Latex based paint on ABS?

[Brad Warren]

I'm printing a ceiling madalion (in pieces, of course), and I'm wondering if I can use latex paint (same paint I'll use for the walls/ceiling of my house) on abs plastic. Anyone know?

[Shawn]

I'm not an expert in this area, but I think you'd probably want to prep
your pieces with a primer that bonds to plastic better than latex. I
*think* the household paint would just peel off of ABS. But, one way to
find out... hmm, I have some spare paint and some scrap parts I can
test with... But you should do your own test as well...

Shawn

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[Richard]

Just find a a spray primer that will stick to plastic. Latex would
probably stick by itself, but I think you'd be better off with a
primer first. Some spray paints are advertised as being for plastic.
You could possibly use that then just put the latex over it.

[captchemo]

I just bought a can of spray primer at Lowe's made for plastic.  It seems to be working well.  Covers good, and regular spray paint seems to stick well. Not tried latex.

[Joseph Chiu]

Might want to give the pieces a quick wash with soap and water?  Or perhaps that doesn't apply with 3D printed parts, since they don't have mold release on them?

[Shawn]

So I ended up printing an ABS piece for another project that turned out
to not be needed AND happened to be a good sample piece to test the
latex on.

You can see in the picture that one side of the piece is latex directly
on the plastic. The other side had some primer sprayed on there first
(I am guilty of mixing paint types here though! The primer is an
automotive spray primer.)

After the paint dried, I used my fingernail to scrape at it on both
sides - see the lines at the center top. In both cases the paint came
away with about the same amount of effort, but it did take a little effort.

The piece is a little flexible, and I've seen no issue with the paint
cracking while flexing.

I should note that the paint I used was a little old (about a year old
on the 1/4 filled can) and was not the best quality. It was cheap
Walmart paint to begin with even.

So, results may be better with new paint and a latex primer specifically
meant to work on plastic. But, my tentative conclusions are that latex
paint is an acceptable option for printed objects.

Seeing how the paint goes on though, I think latex would be better
suited to large areas with little detail. If there is a lot of detail,
I think the spray paint is a better choice. The latex seems to fill in
the details. (makes sense when you think about the purpose of house
paint...)

Shawn

On 13-05-21 06:35 PM, Brad Warren wrote: