Combining PLA ABS

[TitusADuxass]

Having received a shocking yearly electricity bill (see what I did there?) I thought - either print less ABS or find an alternative material.

Most of the stuff that I print is for either external use or for inside my camper - PLA is a non starter. PTEG and I are not good friends so I tend to avoid it (apart from vase mode Christmas trees).

Then I saw a youtube post from Jan Tech about using a PLA base layer for ABS.

He demonstrated that you can print ABS at PLA bed temps - i.e. 60c instead of 105c. I run a Vz 330 and V 2.4 both of these together in ABS get through a good chunk of wiggly amps.

So I thought - let's give it a try.

Using Orca slicer, I set up a second filament and  dropped a primitive (caube) on the build plate and sliced it.

Then I scaled down to layer 5 (1mm) and right clicked and added a filament change (from filament 1 - PLA to filament 2 - ABS.

The first run with PolyTerra PLA & Amazon Basics ABS didn't go to well - there was very little adhesion between the two filaments, the ABS warped at the corners.

So then I changed to an Overture PLA and the results were totally different - you cannot separate the 2 materials, there was no warping and bed adhesion was very good (with a good bit of elephant's footing).

Here's a couple of bad photos.

I need to either tweak the M600 or develop my own Gcode.

At present on print start it pauses after bed scanning, press resume and everything goes smoothly until the filament change.

The toolhead moves to a good place at the front and unloads the filament, but for some reason it drops the extruder temp down to 180c.

I can manually over ride this by entering 265 directly into mainsail.

Has anyone else played with this material combing or has anyone got a homebrewed filament change Gcode?

[SuperBoppy]

Why do you hate on PETG? There's no problems with it unless you try printing too fast with it. I know, I know, if you don't print 100,000 mm/sec you're not a real Voron user. Maybe, like your PLA brand, you need to find the right brand of PETG to bring you happiness.

I haven't tried many brands. I use Solutech and have had great experience with it. No heated chamber required, great layer adhesion, really great toughness, little to no fumes when printing, non-toxic, food-safe plastic (I don't print items for food contact on my printer, just sayin'). Solutech's maximum recommended temperature for their PETG is 220C but I run it at 225C - 230C with 100% fan. I find I get much better prints that way. As far as speed, I run at 30mm/sec. Maybe I could run faster, but I think some testing at faster speeds should be done to make sure it will print successfully. I have run on both my Voron 2.4 and my modified TEVO Tarantula, and both print this material beautifully. 

I especially love making containers with it. It just seems to work well for this, and you can see what's inside. I've made boxes to hold game board pieces and cards, battery holders, etc. Never a problem with it.

[TitusADuxass]

4 minutes ago, SuperBoppy said:

Why do you hate on PETG? There's no problems with it unless you try printing too fast with it. I know, I know, if you don't print 100,000 mm/sec you're not a real Voron user. Maybe, like your PLA brand, you need to find the right brand of PETG to bring you happiness.

I

I'm getting better with it, and I think you're right - finding the right brand (oooh for that PETG happiness).

I don't print at high speed, I like it long and slow.

[SuperBoppy]

I think PETG is overlooked a lot, but it has a lot of great properties which make it very versatile. 

[TitusADuxass]

1 minute ago, SuperBoppy said:

I think PETG is overlooked a lot, but it has a lot of great properties which make it very versatile. 

I made some brackets for some netting on my balcony. Half of them are ABS, half are PTEG. Both have survived temps from -15c up to +45c.

[Fargkenob]

I print with Elegoo's Rapid PETG at 75 mm/sec with good results.  I printed this Bi-Axial Tourbillon Model with PETG. I have a Folger Tech FT-5 that I converted to a Voron 2.4.  Using 2 SKR 1.3's and a BTT-PI.  running Great no issues. <><