ABS filament (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) is one of the most popular plastics. It has good mechanical properties, high strength, good toughness and durability. And it is a low cost material. So if you want to make some functional part or prototypes, ABS filament is a good choice.
ABS filament is compatible with 3d printers that use 1.75 mm filament. Before you get ABS filament, you need to ensure that your 3d printer supports this material. You can choose different colors : White, Blue, Red, Silver, Green, Black
This material has a high melting point, and needs a hot bed to prevent warping. But it doesn’t have a definite melting point. Usually the 3d printer’s extrude should be about 210~250℃ to melt the plastic while the hotbed should be at about 80~110℃. And maybe you need to experiment several times to get the best parameters.
It is easy to do post process on the plastic,and you can make it more smooth or get colorful surface. ABS can be easily soluble in acetone. So you can make a shiny, smooth surface object by using acetone vapor or liquid acetone. But if you use liquid acetone, the details will be melted away completely. So if you want to keep details on the objects, you can try acetone vapor (don’t forget to protect you with mask and nitrile gloves).
If you have a dual extrudes 3d printer, we recommend you to get HIPS filament too. When you print some complex 3d model, HIPS can work as supporting material.
We can machine the material easily. We can use common machining methods to machine ABS parts, including milling, drilling, turning, sawing, shearing, etc. So if you want to get a more precise mechanical part, you can machine the part on cnc routers after 3d printing.
Objects made from ABS material:
Car parts, musical instruments, Lego blocks, eclectic housings and many other parts are made from the plastic.
You can get the material on eBay.
