by afernan » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:23 am
Hi John:
I prefer ABS than PLA for a number of reasons, although PLA I guess is also valid. I find PLA a bit more stiff than ABS but more fragile. ABS is more "resilient" (capability to absorb more deformation without crashing).
3DPrinting require a number of "tips and tricks" to get succesfull, sometimes not obvious. Here a few of them:
- interlaminar strength is much lower than "fiber" strength, so it´s very important the Z direction you select. Basically all strength parts interfacing with tubes must be printed with Z printer axis same as the tube axis.
- colour of the material is very important for strength parts (aditives to get the colour affects a lot in strength capability). I like black, red or white.
- for high strength parts, I use Carbon Fiber loaded ABS. You´ll get performances similar to a good aluminum.
- Tight dimensions can be affected for many reasons (your machine, colour of materisl, etc). You´ll need to adjust them with some trial-error. You can use the "scale" in your printer software to easy change it (for instance the inner diameter of the monoblock to interface the 16mm tube).
Maybe we can open a dedicated 3D Printing subforum (Norbert?)
Angel