Educate me on PLA (and other materials) and water absorption.

[curious aardvark]

This business about warping in sunlight and in cars is OLD information. Material chemists have made huge advances in the last couple of years.
The modern pla just doesn't seem to do this.
I've tried the hot water sink thing - just feels a little slimy - doesn't bend or buckle.

And no car gets hot enough to melt plastic. Some of the pla I have doesn't even extrude till it hits 200C, it's hardly likely to melt in a car.

Really guys, you need to try and keep up with the way materials are going. And the pla I'm using just doesn't behave the way everyone keeps telling me it should.

The exact same part made with abs and pla will crack with abs and not with pla. Again this is the opposite of the old information of how the two plastics stack up.

Even the cheapest pla I've got is less brittle than the abs.
I can jam a slightly larger pla part into a hole that a slightly smaller abs part won't go into without cracking.
Both printed with same infill and shell settings.

My biggest problem is that I now havea shelf full of abs that I just don't need or have any desire to use.

[CaptainObvious]

This business about warping in sunlight and in cars is OLD information. Material chemists have made huge advances in the last couple of years.
The modern pla just doesn't seem to do this.
I've tried the hot water sink thing - just feels a little slimy - doesn't bend or buckle.

And no car gets hot enough to melt plastic. Some of the pla I have doesn't even extrude till it hits 200C, it's hardly likely to melt in a car.

Really guys, you need to try and keep up with the way materials are going. And the pla I'm using just doesn't behave the way everyone keeps telling me it should.

The exact same part made with abs and pla will crack with abs and not with pla. Again this is the opposite of the old information of how the two plastics stack up.

Even the cheapest pla I've got is less brittle than the abs.
I can jam a slightly larger pla part into a hole that a slightly smaller abs part won't go into without cracking.
Both printed with same infill and shell settings.

My biggest problem is that I now havea shelf full of abs that I just don't need or have any desire to use.

What PLA brand are you using? I haven't restocked for a while, but the one I have will definitely deform at and above 60C.

[curious aardvark]

reprapper tech (very good stuff, midrange price, white prints at 220, rest I've tried at 195. They all print clean and crisp with no issues), some generic white one off ebay - cheapest I could find, not quite as good as the reprapoper white, but pretty good considering it was £5 a roll cheaper.
Ppolymakr polyplus - expensive but really good, just need them to find a uk distributor as it's too pricey to get shipped from the states - it doubles the cost. The roll I have was one of the last that 3dfilaprint had as samples.

The best around is the polymakr polymax. Has higher values than abs on just about all counts. And not too bad shipping wise - if you live in the states.

There are any number of new improved pla style filaments around.
I'm just going on what I've made and how it's performed. And so far the pla is better than the abs on every count.
http://www.polymakr.com/web/pro.html#pro_r11_c2

I've still got a bunch of samples of other fliaments that i picked up last year at the tct show. Just haven't got round to testing them yet. But there's a biofila (?) one that looks interesting, as well as several other makes of pla and pet.

The filament market is just expanding faster than any one person can keep up with.

And most manufacturers are concentrating on improving pla. For the obvious reasons.
Made from cheap base ingredients, better to print with, less wasted prints, and just really practical for most uses.