eSun ABS+ Tips

[Jake]

Does anyone have any tips for eSun ABS+?  Or perhaps a Simplify 3D profile?

My experience with it is mixed.  I wanted to see if its "Plus" properties were worth it.

I'm seeing small zits at direction changes (corners) and stringing.  Also a little layer separation here and there, possibly related to moisture.

I've tried various print temps and haven't found any one to be significantly better or worse than the other.  I have found that I need to use almost twice the retraction than standard ABS to limit striking and other ooze artifacts.

When I first got the spool (off Amazon) I loaded it and the stream coming out the nozzle showed a huge number of moisture bubbles.  After drying for a week on top of the boiler in a bag of descant, it seems better, but still a few bubbles here and there.  May put it back for another week to dry it out some more.

In my experience ABS+ seems to be a more moisture sensitive version of ABS, but I haven't seen a significant benefit.

Any recommendations welcome.

[Jake]

After drying out the ABS+ it does seem to be better, but I can't get this ABS+ to print as smoothly as some of my other ABS, even the cheap stuff.

Here are some pictures of some of the difficulties that I'm having with the eSun ABS+

Stringy with retract and wipe settings tuned about as good as I can get them.  This strings you see on the build plate are from this print.  Little ooze and other filament tendrils.

Layer separation.  I've gone up to 240C trying to get better layer adhesion, but I can't seem to prevent layer separation.  You'll notice on the previous photo that the large flat areas show signs of over temp.

Warping.  The "plus" in ABS+ is supposed to better shrinkage properties, and for a large part like this id does seem pretty good.  But since layer separation is an issue, it winds up peeling some corners:

If anyone has any experience with this material, let me know... but I've tried the standard fixes and they don't seem to improve print quality.

[TobyCWood]

FWIW you are using an object which can be challenging. The side walls of the project box makes for a rather crowded internal toolpath. My Raise3D N2 hates this object and I can only get it to print this successfully (with the current extruder) when I cut way back on infill and shells. Otherwise it gets a backwash clog.

Do you get this kind of effect with a more cohesive object... say a cal cube???

[Jake]

On Monday, 18 April 2016 00:17:58 UTC-4, TobyCWood wrote:

FWIW you are using an object which can be challenging. The side walls of the project box makes for a rather crowded internal toolpath. My Raise3D N2 hates this object and I can only get it to print this successfully (with the current extruder) when I cut way back on infill and shells. Otherwise it gets a backwash clog.

Do you get this kind of effect with a more cohesive object... say a cal cube???

I printed lots of WFP's old surface calibration part.  They come out looking okay, but I'm not happy with the inter-layer bonding strength, as you can snap off parts easier than I'd like.  Also less stringing because less travel over open air.

I didn't try this enclosure in standard ABS, but I have been printing harbor freight storage box bins pretty often (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:367277).  They're thin-walled storage compartments.  They come out just fine in ABS, but have all of these problems ABS+.  The stringing I can live with but the layer bonding and splitting is just no good for a container.  Going high on the temperature doesn't seem to help ABS+ with better layer adhesion.

[TobyCWood]

Is this one spool or across multiples. If yes to the later then it could simply be that eSun's ABS+ sucks!

[JF Kansas]

Guess it is ABS + Water. :-)   Why did you buy ABS+ again? What was wrong with plain old ABS? 

[Jake]

Is this one spool or across multiples. If yes to the later then it could simply be that eSun's ABS+ sucks!

Yeah, I don't think I'll try another spool of it.

Guess it is ABS + Water. :-)   Why did you buy ABS+ again? What was wrong with plain old ABS? 

Yeah, well I had hoped it would be good for large flat parts that are prone to warp, but so far the other problems make the shrinkage properties less desirable. 

[Jake]

So I was playing last night and I decided to increase the extrusion multiplier by a few hundredths, just to see how things behave.  I'd now say that I'm over-extruding a bit, as is evidenced by a rough-ish top surface.  Normally I would calibrate down a little from here, but in this case, I'm getting much better parts out of the stuff.  No more layer separations and stronger parts at the end.