I made a 3d printable eReader case for my wife. Wanted to test what would happen if we water logged them and left them in the sun to dry.
Two of the cases are made from PLA while the other is made from PETG. They are all held together by thread and leather.
The test here is to see if moving from PLA to PETG was the right move since the last time I did this, the case turned into a banana.
My eventual plan once I’ve finished with my testing is to sell these cases and make their designs available for others to print.
Would love to print in ABS, but every time I tried the parts always warped. PETG is nicer and has very rarely warped on me.
Yeah ABS is super finicky to print, a temp controlled enclosure is mandatory and you often need perfectly prepped full adhesive plates with large print brims. But it’s definitely the only true weather-tolerant plastic if you can get it to behave.
I think if I was ever at that point. I’d just use injection moulding
I just put a Amazon box over my printer, turned on brim, turned off part cooling and put glue stick over the print area! No warping from it! Did a lot of my voron parts like this before I built a proper enclosure!
It doesn’t have to be anything super complicated, it just needs to keep the heat in
An Amazon box probably works really well as a free enclosure, but I’d worry about the fire risk. The enclosure I made I put a fire detector in just to be safe, making it out of paper would make me very paranoid.
I did the same when printing my Voron parts in ASA. I didn’t use a glue stick and everything went pretty smoothly. I even put cardboard panels on my Voron while printing my magnetic panel clips, lol
Honestly this is a bit extreme in my opinion. I have been printing ABS for some years now. It is what i print in the most in fact. I am using a prusa MK3 (now S) without a enclosure. and it works just fine even rather large prints. Only thing to keep in mind is the fumes. In my case the printer is in a separate room which is well ventilated.
It depends heavily on your printing base. If you have a plate you can glue/put ABS slurry to, you’ll have enough adhesion that peeling is very unlikely to happen without an enclosure. If you’re trying to print directly onto a textured or PEI sheet without an enclosure, it’s gonna probably mess up.
In my case i do not use any sort of glue. I just print straight on the texured or PEI sheet. Never really hat issues. If it does not stick welll, I clean it with dishsoap. Seems to work best after a wile of use.
Yes, if you’re cleaning your build plate regularly you’ll probably not need the glue. I’ve had to do it once for a very weird part that was wide but with a small cross section though, and if the environment is cool it can and still will want to peel away from the plate.
ASA seems like an easier-to-print alternative to ABS, afaik only downsides are higher cost and fewer colours to choose from. Supposedly possible to print ASA without enclosure.
Yes, ASA is a more stable plastic overall. They both have issues with requiring ventilated enclosures tho.