1 (edited by Ggalisky 2014-12-30 08:29:52)

Topic: [ABS Colorant] - White (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
On the winder laser sensor, I added straws where the PTFE goes to help 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. One way to get your colorant into a smaller size is with a bur grinder.

  • 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 to large and not mixing evenly.

Extrusion
Extrusion temperature: 190°C
Extrusion rate:  13inches per minute.
Average diameter of filament: 1.68mm
Tolerances: + or - 0.03mm

Comments
I got this from http://3dsupplysource.com/. Although natural ABS looks white, it is an off white. Adding white colorant takes away this yellowish tinge, and mixes quite well.
Printing
Setting my glass bed to 104°C, the hot end to 240°C, setting the extrusion multiplier to 150% for the first layer, and using a coat of PVA glue worked very well against warping. This is a very easy material to print. Unfortunately, some delamination did occur on the vase, and happened in several places near the center of the vase. I printed this with the spiral vase setting in slic3r, and the spiral vase preset is slow. The final printed part is not very strong, and since it is a single perimeter, you could crush it in your hand.

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

Sorry about the pictures, the white on white background probably was not the best photography choice.
Pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/eABbWUU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/X3eC3XM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9EEItvN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Ztidw6Y.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Q0IaZlc.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