That was the MOST AMAZING CLASS I watched recently around so many aspects of good 3D printing. I learned A LOT! Thank you so much. Your custom extruder is a piece of art.
2:15 What is ABS? 3:22 Why ABS is hard to print with? 6:43 How to reduce ABS shinkage issues? Bed Adhesion Hair Spray PEI Sheet First Layer Height percentage tweak 20:27 Control draft air near the printer especially the hotend 26:44 Tweak the design to reduce the shrinkage force 29:34 Mouse ears technique 32:20 How to add mouse ears using Simplify3D
Probably the most useful comment that I've seen in the last 10 years. The full video is very good, but for a second review of the video, your pointers are gold nuggets. 8-)
What a fantastic video James, thank you! I have long struggled with ABS and I learned a ton about it (and 3D printing generally) from this video. Can’t wait to try these tips.
Love the way you address the peanut gallery with “go ahead and put that down in the comments.” You got the RU-vid version of the Louisville slugger complaint department.
One thing you can do is make your own pinned posts on Facebook or something, could even be on notepad and saved to your desktop. Then whenever you need to put out that same story you just find where you put it and copy n paste it. I got sick and tired of posting the same long rants about various things and started collecting them so I can ctrl C & V it.
Why not use ASA? It's ABS but better (UV protection), easier to print, and fewer toxic fumes generally? Though it is a little more expensive, the difference is immaterial -- at least for typical hobbyist or small-batch commercial jobs.
I must say this video is impressive! It's a complete guide to printing with ABS. It's also a good, indirect advise not to use ABS unless you've massive time and energy to insist and use this awkward filament. I'll continue using PLA and PETG. No need to modify anything, no need to dedicate a special place with special environment for the printer, simple and easy.
I've been testing a printer with a heated build chamber, and it's an ABS beast. Of course, it has a price to match, which is the way these things often work.
@@Clough42 I learnt a great deal from this video about printing in general. I'm sure the tips and information in this video apply everywhere, to every material! Thank you very much!
This is filled with subtitle details and absolute gems of knowledge. Lots of common knowledge as well, but really nicely presented. E.g. known for years how need squish effects first layer. Never heard petg liking less squish, but It adds up with my experiences and explains a lot. I wish z offset could be set/adjusted in slicers based on filament. I've some Matt pla that really needs more squish than others.
I love how good people around the world was helping each other during the pandemic by their thoughts and experiences. this is certainly the best guide on printing abs I found here. thanks for this great information.
I started printing in hard mode (ABS) from the start just for the reason that PLA can deform easy on hot days in several places and I wanted my prints to last. The 3D printer I use is the WanHao Duplicator v2.1 and I learned a lot from the start and what works best for me. Don't try to print ABS if you don't have a heated bed on your 3D printer. I made a cheap enclosure by stacking 2 Ikea Lack tables on eachother and used polycarbonate plates in combination with 3d printed parts to fill up the gaps and added led lights. An enclosure is almost a must to make sure that the the whole print stays warm without any drafts that can cause cracks (and it makes a big difference with prints that are higher), and it can even help a bit with the electricity bill because it is easier for your hot end and bed to keep the temperature. When the print is done I keep the enclosure closed while it cools slowly as a whole, because if cool air hits the side fast it can still crack even when you are done printing. Mostly when it cools down enough the print pops off the glass plate with a loud noise and that is the moment I know I can safely take out the print. I use 3DLAC (comparable to hairspray) as an adhesive to make the print stick to the bed. With the settings I disable the fan that normally blows on the hot end, and I print slowly so the layer has more time to cool. I also use a setting to pause between layers if the layers are printed within seconds so I can prevent burning the plastic or a molten blob of plastic on top of my print. When you start printing ABS expect many failed prints and it is trial and error. Just Look at what happens (keep an eye on it while printing), find tips on how to solve it, adjust settings and repeat. Start with small prints first to solve adhesive issues with the bed and to make sure the first layer sticks well enough. After that challenge yourself by printing higher, and later try prints with a bit of overhang and find the limits on what your printer can do with ABS.
I'm researching these machines to see if it's something I want to play with as I'm a woodworker. You have one of the best channels for knowledge and I like it.
I am a woodworker as well and in the past year have added a CNC router and am getting a Thunder Laser delivered in December. My wife is interested in a 3D printer but most of what I have read or been told is "you better get good at Fusion 360" before purchasing a 3D. I have played around with 360 but have not spent a great deal of time since I have had to learn Vectric Aspire, soon will need to learn LightBurn and I have been working on improving my Adobe Illustrator skills.
