I am looking to print a mount for a car light for the back of my kit car. Basically it is an item to mount a LED light lens into and than attach to the car.
What type of filament would people recommend? I have printed in PETG for the prototype.
Thanks for any help
Simon
ABS or ASA or usually the recommended choices for prints that need to survive outdoors. Many oem plastic car parts are already made using ABS. My preference would be ASA, as that is more UV resistant than ABS, though you’ll have to pay a bit more for the filament. If you are needing a bit more temperature resistance if the light is putting off too much heat then you may have to step up to something like PC or one of the PA carbon fiber blends.
I’d say PETG might be an answer too but on a car on hot pavement, it might not be heat resistant enough.
Thank you for the advice. Having looked at the specs for ASA this certainly looks like the filament to use.
Thanks again.
Simon
But please don’t forget the health hazards from printing ABS or ASA. Tom Sanladerer from MadeWithLayers has recently posted another video about the topic. He showed that if you are in a room with a printer that has recently printed one of them, then the concentration of harmful VOCs is so high, that you exceed the acceptable daily dose within only 3.5 minutes.
In the comments, there were more than one comment about cancer that was with high probability caused by printing ABS or ASA in a the apartment.
I have now banned both completely from my inventory. If I had to print it, I would only do it with active exhaust out of my home. By the way in his tests it made no difference if the printer was open or closed.
I would go with ASA it is designed with outside use in mind and all the issues that would affect many other filaments are not considered a problem for ASA.
If your part requires additional strength or you anticipate a lot of stress on the part, the filaments with carbon fibre infused should be a consideration.
You do t state your existing printer, you will need a printer capable of printing each of these filaments, the A series is out and your hot-end would need to be hardened steel with suitable hardened steal gears for the carbon fibre filaments as well as an external spool holder as they are not suitable for the AMS.
Thanks for the advise. I have a P1S Combo so I should be okay with ASA. I also have installed HEPA filters to minimise fumes. I do not plan to use ASA on a regular basis.
I guess very occasional use should not kill you immediately
Just for future readers: Neither an enclosure nor a HEPA filter will help for VOCs which are the main danger of ASA and ABS. You need an activated carbon filter for those. That filter will saturate after some printing, so you have to exchange it regularly.
So I would advise to buy a solid device to measure air quality. That should help a lot to detect dangerous fumes and you know first hand if your filters have sufficient performance or when they are saturated and need to be exchanged.
About ASA, it loves to warp if you have thick walls and/or high density infill. I did a part for a friend out of ASA that had to take weight so made the walls and infill thicker/more. It curled a little and came off the build plate in a corner that luckily didn’t ruin the print. Even with the slight curl it was still good.
But I’ve also done a thin shell part in ASA that came out gorgeous. Just perfect. It likes thin/delicate it seems.
ASA - Safer than jumping in front of a speeding truck!
What are the requirements? Is there any mechanical solicitation? Which temperatures will need to survive? Is it visible, i.e. does aesthetics matter?
Why PETG isn’t enough?