I have not seen any discussions on the impact on PFA's from these homemade 3D plastic goods.
A Year of 3D Printing
101–110 of 122 posts
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#102I have not seen any discussions on the impact on PFA's from these homemade 3D plastic goods.
Is there any reason to believe there would be any? My understanding of PFAS is that they are used in the application of various coating like things (teflon originally, also since then waterproofing applications, paints, makeup, and firefighting foams)... none of which seem particularly related to making thermoplastics and pushing them through a nozzle into various shapes?
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#103What is the latest on metal 3D printing? How long before I can send off models to a shop and they can print it close to the price of the underlying metal? I imagine metal printing will never be something that happens at home.
> close to the price of the underlying metal
Never? Never for plastics either. It seems like there's always going to be a lot of cost in shaping these materials through carefully controlled very high temperature environments. On the plastic side of things just the filament you feed to a printer is a multiple of the cost of the plastic feedstock that goes into making the filament.
You can send off models and get them 3d printed in metal today reasonably affordably today, reasonable as in "considering the time and expertise that go into making the model making a one off part like this isn't breaking the bank" not "competes with mass manufacturing on cost".
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's cheating to say PLA is stronger and then talk about PLA with carbon fiber added.
PLA-CF is not particularly stronger than PLA. Some properties are improved, mostly geometric stability and appearance, but the carbon fiber acts more like defects in the plastic than strengthening. It’s got very little of the benefits that you’d imagine based upon n experience with regular carbon fiber.
This. CF rarely makes a print stronger, usually just helps make some materials more forgiving to print. Particularly useful for warping prone ones.
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any reason you are recommending PLA instead of PETG?
Not the person you’re replying to, but I can see the appeal of PLA. It has more color options and prints way easier. I personally run all PETG because it is ultimately better material post-print, and once you understand how to print with it, it’s not really much harder to deal with. The day I discovered that I should just run my dryer with the PETG inside while printing was revolutionary. Of course, that requires you…
I get some the appeal too but once you get a setup dialed in well and safely for ASA/ABS, theres rarely a reason to want to print either PLA or PETG.
Better ratio of weight to strength, far more durable parts for most jobs, and acetone smoothening opens up all sorts of doors to incredibly high quality prints without all the labor of sanding.
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#106I'd encourage people doing engineering/functional parts to also try ASA and PC(-CF). Both are pretty easy to print on enclosed printer like Prusa Core One, and they offer unique qualities that are impossible to achieve with PLA or PETG. Prusament PC Blend is insanely strong and stiff, I saw a 3mm PC bracket bending a high quality metal wood screw into an S-shape without breaking. PC-CF is much easier to print, looks…
ASA and ABS really need a good filtration. Like actual filtration, not what the enclosure has. I personally just run a duct to my window and vent outside.
Apart from the reply you've already received, most the bad stuff like plastic nanoparticles in the air and many hard to detect VoCs are also rather blatantly an issue with PLA and other filaments.
People focus too much on smell as the only indicator.
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#107[deleted]
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#108I would encourage people who have never designed physical objects before to try to only print things they have designed themselves as an exercise. For perhaps a year or so. If you have never designed physical objects before it is really challenging at first. The learning curve is pretty steep and, at least in my case, I discovered that I didn't have a mental language for thinking about functional 3D and mechanical de…
3D printing has been humbling for me. I can express myself well spatially in code, but that doesn't help much in CAD where you have to figure out what combination of buttons and parameters will do what I want. I can manage dependencies well in code, but that doesn't help much in CAD. I continually struggle to design parts with geometry that is dependent on the spatial relationships and constraints of how multiple par…
Open SCAD is great, but also give cadquery a shot. It's my personal favorite right now
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#109I'd encourage people doing engineering/functional parts to also try ASA and PC(-CF). Both are pretty easy to print on enclosed printer like Prusa Core One, and they offer unique qualities that are impossible to achieve with PLA or PETG. Prusament PC Blend is insanely strong and stiff, I saw a 3mm PC bracket bending a high quality metal wood screw into an S-shape without breaking. PC-CF is much easier to print, looks…
ASA and ABS really need a good filtration. Like actual filtration, not what the enclosure has. I personally just run a duct to my window and vent outside.
Most filters have limited effective life for VOC, and "safe" use is measured in a few hours at most. Venting outdoors into a fern/decorative-plant filled yard is the preferred option for both FDM and Resin printers. Most activated charcoal filters just reduce the smell, and do nothing about the the harmful parts even with HEPA14 filters etc.
Chopped CF filled FDM filaments are mostly a scam, but there are few PETG and ASA viable options:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7JperqVfXI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7JAOi4JnBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAL_p0yYKIc (Fibre Seeker 3)
One challenge designing a metal-printing process was making it safe for people without prior lab-safety training. Some 3D additive processes are simply just not practical for careless "yolo" consumers. =3
Re: A Year of 3D Printing
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
ASA and ABS really need a good filtration. Like actual filtration, not what the enclosure has. I personally just run a duct to my window and vent outside.
That's largely a myth. This review [1] cites the absolute highest amount of emitted styrene in the studies they are reviewing to be 113 μg/min. Using [2] for simplicity with styrene's molar mass (104.15 g/mol), we get to a printer creating at most 0.024 ppm of styrene per minute per m3 of unchanged air. For comparison, the "work exposure limit (WEL) for styrene is currently 100 parts per million (ppm) averaged over a…
There are active studies on chopped CF inhalation/contact hazards, and the SEM images in the above post prove how it occurs.
A lot of plastics contain wide assortments of additives to obtain mechanical properties. Outdoor ventilation is absolutely preferable to filtration or smell reduction filters that does practically nothing about carcinogens.
PLA is comparatively low emission, but a slow cooking PTFE tube in many hot-ends is not something people should be around. ymmv =3