Was about to give your video a miss because it's half an hour and I'm impatient but then decided to listen to the first few minutes. Glad I stayed for the rest of it as this has been great info and insight into design for manufacturing.
Thank you. Very thorough and specifically addresses my problems with printing face shields. I’m printing a DtM-v3.1 which is a modified Prusa design. I’ve printed hundreds of PLA, but have yet to get an ABS one come off of my Ender3 Pros. Now I just have to do it. :-)
I learned heaps from this - many thanks - understanding why there’s no silver bullet for bed adhesion. Have you tried sugar dissolved in water as an alternative to hairspray. I get bottom layers that shine and it’s reused many times like you’re baked on comment.
Neat trick with the mouse ears! I've tried (as in lots of it) printing with ABS and even lately PLA and it warps like no one's business. It seems like my printer has moods (I think it's just plain damn lazy) where it will print fine for a week or two and then it simply refuses to print anything until I put it away for a couple months.
Good info. I print quite a bit of ABS on my older machines. I still have plenty of 2.85 laying around. We've been only printing PETG for PPE because our local hospitals don't want ABS parts due to its susceptibility to solvents.
I thought i ordered PLA but it was ABS and have been trying to print for two hours with PLA settings ....was not going well, That is why I'm here now thanks for the help and I"m subscribing thanks for the help.
Nickle plating is a common material to make resistor. Copper 1.68 where Nickel 6.99 relative resistances. The metal doesn't get that hot by since it can not exceed the insulating material temperature. Could even you tin.
Aren't autoclaves hot? If the temperature is above 60 degrees C, you risk a lot more than an insignificant amount of toxic chemicals being released, you're risking the life of anyone wearing a PLA item subjected to that heat as it will lose it's structural integrity. ABS is good for 105 degrees C. Also, PLA is biodegradeable in water. ABS isn't. I would say ABS is a much safer material than PLA overall for PPE. I don't know about PETG, I've never used it. I have a Flashforge Creator Pro printer, which is a totally enclosed model and only ever use ABS with no issues. Even though my printer is in my small home office, I've never noticed any smells or fumes when printing at all.
I’ve been printing for about 4 years now only two printers in that time but I have learnt soo much and I’ve gotten to the point where my prints are better quality on my ender 3 than on my colleges 10,000 pound printers but I have NEVER been able to print with bloody abs 😂 I just CAN..NOT do it 😂
More great 3D printing info! Thanks a bunch Someone had to... Butadiene not Butadene :) Look at how the C's and H's bond and you'll see where the "ene" comes from and that there are two of them, as in diene
Thank you for the great video. Just a small comment on the flat/curved bed. I had Anycubic for 2 years and bed on that thing is really bad and not flat. They way I compensate curved bed is by doing "perfect first layer" - name of the video is "Removing Initial Layer Strings Cura UPDATED". I did use his suggestion and achieved perfect first layer that did compensate bad bed level. So I had stock bed and all the hardware from Anycubic and I dont have to modify my printer to battle flat bed. Also "perfect first layer" does help with adhesion. PS: For Anycubic users you have to do "perfect first layer" for the part and the brim if you use the brim for PETG or Abs. Also I dont use glue doing "perfect first layer"
Probably the best tutorial on this topic, I'll follow your channel it stands out, unlike the usual content about 3d printing that is overwhelmed by teenagers and amateurs playing experts.
ABS isn't a blend, it's a copolymer. Specifically it's a graft copolymer, where they take butadiene (rubber) flake and catalytically polymerise the two other ingredients, introduced as gaseous monomers, onto it. Indeed the properties of the material can be varied in a large range by changing the mixture or even the shape of the graft base flake. This is a spectacularly weird material like that. PETG i believe is a true copolymer, where there are no continuous chunks of a given monomer in the polymer chain, and it can be varied as well fundamentally, but for some reason it's fairly consistent in its properties...
I bought a BL touch sensor for my printer. Only to learn, while modifying the firmware settings, there is an option for "mesh bed levelling". I have found this to be far superior to the automatic sensor, and at a cost of zero dollars. This is regarding a Neptune 2S, similar to Ender 3, and many other brands.
2 years late, but my go-to surface for ABS is heavy kapton tape + ABS slurry (natural ABS dissolved in acetone). The heat will make the slurry film tacky, and the kapton will not ITSELF bond to the ABS print, so worst case you may have to replace the tape on the glass if the print is difficult to remove from the tape. 14:30 - please don't use paper to measure surface to head distance, go get a set of feeler gauges - they're only a few $ from a auto parts or hardware store. Automatic and more modern software is, of course, the gold standard.
