Any reason to print in ABS?

Real PC and not a peasant hobbyst blend. And it makes Nylon a bit easier. But the P1S is less likely to kill you and burn down. Your house like the A1 so well worth the price.

And pom. I mean the A1 can print pom if you hate life and want the A1 to kill you in another way other then fire. Pom is very nasty and the enclosure and exhaust fan with it set up right will help keep you safer then yolo printing it on a open frame printer. But if you over heat pom It releases fromaldehyde gas. But your not going to print pom. That’s the 2nd to the final boss of 3D printing.

P1S was a good buy. You didn’t waste anything until they gimp the firmware.

To follow up from my original post, in order to get more experience in 3-D printing, I did order some ABS from Bambu and printed it. It printed easily on my P1S with no problems (even though I’ve been having bed adhesion problems with PLA (which I easily cured by using glue stick). The odor was not even as bad as I thought it would be, it was very mild and with an open window it was really nothing. The final product itself did not seem any better than PLA.

But I did try to vapor smooth it. I tried numerous methods of vapor smoothing but didn’t have much success. I was able to get a shiny finish by submerging the print into acetone, but of course this is a terrible method of doing it. It didn’t occur to me that maybe the Bambu ABS wasn’t ideal for vapor smoothing. Does anyone else have any experience vapor smoothing Bambu ABS? Can anyone recommend another brand of ABS that is easy to vapor smooth?

Traditional model making skills - spray putty and sand paper - are just as good for smoothing, provided that you are printing a suitably shaped piece. They are however a little more time consuming.

If smoothing becomes a real problem, you can use an SLA (liquid resin) printer. The new engineering resins they have are very strong.

I like to use PEAKACE ABS. You can get it on Amazon for $13.99-$15.99 depending on the color. It vapor smoothes very well and comes on a plastic spool, which works well for the AMS. I suspect the Bambu Labs ABS is really ABS+ because that’s what I normally have trouble vapor smoothing.

2 Likes

You need the classic, normal, basic, cheap ABS to successfully vapour smooth. ABS+, pro i.e. blends of ABS and additives to make it easier to print - don’t vapour smooth well.

3 Likes

My errant experience shows me the same.
I am not experienced in aesthetic prints, but I’ve succeeded with ABS ā€œVapour Smoothā€, following conventional methodology when needed. However, with BL ABS, the reaction differs, and I couldn’t control it (I didn’t try too much) and achieve the desired look.
I retried with conventional ABS to ensure it wasn’t acetone or my influence, and it worked as expected. Maybe there is an alternative way.

1 Like

As you’ll probably recognize by now, ABS is quite useful. No, it doesn’t flex like PETG (which is often desirable), not as easy to print as PLA, but its good at just about everything (especially in an enclosed printer). The temp resistance is right there around the boiling point of water, so that’s good too.

There’s a reason why most of the plastic in your home is ABS. On the flip side, ASA will give you a little better resistance to UV and be a little easier on your nose, but honestly the carbon filter on the Bambu printers make pretty quick work of that. Also, ABS is about $5-$10 cheaper than ASA, and that’s not nothing.

I’ve never printed Bambu’s ABS, so it sucks to hear that they modified it enough to inhibit vapor smoothing, but I guess there’s a bright side to that… sounds like it a little more chemical resistant than normal.

1 Like

Enclosure actually makes it easier to print even PLA and PETG. Also, core XY print better than a bed slinger. ABS to me is not a good filament to print with anymore. Filaments such as ASA, Nylon, are better than ABS depending on use. Why would you think PETG is stronger than ABS though, I don’t know. ABS is stronger then PETG, in fact in many cases PLA is stronger then PETG. PLA+ beats PETG in nearly everywhere but flex. Always confused where this information about PETG comes from.
Did you get a bad batch of ABS?

The problem relies on the ambiguous term ā€œstrengthā€ to define a mechanical property. Usually, the discussion starts by comparing tensile strength with impact strength, in which the winners differ for ABS, PETG and PLA (not necessarily +).

Multiple factors influence results, such as additives or the filament colour. We can assess pure material properties tables, but they will differ (to some extent) from the filament ones.

3 Likes