Yep exactly. ASA for strength and/or outdoor use, PETG for everything else.
Comment on Better filament than ABS
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
ASA is the go-to answer. You could also try filled ABS or ASA, either glass fiber or carbon fiber. The fibers do not make it any stronger per se, but they do mitigate shrink and warp to a large degree. If you do so, use a hardened steel or gemstone nozzle.
PETG may also be suitable for some applications.
kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I would go PET/PETG for everything unless you need the slightly higher temperature deflection of ASA. I have PET prints that have been outside for 2.5 years now with no discoloration or apparent issues in strength.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Agreed. I’ve got two bird feeders made out of the stuff just cooking away in the sun year round and they’ve been fine.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Pretty much this. ASA will still warp a little but it has half the shrinkage of ABS, is UV stable, and it gives off a lot less voltatiles while printing.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I did some reading before asking and ASA was mentioned as also having difficulties with warping. Has this not been the case in your experience?
Badabinski@kbin.earth 2 weeks ago
ASA can still warp, but an enclosed and warm build chamber should do a lot to squelch that. Are you printing on an open bed slinger? Or do you already have a build chamber?
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Fully enclosed.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s because everyone starts with PLA, and PLA has the lowest shrink and warp of all commonly available materials… which is why it’s so common and everyone starts with PLA.
Basically anything is going to warp more and compare poorly against PLA, but ASA’s shrinkage after cooling is less than half of ABS, so it compares favorably to ABS in particular. 1.6% vs 0.7% or something similar. PLA’s shrink rate, meanwhile, can be as low as 0.3% for competently manufactured blends. Shrinking while cooling is what causes warp, especially on broad flat objects.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, PLA is easy, it just doesn’t have the temp resistance and durability of better filaments. It’ll warp on a hot car seat in the summer.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes. And I suspect due to its low temperature resistance (this an intuitive guess; I’m not exactly a materials science engineer) it also exhibits very poor cold creep/permanent deflection characteristics. ABS is actually the best of the bunch there, probably hand in hand with ASA.
However, one thing people are often surprised to learn or discover about boring old PLA is that it actually has among the highest layer adhesion strength of the commonly available materials, I believe second only to polycarbonate, and it’s also the most rigid of the commonly available (non-filled) materials. At least at room temperature, anyway. It turns out that printing the screws for e.g. my Rockhopper or Adélie in anything but PLA amounts to being a fool’s errand.
It’s tempting to think of the litany of plastics available in filament form to consumers as a simple linear and escalating spectrum with “cheap, flimsy, easy to print” and one end and “expensive, strong, difficult to print” at the other. In reality as you know it’s not quite so simple. If anything, the hypothetical graph describing the properties of PLA, PETG, PET, ABS, ASA, Nylon, polycarbonate, etc. would have to be three dimensional.
Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Not the person you asked, but in my experience good (!) ASA is way better manageable. It still shrinks and can be annoying, but way less than ABS. As with ABS especially a good print bed and heated chamber is doing wonders.
On a glass plate + 3DLac + Brim it goes absolutely nowhere. Quite the opposite, I have to further cool down the plate and use a scraper to get it off. There might be better plates available, I just went with the oldschool structured glass because I wanted things to fucking work during print.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the second opinion. Sounds like ASA is on the menu for a couple tryout prints.