This came out about a month too late for me, I had a part we prototyped in pla on our ender, the boss liked it so much he said to start printing production at which point i decided to print in abs. I tried glass, I tried a chamber(cardboard box). I finally ended up on the factory build tak and puting a .015 stainless shim under the center to take the warp out of the bed, couple that with a glue stick and a brim= bed adhesion to where you have to work to peel them off. first production run ships monday.
hey man.. thanks for the tips... when i print ABS, my primary problem is aboult delamination... i changed temperature but the layers still free each other.. have you some tip for aboult this? thanks
Excellent work and rich info. It is alway a paint to print with ABS, but for some reason even when I print something with ABS and comes out warped on the bed I still like how the plastic just come out clean. For the hot end cooling, I would actually rather make it water cooled and use a larger cooling fan on a radiator and get rid of those tiny loud fans. Thank you for the brilliant presentation.
I don't have any experience with printing abs but have printed some asa and the way to get good adhesion is to use an asa slurry, once you start using slurry, bed adhesion stops being a problem
Incredibly thorough explanation of ABS and its properties as it prints. This was EXACTLY the information I needed, thank you so much for your helpful video! And brilliant trick using the mouse ears for more bed adhesion, a much appreciated tip.
27:45 Perhaps also the added-in voids changes how heat collects/moves through the part. The short segments between the voids are like pillars or columns that don't retain as much heat. And, heat doesn't flow from the base of the part past the voids to the rest of the part as well. Interesting stuff. Edit: Previously I completely overlooked infill vs solid wall. I could understand how the face shield frame section is so narrow that the insides need to be 100% filled, but with the camera mount example where you added voids to interrupt long strands, was that in addition to some percentage level of infill, where infill percentage may also interrupt long strands? Or, is this added void strategy something that lets you print at 100 percent solid?
With the availability of ASA and its properties (lower toxic fumes when heated, UV resistance, greater modular strength, lower warp tendencies) why would anyone select ABS? Compliancy with a BOM/engineering design specifications? Customer preferences? Utilizing remaining stocks? It seems to me that ASA is the better material to use for FDM printing.
Dear Clough42, kindly, ¿what is a scrap source(s) of ABS, please? (Needing to repair an automobile visor [ABS]). Any/all comments most welcomed. Thank you for making & posting this video.
Hey James, what do you think of the magnetic bendable PEI surfaces? Do you prefer Glass surfaces with hairspray over them and if not, do you suggest using an adhesion promoter on the metal powder-coated PEI surfaces as well? I ask because my printer came with the 2-sides metal, magnetic setup and I’m not getting great adhesion now that it’s about 50 prints old. I checked and replaced the Sprite all-in-one extruder/Hotend, leveled the bed different ways using many different techniques, reset all settings to default and checked/tightened all wheels yet the prints still don’t stick the same as the first one. Maybe these Creality brand surfaces have a service life, who knows. Have you heard of this and what are your thoughts on these setups? I hope you see this, I know it’s an older video but it’s the only one I could find of yours that had some good information on my issue. Thanks!
Any problems getting models to stick to the bed? You can print this in PLA, ABS, NYLON, PETG, PP, POM OR PC on a cold bed using Zillagrip glue by www.zilla3d.com
It is a nice video. But the only safe way to prevent warping and cracking is to heat your chamber. It cost only 20 Euro and you can forget any problems with ABS. 55-60 Degree Celsius is enough. I had a a machine, that only print ABS, for all the the other easy filaments i use other printers.
So I accidently bought ABS and every time I try to print, it starts off okayish and then suddenly parts just lift off on layer one and later on - whole thing lifts off... I tried glue sticks, higher temp on heated bed, tons of different options in slicer programs.... Nothing even close. Am I shafted? Anyone got any luck with ABS on creality ender 3?
I know this is an old video but at 11:23 I have to disagree. I exclusively print on PEI and for it to stick well enough is typically 105-110c (depending on manufacturer of the PEI). It will remove from the plate but most people use spring steel sheet with magnet sheet on the bed for a reason.
Very interesting mmm very nice job learning your expe.......... sorry bad spelling as I had problem understanding over cura ultimaker all that size etc and still learning follow youtuber to get know how to do .
