1 Topic by kingofprinting

  • kingofprinting
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Topic: Are these ABS pellets suitable for 3d printing?

I've been looking at making cheap filament for my printer. I don't know much about the plastics, and found these online:
ebay.com/itm/10-lbs-White-ABS-Resin-plastic-pellets-beads-Lustran-Sinking-bio-filter-media-/161040471499

ebay.com/itm/10-lbs-White-ABS-Resin-plastic-pellets-beads-Sinking-bio-filter-media-Corn-Hole/371004720508?_trksid=p2046732.m2060&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D5029847446252405781%26pid%3D100040%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D151218889265%26



How well could these be used in a 3D printer? How well would they work in the Filastruder?
Any and all help is much appreciated!



Thanks.

2 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Are these ABS pellets suitable for 3d printing?

All thats there is a picture of the pellets, no data sheet, no resin ID.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend

3 Reply by kingofprinting (edited by kingofprinting 2014-02-23 04:53:28)

  • kingofprinting
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Re: Are these ABS pellets suitable for 3d printing?

Well, that's why I'm asking! I don't know much about plastics.

Edit: In the description of the 10 lbs listing, it gives this info:
    Brand:     SABIC
         MPN:     XTWM200-WH9B438
    Model: GELOY

Edit:
Found this review in another portion of the forums after finding the MPN.

jamesshuang wrote:

Just wanted to add a new review for "Sabic GELOY" resin. I bought 5 lbs from ebay.com/itm/161124110617?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Apparently, this is the same resin as "Luran", currently being sold by indhobbies.

This is actually my first extrusion with a filastruder knockoff of my own design, so take this review with a grain of salt. First of all, the Ebay listing is wrong -- this is not an ABS resin, it's an ASA resin so it smells and handles very different from ABS filament that I'm used to. I extruded at 210 C, using the recommended 1/16" nozzle (1.58 mm). It came out pretty thick, between 1.86 and 1.9 mm. Going hotter with the temperature made the surface very bubbly and nasty, so I couldn't get it any thinner. Also, the filament itself came out extremely stiff, and hence refused to reliably coil. The resin also smells terrible. I have a different motor from the filastruder (10 rpm, 13 Nm), so I can't really comment on the speed of extrusion. However, it did seem to extrude quite quickly.

I haven't tried to print with it, but the smell is so strong that I'm rather hesitant to try. I think I'll have to pick up some MG94 as a point of reference.


Thanks.

4 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Are these ABS pellets suitable for 3d printing?

That is only one of the auctions, not both. Doesn't matter how much you know about polymers, no one can identify plastic from a picture.

Did you read the sticky on polymer extrusion? If you did, you'd have your answer on the XTWM200 resin at least (after pulling the data sheet). It's ASA, not ABS.

EDIT: good job on you for searching!

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend

5 Reply by jamesshuang

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Re: Are these ABS pellets suitable for 3d printing?

I'll add this to the other thread as well, but I figured I'd mention it here. I've managed to extrude about 2 lbs of this resin, and print with it. It actually doesn't smell at all while printing. I had to extrude vertically about 3 feet up to get it down to 1.8mm. 210C will get it down to about 1.75mm +/- 5mm, but there is some minor outgassing. It leaves the surface of the filament rather bubbly. 200C leaves a perfectly smooth filament, but its very thick, around 1.85 +/- 5mm. The variations in thickness are unfortunately too great to print with reliably, since parts of the filament hit 1.9mm and get jammed in my hot end. I will be trying again with the extruder mounted higher up, and with a filament winder.

The one major advantage of this resin is that it's extremely weatherable. It will resist sunlight and UV exposure much better than ABS, at least according to the marketing materials. It's probably not a good material to start with (speaking from experience) :-)