ABS curling on the ends (10" i3v)

[printbus]

...I'd also love to see configs for Slic3r and/or Cura (haven't had success at all in the latter). I'm running a .04 Hexagon. Stock fan shroud.

A set of Cura settings is available in the i3v Cura Settings thread

[theAut0]

Thanks, printbus. I saw those, but since they were for 1.75 filament, I'm not confident with it. Not sure what all I would need to modify, aside from the filament diameter, itself.

[gmay3]

A brim will help a lot. I also have tossed my hairspray in favour of the Elmer's Glue stick method. I haven't had an ABS part warp on me yet since I've started using it.

A tip of the hat to AbuMaia, because I also agree! Using a brim 3-5 mm has helped my nail down my hardest to stick prints.

I'll have to go get one of these elmers glue sticks. Hope I didn't lose my glue stick skills from 2nd grade!

[kfahn]

Just to add my 2 cents, I was also having a lot of trouble with my ABS prints curling on my 10" i3v, but I have found a complete solution (for me). I changed the cooling shroud for my hexagon hot end to clough42's design (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:335613). Not only does this cooling shroud not melt onto the hot end itself like the original design, but it blows the air up and away from the bed. I think that the original design actually blows on the back of the print, causing it to contract.

When printing the large extruder gear, the part of the print at the back of the printer would curl every time. When I switched to the new cooling shroud, the curling stopped completely. If you look at the attached picture, the only difference between the prints was the cooling shroud. The print bed surface, slicing, print settings, and ambient temperature were 100% identical from one print to the other. Notice the curling to the left (which was pointed to the back of the printer). The print on the left was stopped about 2/3 of the way through the print when I noticed all of the curling.
IMG_1766.jpg

If you are still having issues with print curling, it is absolutely worth it to try printing this new shroud and buying the couple dollar fan. I can print in ABS now without a brim or raft or anything else. I've tested this with a bunch of designs and have not had a single ABS design curl since switching cooling shrouds.

[theAut0]

Ooh. I'll have to print it out. Been on the fence about it for a while. I've printed a couple of upgrades, including a new Z-stop design I found/liked. Nothing against some of the other designs I've seen. http://www.thingiverse.com/make:96992
Some things I've learned, for my own future reference, and maybe some tips for future total newbs:

Z-stop adjustment and bed leveling is important. A lot more than you think. <Read that 4x before printing anything in ABS.
ABS Juice doesn't get enough credit, online (I haven't tried the glue sticks yet).
When people put hairspray, tape, or whatever else on the bed, pay attention to what material they're using. I used tape for ABS, didn't get what all the fuss was about. Didn't stick at all. Used the same tape for PLA, and I now have parts with blue tape stuck to them, that will never come off, for their entire lives. And no, that's not the sticky side of the tape. It's just some kind of molecular sorcery with the shiny, non-sticky side of blue tape when it touches hot PLA.
That 115° bed temp is really where it's at. So, for those of us with 10" beds, that means it's gonna be a while warming up.
The problem really does change every time you print. Soon as you think you've nailed it, it will be back, tomorrow.
Slic3r can do a better job than Cura, sometimes. But Cura has a nice UI, and if you can get by with it, it's cool. I've successfully printed from both.

[kfahn]

I can also vouch for that end-stop design. I printed that out on day two (unfortunately with some shrinkage in the back since I didn't have the new shroud yet). I'll have to print it again, but it works so much better than the stock design. The micro-adjust is really easy and stays spot on for a long time.

The ABS juice is great too. If you just buy the standard acetone at Home Depot and put it into a mason jar with your abs cut offs or dud parts and wipe that on once every 10 prints or so, it works incredibly well. It also has the really nice effect of making the bottom of your print perfectly smooth.

[Geoff]

As someone who has printed in ABS forever, and has never had many problems with it... I see alot of you using extra fans.. This for me was very bad. If I am printing ABS and do not want warpage, drafts and any sort of air blowing on the print is pretty much where it all falls down. The only fan I have that is running printing ABS is the extruder fan, and it is well and truly aobe the nozzle, and also my machine is open.

I am an anti-heat chamber person. For me, if I seal my machine the air blowing off the fan is enough to bounce off the enclosure, go back in the face of the print and make the ABS shrink prematurely.

[kfahn]

It is possible to run some hot ends without a cooling fan (j-head and some others), but the hexagon and other all metal hot ends require a cooling fan above the heated tip, but below the extruder coupling.

The only fan that was on in my case (and it seems theAut0 as well) was the fan which is absolutely mandatory for the hexagon hot end. Without this fan the filament will soften and melt before it reaches the tip, causing jams and full blockages. The fan should blow on the heatsinks which separate the hot end from the extruder block, but on the stock design from Makerfarm the airflow seems to be poorly controlled, allowing some spillage airflow to reach your print. The design from clough42 seems to alleviate this.

[AbuMaia]

I wish someone could remix clough42's design to work with an E3D v6.

[dacb]

From my own experiments, I'm starting to lean to a blower type fan, e.g. printbus, for better airflow.