I’m trying out ASA flilament as I need a UV and temperature resistant result.
This is the result of my test print…
I’m guessing that the ASA is not dry enough as it looks like it’s shrinking on cooling and, therefore, fractures due to the forces exceeding the layer adhesion properties.
Can anyone with ASA experience offer opinions please?
Gerard
Warped and split. The first split might be from not enough glue but it looks more to me like you’re not managing it’s heat {chamber/nozzle/fan} right. That specific model has lots of sharp corners that it really will not like, good luck!
Be sure the filament is dry, use the heat bed with the auxiliary fan to preheat the chamber to at least 45°C, warmer is better.
I’ve never had ASA split along the layers, was the door opened while printing?
I’ve had minor warping of the first layers, but preheating, glue on the plate, and sometimes a brim seem to prevent that.
Yep, looks like you guys were right on the money.
I took the guess to run the ASA through the heating unit at 65C for 10 hours and it came out pretty good.
I used the BL settings for ASA (100C bed, 270C extruder). The chamber temp was 44C throughout the print cycle.
@Bullocks Yes, the design is constrained. Normally, I’d include fillets or chamfers.
One thing to note: ASA performs poorly in a cool or drafty chamber. Let the heat bed passively warm up the chamber as much as possible before starting the print. At chamber temperatures as low as 44 °C, I would also recommend printing slower than the default speeds. I printed a lot of ASA on my X1 Carbon before I got my H2D, but now I rarely use the X1 Carbon for ASA since it’s much easier on the H2D. You could also try turning off all fans during the print to see if that improves your results.
I’ve experienced that myself—when the fans were on, the cool air from my print room was enough to cause my ASA prints to split. 
The models that did come out looking good were extremely weak and could easily be broken in half.
Thanks for the replies.
The end use for this box is out in the open and therefore subject to temperature extremes and UV. I’m not sure ASA is the best call for this although better than some other options.
@L0rdS474n How do you find the H2D generally?
If we’re purely talking about the hardware, I absolutely love my H2D Full Combo with the 40W laser. Paired with my X1 Carbon, it’s a fantastic setup.
If we’re talking about Bambu Lab’s artificially low stock on vital parts… well, not so much. Still, the hardware should be judged for what it is — and they really do build excellent machines. The challenge is that Bambu Lab seems to have a lot to learn when it comes to handling non-Chinese customers. You can’t just bluff your way through everything; sometimes it feels like they treat customers as a necessary evil in order to enjoy building amazing hardware.
Lately, I’ve also had the impression that they don’t really want customers who use their machines in more advanced ways than printing flexi-dragons in PLA or PETG.
That said, I really do love my H2D, quirks and all. My X1 Carbon has its own quirks too, and both machines have things that still need to be addressed.
One thing that still amazes me is how they’ve ignored the purge wiper design on the X1 series — it’s bad engineering, and clearly better solutions exist. The H2D suffers from similar blind spots. For example, the bypass port is still left for the user to “fix” — you either print your own 2-to-1 coupler or rely on a community solution. These are the kind of things Bambu should adopt and release as proper upgrades. Instead, they seem too busy pushing out new printers to notice what their existing customers are really asking for, which I think is a mistake that could hurt them in the long run.
Anyway, enough ranting
Bambu Lab builds great hardware — but their software and customer support are not yet on the same level.
Wait for the release of the next model later this year.
But you are aware that if they truly wanted to, they could release an upgraded purge wiper even for a model like the X1 Carbon? If they really chose to, of course. I actually bought one from another X1C user who got tired of the poor purge wiper, and it works many times better than Bambu Lab’s flawed design
