ABS has worked out pretty well for me even in direct sunlight.
I designed a fun little replacement for this thing on my parents’ gate and it’s still there over 7 years later in all the weather and even intense heat over 110°F on some days.
Comment on I designed and made a thing!
DarkWinterNights@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Curious what material you used.
I made some similar items, and given the aggregation of exposure to the elements, constant daylight, and strength/the potential to shatter, I veered away from PLA and ABS into PETG (with TPU sleeves on sensitive bits), which I’ve found worked really well, but my parts don’t move as much as yours probably do.
How have you found the results in these regards?
NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com 1 day ago
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 1 day ago
Is ABS problematic in sun? I wouldn’t think it was, since it’s been used for decades in the automotive world on exposed stuff (I have a 90’s motorcycle with a fair bit of exposed ABS and it’s surprisingly fine).
Maybe the auto world has additives for stability?
jonesy@aussie.zone 1 day ago
ABS generally requires additional additives for UV resistance, and plain ABS will degrade relatively quickly in full sun.
There’s a section in this study on the change in mechanical properties of ABS resins in simulated weather environments …wide-net.org/…/abs-yellowing-etc-CIB9222.pdf
IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is ASA. I’ve had some PLA+ parts that have been outside for 7-8 years and are holding up really well. The old books were PETG and were still in pretty good shape after 3 full seasons and had to flex pretty often.
Granted, I live in SE MI so our sun isn’t super duper intense.
And totally agree, once you get in the mode of “I can print something to make this better” you start finding more and more things to make.