ABS vs PLA shrinkage on cooldown?

Discussion in 'BigBox General Chat' started by srd, Apr 17, 2016.

  1. srd

    srd Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2016
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    2
    I'm printing a frame for a wall-socket to hide some wall-dent-ugliness behind it. I printed a prototype in PLA to get the measurements right, and now I'm considering printing the "use" version with ABS.

    Since I have no experience with ABS as a printing material, I'm wondering if it experiences a different shrinkage than PLA on cooldown and if I would need to scale the model accordingly when printing with ABS as opposed to PLA.

    Or maybe I'm thinking too much about this and the shrinkage is so small that it doesn't really matter when printing things with a tolerange of 0.5mm?
     
  2. Col.N

    Col.N Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2016
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    2
    Hi srd, I have printed a number of items in ABS. From my experience as long as the print does not lift off the print bed and it is allowed to cool down before removing, then I've had no issues with shrinkage. I must point out that this is done on a fully enclosed print bed.
    Here's a picture showing prints from the same file done in both PLA (green) and ABS (black). The ABS has been cold vapour smoothed.

    The best thing to do is try printing it and see for yourself.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. srd

    srd Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2016
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    2
    Very nice. Thanks for mentioning the cold vapor smoothing. Hadn't heard of it before.

    I'll give it a try and see what happens.
     
    Col.N likes this.
  4. mike01hu

    mike01hu Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2014
    Messages:
    957
    Likes Received:
    167
    Why not stick to PLA if it's successful?
     
  5. srd

    srd Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2016
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    2
    For this project in particular? Because I have another thing that I need to print for my kitchen that will be right next to the stovetop, so I'll need the resiliance of ABS. And I'll gain some ABS experience with the project before moving on to the more difficult project where I'll definitely need ABS.

    In general... you know. Why climb mountains? :) Gain experience, see what else is out there, discover new things. Kind of like why I got the printer in the first place. :)
     
    mike01hu likes this.
  6. Old_Tafr

    Old_Tafr Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2016
    Messages:
    731
    Likes Received:
    93
    On one of the print problem sites I remember reading that ABS shrinks 1.5mm in 100mm
     

Share This Page