Topic: PLA vs ABS! My experience
I'm not sure If this is in the right place but I think I'll drop it here for now!
When I got my solidoodle I was enjoying my entry into an exciting new world. I was a bit biased against PLA at first but after a couple months of ABS printing, I switched over to PLA for some experimentation. After a few HOURS (Take note of this) of printing, I was getting someone precise models in white and black and having quite some fun with it. I continued to use PLA for a few months, although I was plauged with clogging every couple weeks and had to order a new hot end, and then an E3D hotend.
I got the new E3D and installed it in a few hours and then spent another couple re-learning how to print in PLA. Now 2 weeks later I still get bad quality prints from it. Before the E3D I was doing better quality wise but here is what I found
PLA:
Much more brittle
Seems stronger though
lower melting temperatures,
MUCH more tuning necessary
Biodegradable (disolves over time in a natural environment (Good and bad depending on the use)
Now just tonight, I decided to try ABS again. After pushing 500mm of ABS through the nozzle at 215C (just to make sure I got most of the PLA out) I flipped over my blue painters tape covered piece of glass, and put on some kapton. After tinkering with the temperature for 10 minutes, im now getting prints that have nearly flawless sidewalls, and the sharpest details I even saw with the original solidoodle brand hotend! So:
ABS:
More flexible
Higher melting temperature
Much sharper and smoother (when need be) models
After pushing out old PLA, only took 10 minutes of temperature play to start printing extremely high quality prints!
Is NOT biodegradable (good and bad depending on the use)
Is said to let off toxic nano-particles
-NOTE: I solved this with a simple ventilation system. Tests though have shown 10 hours of running with ABS is equal to smoking single cigarette, since cigarettes put out the same gases.
I figured I would leave this here for people debating what to use for their printer and for anyone with a curious mind! Comments and other experience stories are welcomed! Photo's are attached to show examples!