ABS as disolvable support filament?

[Zak Kus]

I've seen water soluble filaments (http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-pva-1kg-spool.html)  for supports and the like, however at 90 bucks and potentially unique extrusion characteristics, it seems hard to justify getting any.

On the other hand, ABS is common and cheap, and dissolves in acetone (admittedly more expensive than water). Has anyone tried making a PLA print (which i believe is immune to acetone) with ABS for support? I imagine the main problems would be that PLA and ABS have such different extrusion characteristics (one likes heat and the other likes to be cooled), and that it may be difficult/expensive to get enough acetone to "soak" a print.

-Zak

[hellphish]

None of the PLA I have is impervious to acetone. At worst, it melts exactly like ABS, and at best it leaves the PLA whitish and brittle.

-Zak

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[matmoser]

I second that, acetone starts dissolving PLA immediately, affecting material properties below the respective surface layer.

[Darrell jan]

Have you heard about the 3DSystems approach? You print in ABS with PLA for support. Then you dissolve the PLA in a lye solution (carefully!) in an ultrasonic bath that they will sell you for about $1300.

Darrell

[Kurt Wendt]

Just curious Darrell - is that the Mojo U speak of? I know of the Mojo, but, not sure if its made by 3D Systems...

 

-K-

[randyzimmer]

You could try Nylon and ABS

[Cymon]

The problem I have with this is abs doesn't dissolve clean. Even with nylon you'd end up with a slurry covered doodad.

[Jetguy]

The problem is, nylon barely sticks to nylon. How are you going to get
ABS to stick to it or vise versa?
Not saying impossible, but unless you have time and spare plastic, not
a ready made, easy answer solution.

[Darrell jan]

I'm not familiar with Mojo.

Here's a link:

http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/usd/store/ultrasonic-support-material-tank

[Darrell jan]

Looked up Mojo, and it's very likely the same thing as what 3Dsystems uses.

[Jeremy Green]

It doesn't look too dissimilar to this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-7-Liter-Bath-Digital-Heated-ULTRASONIC-CLEANER-Jewelry-Watches-Tattoo-/140767128916?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c65fed54

Bit of a markup there…

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[Matthew Stonebraker]

Good eye! And yes, quite an impressive markup.