ABS shelf life ???

[coreformula]

I think that my ABS may be too old (2yrs) use for printing. The layer height stepping seems to be to small and the prints are coming out squished. 

Is there an expected shelf life for exposed ABS and is there a physical property of ABS that would allow it to behave this way or could it be something w/ my cupcake?

[Z LeHericy]

the plastic itself doesnt have much to do with layer height, that's a skeinforge issue, or more likely, a promlem with your Z axis drive. Try oiling the threaded rods that move the extruder up and down.

The issue you'll often see with old ABS is bubbling, and that's due to the plastic abshorbing humidity. it's easily fixed by keeping your spools in bags of silica beads / rice.

Hope this helps!

-Zeno LeHericy

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On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 5:04 PM, coreformula <sar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think that my ABS may be too old (2yrs) use for printing. The layer height stepping seems to be to small and the prints are coming out squished. 

Is there an expected shelf life for exposed ABS and is there a physical property of ABS that would allow it to behave this way or could it be something w/ my cupcake?

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[Sean Tu]

Anything you can do after it starts popping and bubbling? Guess the humid weather in suburban Chicago finally got to my black spool of ABS :-(

[Z LeHericy]

if you have access to a food dehydrator, those work wonders, otherwise i've heard of people putting spools in the oven with rice/silica to dry them out, but im not sure what temperature to use for that.

-Zeno LeHericy

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[Dan Newman]

On 26 Jul 2012 , at 6:46 PM, Z LeHericy wrote:

> if you have access to a food dehydrator, those work wonders, otherwise i've
> heard of people putting spools in the oven with rice/silica to dry them
> out, but im not sure what temperature to use for that.

235C +/-5C ;) ;)

[Z LeHericy]

i'd be affraid of my plastic turning into a puddle at that point!!!!!

-Zeno LeHericy

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[Sean Tu]

Don't have a dehydrater yet but any excuse to buy another "tool" works for me :-)

Anyone want to know why I got a big crock pot?

[PropellerScience]

Your plastic is getting wet in Chicago? I thought that was only a
Wisconsin thing. I'm printing with PLA right now, and it's almost
unusable. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I can't wait for
Winter!

[Shane Graber]

I just run a dehumidifier in the same room as my bot and keep it at ~50% RH. No problems so far.

Shane

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[MakerBorg]

Get a large plastic storage container with seal-able lid.

Get some damp-rid or other clothing desiccant that you would put in your wardrobe.

Get a little cup, put in corner of your container and put the little beads in it about half full.

Put your plastic filament reels in it. seal it shut... should take a while to draw out the moisture.

Change the desiccant as it becomes watery...

Keep changing up until the desiccant stops changing to water.

[Mark Cohen]

Check if your z hold is not working. Reverse the setting in preferences.

On Jul 26, 2012 8:04 PM, "coreformula" <sar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think that my ABS may be too old (2yrs) use for printing. The layer height stepping seems to be to small and the prints are coming out squished. 

Is there an expected shelf life for exposed ABS and is there a physical property of ABS that would allow it to behave this way or could it be something w/ my cupcake?

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[Mark Cohen]

Or it is skipping steps

On Jul 26, 2012 8:04 PM, "coreformula" <sar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think that my ABS may be too old (2yrs) use for printing. The layer height stepping seems to be to small and the prints are coming out squished. 

Is there an expected shelf life for exposed ABS and is there a physical property of ABS that would allow it to behave this way or could it be something w/ my cupcake?

--

[Adam White]

Did you by any chance upgrade to a new version of replicatorG? I just went from 29 to 37 - my prints were all messed up. Had to go through the profiles and re-calibrate everything.

Adam

On Friday, 27 July 2012 01:51:47 UTC-4, Mark Cohen wrote:

Or it is skipping steps

On Jul 26, 2012 8:04 PM, "coreformula" <sar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think that my ABS may be too old (2yrs) use for printing. The layer height stepping seems to be to small and the prints are coming out squished. 

Is there an expected shelf life for exposed ABS and is there a physical property of ABS that would allow it to behave this way or could it be something w/ my cupcake?

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[Cymon]

The winky didn't help. I thought you were serious. Went and converted it to Fahrenheit so I'd know what to set my oven to before my brain caught up, thank heavens. Not cool, dude. Not cool.

A quick search online suggests less than 200F, or about 93C in !(the United States).

 

[Cymon]

The oven with rice trick works great for dehydrating your filament. Just confirmed it. http://joesmakerbot.blogspot.com/2012/08/refreshing-my-filament.html 

[Jetty]

I used oven on convection bake (not radiant heat from the top) at 170C
for 1hr.
No rice needed, I guess cos air is being blown around inside.

Worked a treat.