Everyone should learn this before using ABS. such a nightmare. Had only recently heard of the cooling issues with ABS and was finally starting to understand, would have been nice to know form the start. however the video is quite repetitive, I almost fell asleep and don't think there's more that I can learn after the first 10 minutes, he goes over various solutions but its pretty obvious/common sense, once you know what the issue is.
obviously a great learning exercise but other than that does it really make sense to print face shields? I've seen one factory that does injection molding now making 5000 shields a day, the LEGO factory here makes 15000 a day and says they could easily make four times that if asked
With ABS I have a weird issue- it sometimes warps, but not immediately. It does so after a few weeks or months since printing, especially large thin, flat surfaces that were 3D printed horizontally. A 3D printed object looks fine long enough for me to think it was printed correctly and start using it/paint it/ install it in something and then some day I realize it warped. Again. Can anyone please tell me why this happens? Because of the long time it takes for the problem to manifest itself it is very difficult to debug this.
I find eSun to be the worst ABS in terms of layer adhesion (no fan, 250-260C, 60mm/s) from anything I have tried so far. I am surprised that it is not your experience.
I also enjoy abs due to the post processing abilities. Machining it with a sharp HSS bit works wonders if needed as well as the old acetone smoothing tricks etc etc. I like the material allot.
14:40 that's newschool. It would be oldschool to mount a microswitch on the z axis rods/extrusions. What you have is a klicky probe but with a lot of (unnecessary) weight on the head.
Every other video I saw trying to solve this just kept saying to through bonding agents and heat at the problem. It did help some, but I am printing tall mold frames on an open printer. Those magic dots, or increased adhesion is not recommended enough. Thank you for covering this so thoroughly.
why would you print face shields in ABS when covid-19 cleanings are done often with ipa. that will dissolve these abs shields then drastically reducing the life of them? Why not other materials?
A very helpful guide. I've struggled with ABS and revert to ASA when I can. But customers will ask for ABS, especially for automotive parts, and it's rare to get the part printed right of the Bat. I hadn't considered mouse ears, but will certainly be giving them a go.
Admittedly very belated at this point, as I'm only just now going on a binge of past videos as a new viewer, but starting at 8:45, it occurs to me that the way you're describing the hair spray on the print bed sounds a lot like the process of seasoning a cast iron skillet.
I've had success with abs, but still learned a thing or two :) Recently I have discovered ASA, a plastic that is similar to abs, shares a lot of the properties and unlike abs, is uv resistant. It even smells the same but has a lot less warpage and is over all easyer to print
Found the same with ASA. Remarkably good prints for how close it is to ABS, with UV resistance. ABS maybe cheap, but you'll very likely end up wasting more parts anyway.
You made a point of how people put their emphasis on bed adhesion at the expense of all the other considerations only to spend nearly half the video covering bed adhesion. I think you're sending mixed messages here.
@Clough42 I struggled with ABS for a long time and then added a simple chamber around printer. No additional heater, bed at 110C for first layer, 90C for the rest and the chamber heats up nicely. I have a 80mm fan on top connected to an air duct going out the window. With the fan running very slow I get a bit of negative pressure inside the chamber so no smell in the room and the chamber is kept nice and hot - I measured it just above 40C. The non obvious part of the equation is turning on the part cooling fan 50-100% of what you'd normally use on PLA with no enclosure to help cool the part enough so small features don't curve up. My surface is aluminum tooling plate (and badly warped MK2 aluminium bed on the second printer) treated with glue stick or similar product. Now-days I use a fluid variant formulated for 3D printing, but regular stick works just fine - just apply over 50% of the bed, take a moist cloth and smear it all over it. You can re-smear it between prints for a long time without adding additional glue from the stick. Putting it on thick mostly works, but it's visible on the part and not necessary. Only negative is my chamber is made from cardboard so flammable. On the other hand printer is Ultimaker cut from plywood so also flammable. Consequently, it never runs completely unnatended but fashioning the box out of thin aluminum sheet is not beyond most peoples capabilities (leftover sheets from offset printing are usually available and cheap secondhand). I haven't had an ABS part fail from warping in two years now and I printed some questionable designs.
An enclosure is key for printing ABS. I use an insulating enclosure built of 2" foam taped together with an acrylic door. A remote probe aquarium thermometer lets me keep tabs on the temperature- it reaches over 90F typically.
One of the better info videos I've watched. Always had problems with ABS so now I can use the accumulated spools I have laying around. Thanks for the 'mouse ears'.
I have a heated chamber on my printer but the ABS parts still have layer separation.. bead adhesion is fine but it its splits apart.. does my chamber need to be hoter?
One thing I do if I notice a part pulling from the bed mid print is to use a hot glue gun to stick it back down while running. At least for pla. It will take a higher temp glue to handle and temps.
