Better 3D Printing Via Chemistry?
If you have problems getting a 3D print to stick to the bed, you might consider using glue to — hopefully temporarily — attach the print to the bed. In …read more Continue reading Better 3D Printing Via Chemistry?
Category Archives: abs
Keycap Shine? No, Shiny Keycaps
No matter how often you wash your hands, ABS keycaps will eventually exhibit shine wherever you strike them the most. And that’s the problem right there: the shine might be …read more Continue reading Keycap Shine? No, Shiny Keycaps
Simple Sensor Makes Filament Measurements a Snap
Just how tight are the manufacturing tolerances of modern FDM printer filament. Inquiring minds want to know, and when such minds are attached to handy fellows like [Thomas Sanladerer], you end up with something like this home-brew filament measurement rig …read more
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PLA-F Blends PLA and ABS
In the early days of 3D printing, most people used ABS plastic. It is durable and sticks well to simple surfaces. However, it smells and emits fumes that may be dangerous. It also tends to warp as it cools which causes problems when printing. PLA smells nicer and since it …read more
Can A 3D Printer Print Better Filament For Itself?
3D printed parts are generally no way near the strength of an equivalent injection moulded part and techniques such as a sustained heat treatment, though effective usually distort the part beyond use.
[CNC Kitchen] was investigating the results of a recent paper, that described a novel ABS filament reinforced by …read more
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Can Lego Break Steel?
Betteridge’s Law of Headlines holds that any headline ending in a question mark can be answered with a resounding “No”. But as the video below shows, a Lego machine that twists steel asunder is not only possible, it’s an object lesson in metal fatigue. Touché, [Betteridge].
In pitting plastic against …read more
Annealing 3D Prints: A Scientific Approach
We’ve all been taught the scientific method: Form a hypothesis, do some experiments, gather some data, and prove or disprove the hypothesis. But we don’t always do it. We will tweak our 3D prints a little bit and think we see an improvement (or not) and draw some conclusions without …read more
Anti-Lock Brakes for Bike Might Make Rides a Little Safer
Crashing one’s bike is a childhood rite of passage, one that can teach valuable lessons in applied physics. Assuming the kid is properly protected and the crash is fairly tame, scrapes and bruises are exchanged for the wisdom to avoid sand and gravel patches, and how to avoid a ballistic dismount by not applying the front brakes harder than or before the rear brakes.
But for many of us, those lessons were learned long ago using a body far more flexible than the version we’re currently in, and the stakes are higher for a bike ride that includes braking mistakes. …read more
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ABS: Three Plastics in One
It would be really hard to go through a typical day in the developed world without running across something made from ABS plastic. It’s literally all over the place, from toothbrush handles to refrigerator interiors to car dashboards to computer keyboards. Many houses are plumbed with pipes extruded from ABS, and it lives in rolls next to millions of 3D-printers, loved and hated by those who use and misuse it. And in the form of LEGO bricks, it lurks on carpets in the dark rooms of children around the world, ready to puncture the bare feet of their parents.
ABS …read more
The Filament Pelletizer For Fused Granular Fabrication
The ABS and PLA that goes into your 3D printer is sold in two forms. The first, naturally, is filament. The second is plastic granules, the raw material for your filament, and costs an order of magnitude less than the filament itself. For years we’ve been seeing machines that either print directly with plastic granules or are converted into filament with fancy filament-extruding machines. Now we can do it the other way. [Aubrey Woern] and [Joshua Pearce] of Michigan Tech have been working on a polymer pelletizer chopper that takes plastic filament and turns it into pellets.
The system uses …read more
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