it keeps the bottom layers too soft and they distort. 100 would cause big problems for me.

I don't use ABS glue, but I do sometimes paint the corners of the first layer with acetone as they are completed, this makes sure they are stuck.

I suspect that folks with glass beds are using the higher temperatures. What bed do you have trion?

 

[thingster 0]

I've got an aluminum bed too with a permanent print plate (some kind of carbon fiber sheet) on top of it. Maybe because of that I need higher temperatures but I also experimented with kapton and never got below 90 °C for ABS. Sometimes I go even up to 115 °C for improved bonding and also there I've never experienced soft or distorted layers (glass transition temp of ABS is around 110 °C). The differences in our temps might also come from varying thicknesses of the alu plates or from different thermistors we use.

Well, as always, the temps (hotend, heatbed, heatchamber, etc.) differ from machine to machine and every printer as well as every material needs different temps or combinations of them.

Consumer 3d printing is nothing for people who don't like the concept of trail and error.