1 (edited by Ggalisky 2014-12-30 08:29:12)

Topic: [ABS Colorant] - Blue (3D Supply Source)

Extruder type: Standard Filastruder with 1.75mm melt filter, full barrel insulation, hopper shaker, and vertical setup with winder.

Picture of my set up:
http://i.imgur.com/nlHCumX.jpg
I added straws were the PTFE tubing was on the laser sensor to guide the filament better.
You can find more pictures on my imgur here: http://ggalisky.imgur.com/all/

Printer type: SD2, E3D v6, Bulldog XL, Glass bed, and Lawsy's Carriages.

Mixing ratios
I usually use 1 colorant pellets to every 96 ABS pellet. Since I do not want to count each and every pellet (no one else wants to either), I ended up converting the 1:96 ratio into weight, and I ended up with 56 grams of ABS for every 1 gram of colorant. A benefit of using the weight system, is you do not have to worry about differing colorant pellet size. How did I get that number? Time for some math! 80 ABS pellets = 1g and 56 colorant pellets = 1.2g. Lets say you have 56g of ABS and you want to figure out how much teal colorant to add in order to get a 1:96 ratio.
1. Multiply 56g by 80 (this gives you the amount of total pellets) you get 4480
2. Set up a proportion like this: x/4480 = 1/96. Solve the proportion and you get 46. (you can skip the proportion and divide by 96 too)
3. Multiply 46 by 1.2 and divide everything by 56. You get 1 at the end of all that. The last number, 1 in our case, is the number of grams you need to add.

Tips and tricks for colorants:

  • Make sure to mix your colorant evenly with the rest of you plastic

  • To get awesome color consistency you need to use really fine colorant or chop up and re-extrude.

  • Some colorants dramatically slow extrusion, and mixing colorants usually leads to extremely slow extrusion

  • Big colorant pellets = horrible color consistency and the other way around too.

  • The Filastruder is perfectly capable of producing consistent colored filament. If you are getting color banding try the following: Decrease pellet size, add more colorant, or increase extrusion temp. Usually the problem is with pellets being too large and not mixing evenly.

Extrusion
Extrusion temperature: 190°C
Extrusion rate:  15 inches per minute.
Average diameter of filament: 1.72mm
Tolerances: + or - 0.03 mm

Comments
I got this from http://3dsupplysource.com/. The color consistency on the first vase was poor, and that was because I did not break the colorant down into smaller pieces. The third picture down shows what a print looks like if you use colorant correctly. If you do not use it correctly you will get color banding. I fixed my issue with color banding by crushing up the colorant into smaller pieces, and increasing the amount of colorant I added. When I first got the Filastruder, I observed some say here on soliforum that "you can not get consistent colors". That statement is completely false and the third picture bellow proves that.


Printing
Setting my glass bed to 104°C, the hot end to 240°C, setting the extrusion multiplier to 150% for the fist layer, and using a coat of PVA glue worked very well against warping. This is a very easy material to print. The vase took about 2 hours on spiral vase mode, and there seems to be a fixed speed that you cannot change when using the spiral vase setting. Since the vase is a single wall, you could crush it in your hands if you wanted too. I did have a problem with delamination at the base of the vase, but no more problems after that.

Brittleness
1-10 scale, 1 is TPU and 10 is acrylic. 3
Layer bonding
1-10 scale, 1 is Nylon and 10 is acrylic. 5


Comparison to commercial ABS filament: N/A ( I have never bought a roll of ABS filament thanks to the Filastruder)

Pictures: Note, the first two vases suffer from improper use of colorants. Do not fall victim to color banding! In order to combat color banding, see the Tips and Tricks section of this review.
http://i.imgur.com/CYv4ibL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5e9e9SB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GZEXjLa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/w9eoSu0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7VBuQYI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yMdNKs3.jpg


Questions? Comment? Feel free to send me a PM, or post a reply down below!

Ulitmaker 2, a few repraps, Custom Big FFF 3D printer with heated chamber.

My Blog http://ggalisky.weebly.com/
My Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXShYo … aDUpebDAOw

2

Re: [ABS Colorant] - Blue (3D Supply Source)

I'd say you have some bad mixing in the filastruder regarding the colorbanding.
To high speed or to low temp.
Or to little masterbatch.

3

Re: [ABS Colorant] - Blue (3D Supply Source)

I have just started working with colorants, so this is good feed back. Do you have any pictures of your filament you made?

Ulitmaker 2, a few repraps, Custom Big FFF 3D printer with heated chamber.

My Blog http://ggalisky.weebly.com/
My Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXShYo … aDUpebDAOw

4 (edited by AndersE 2014-11-29 22:43:19)

Re: [ABS Colorant] - Blue (3D Supply Source)

No, but i can take some photos of some.
I have some rolls of silver, copper, blue, light red, orange and white ready.

I'm right now doing some PLA, but i have problems with that. Haven't got all all right yet.
I am experimenting with dual heaters/controllers also.

Also did some flexfilament in blue and red, and the alphagary flex i tried.
But as usual i never got to take pictures of it.

Will try to get some time to do that.

And i am waiting for neon/uv glow in the dark powders. Don't know if anybody else have tried that.
So we'll see..

5

Re: [ABS Colorant] - Blue (3D Supply Source)

Ggalisky wrote:

I have just started working with colorants, so this is good feed back. Do you have any pictures of your filament you made?

It is absolutely possible to make consistently colored filament:

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0239/9287/files/redfilament_large.jpg
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0239/9287/files/heartfilament_large.jpg

You need to do one or more of the following:

1.) add more colorant
2.) grind up the existing colorant into smaller chunks with a blender or burr grinder (probably this)
3.) extrude with high concentration of colorant, pelletize, mix with virgin ABS.

6 (edited by Ggalisky 2014-12-01 08:24:04)

Re: [ABS Colorant] - Blue (3D Supply Source)

elmoret wrote:

1.) add more colorant
2.) grind up the existing colorant into smaller chunks with a blender or burr grinder (probably this)

You were right on target, Those two actions have a big impact on color consistency. (it was mostly number two) I updated my posts so that the third picture of all the colors that had color banding was another vase with proper color consistency.

Ulitmaker 2, a few repraps, Custom Big FFF 3D printer with heated chamber.

My Blog http://ggalisky.weebly.com/
My Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXShYo … aDUpebDAOw