ABS warping bad, first time printing.

ive been printing with PLA for several months now and wanted to try my hand at ABS and so far no such luck. Ive only tried the one item and tried it 3 ways, no brim - bad. Brim at 7mm was meh, then a raft at stock settings and this one actually warped the worse, it actually broke free from the raft. I printed at 240c and bed at 110c with a mylar blanket over the top to keep ambient temp up as well (which worked well). I know my bed is level. I am printing on blue painters tape over glass bed which is sticking just fine. The final product is stuck well and has to cool completely to be removed. Is there something else I could be doing to prevent the corners from warping? Thank you.

when you design a model try and not leave sharp edges or pointed corners. I print a lot of abs but most of what I print is small .. long thin stuff warps more. Having the enclosure at a stable 50C and no way for out side air to enter will go a long way to stop warping. Also a very accurately level bed with the z offset set to just .02 closer then perfect (perfect being the item printed is exactly the height of the object) will also help. You may want to try Polymide tape rather than painters for ABS..
Good luck!

Your post says PLA but the title says ABS.

For ABS, get rid of the blue tape. Apply a light (1 second) coating of EXTRA HOLD hair spray (like Aqua Net) directly onto the heated glass. Ambient temperature also helps. Remember, most ABS prints will shrink 1.5% when they cool to room temperature, so scale up your stl before slicing.

I was probably tired when I made the post, I edited it. thank you.

I will try the hairspray, So should I scale it 1.5% then? Also what is your recommended ambient temp? I was actually able to print a small 5mm thick fob 2 days ago just fine with all the same scenarios and it came out just fine, the first object was 17mm thick so maybe the thicker print was the issue?

I keep my enclosure at 50C as my electronics are inside and that seems to work fine for me. Bed temp at 110C and print at 235C. I mostly print parts that need to be mechanically sound so I normally use the highest safe layer height rather than going for high resolution or layer linens.. So if you you have a .4mm nozzle try a .3mm layer if you are using something thinner and having issues.

Try airscapes' settings, they sound fine.

Printing something like a coaster, where it's very short but very wide and deep is really easy. When the ratio of height to cross section changes, that's when the problems show up.

I to started printing PLA for quite some time, then one day decided to Print ABS.

When I started printing PLA had some family members that hated the smell, so I built a case from a single sheet of particle board.
I build it to enclose two 3D Printers surrounding the 3D Printers on all side except the front. there I used a piece of clear plastic sheeting.
An on the rear there is a bathroom fan to vent the smell outside threw a dryer vent then using a light dimmer i can control the fan speed.
The enclosure is a 2 Foot cube that is 4 feet wide.

Low and behold it also serves to provide as a heat chamber to keep the new ABS prints from warping.
This was a side affect of the cases original design. Below is a simple photo.

Attachment 14574

The Front clear plastic only covers from about the height of the hot beds to the top on the case and are hinged on case top side.
This design keeps the models being printed at a constant temperature while allowing a small flow of air to vent the smell outdoors.

Sample of 1st ABS Prints were for a MPCNC

Attachment 14575

The finale posted below. An ABS 3D Printed MPCNC.

Attachment 14576


This post was to explain to you that my ABS Prints best when in an environment where the temperatures remains constant.
I lucked out by having made my 3D Printer custom Printer case when it came to printing with ABS.

MY ABS Print Temps
Nozzle 240C
Hot Bed 96C Had problems with my hotbeds warping when temp exceed 100C
My Case temp remains at constant 37.78C while ABS is being printed.

Have heard some users placing a box/tent over there 3D Printers when printing ABS helps.

what printer do you have.
what speeds are you printing ?

Back in the dark and smelly age when I used to print with abs - I never had any problems, as long as I used a raft.
I mean rafts come with their own problems and should be avoided if at all possible.

But in an open frame printer, with a raft and 50mm/s max speed and a REALLY slow first layer. Stuff printed fairly easily.

Settings wise - blimey that was 8 years ago.
I 'think' I ran bed temp at 100c, with abs juice (mix acetone with clear abs to form a thinnish slurry and wipe the bed with it.)
Print temps - as low as you can get away with.
so maybe 230-235c.
The lower the temp the less the final warpage.

But in all honesty, with the materials we have available for 3d printing today - there is almost no necessity to ever use abs, and many reasons not to.

But as long as you get your settings right - it's not hard stuff to print. Just slow and stinky :-)
I don't get headaches - but I used to get them when I used abs.