I ordered two halves of a gear for a project I was working on. The two halves were printed out of SLS nylon and one half was dyed black whereas the other was kept natural.
I left them bolted together for a bit over a year and this happened! Some of the dye from the black half leeched into the white half, permanently staining it.
For some context, SLS nylon can only be printed in white and the the only way to make it take on other colors is to boil it in Rit dye.
It's interesting to me that this can happen at all. Just thought I'd share.
I left them bolted together for a bit over a year and this happened! Some of the dye from the black half leeched into the white half, permanently staining it.
For some context, SLS nylon can only be printed in white and the the only way to make it take on other colors is to boil it in Rit dye.
It's interesting to me that this can happen at all. Just thought I'd share.
I made a vapor polishing chamber with a food serving container (called a gastronorm) and (mostly) parts found on 3d printers.
It has a silicone heater taped to the bottom which is controlled with a pretty standard temperature controller and a DC solid state relay. The heated pad on the bottom is capable of getting to 110 celcius.
There's a couple 3d printed parts which are used for making a mount for a motor as well as a fan. These both were printed out of PVDF, an extremely chemically resistant polymer. The tray for holding the parts to be polished is affixed to the sheet of glass via some magnets and some flat-head screws. Everything else in the chamber is made from stainless steel.
It has a silicone heater taped to the bottom which is controlled with a pretty standard temperature controller and a DC solid state relay. The heated pad on the bottom is capable of getting to 110 celcius.
There's a couple 3d printed parts which are used for making a mount for a motor as well as a fan. These both were printed out of PVDF, an extremely chemically resistant polymer. The tray for holding the parts to be polished is affixed to the sheet of glass via some magnets and some flat-head screws. Everything else in the chamber is made from stainless steel.
This construction makes it suitable to be used for boiling and making vapors of any solvent I wish to use. In the coming weeks I will run experiments with it to see what solvents can be used to vapor polish what polymers.
the (non-exhaustive) list of polymers I want to test:
PLA, PETG, PCTG, ABS, ASA, TPU, PA6, PA12, PP, PMMA, HIPS and PVDF.
An incomplete list of solvents I'm going to test:
Isopropyl alcohol, Acetone, Ethyl acetate, limonene, Dichloromethane, DMSO, methyl ethyl ketone, toluene, methanol
Please let me know what other solvents and/or polymers I should try. Keep in mind I do not have a fume hood, so the solvents I can test with are limited to what I'm willing to let float around in my garage while it airs out. Essentially I don't want to use heavier PPE than rubber gloves, safety glasses and a respirator. I will not work with anything more toxic or volatile than toluene.
the (non-exhaustive) list of polymers I want to test:
PLA, PETG, PCTG, ABS, ASA, TPU, PA6, PA12, PP, PMMA, HIPS and PVDF.
An incomplete list of solvents I'm going to test:
Isopropyl alcohol, Acetone, Ethyl acetate, limonene, Dichloromethane, DMSO, methyl ethyl ketone, toluene, methanol
Please let me know what other solvents and/or polymers I should try. Keep in mind I do not have a fume hood, so the solvents I can test with are limited to what I'm willing to let float around in my garage while it airs out. Essentially I don't want to use heavier PPE than rubber gloves, safety glasses and a respirator. I will not work with anything more toxic or volatile than toluene.
At the moment the polisher is highly unsafe. It is so dangerous that I don't feel comfortable giving out the plans. With that said, I already have a version 2 in the works which addresses the problems the current one has. (the exposed mains wiring is the least of its concerns...)
This is a list of features/changes for version 2:
* Use FEP film for the top instead of a sheet of glass with a hole drilled in it
* Replace the PVDF printed parts with stainless steel ones, preferably with them all being off-the-shelf.
* Switch to a brushless motor for the fan so it doesn't create sparks millimeters away from flammable solvent vapors.
* Do something to hide the exposed mains wiring
* Do more to keep the mains-powered PSU away from the solvent vapors
* Use a dedicated microcontroller controlling things. It will control the temperature of the heater as well as the power/frequency of the ultrasonic transducer.
* Add a screen for displaying stuff and maybe a buzzer/timer.
This is a list of features/changes for version 2:
* Use FEP film for the top instead of a sheet of glass with a hole drilled in it
* Replace the PVDF printed parts with stainless steel ones, preferably with them all being off-the-shelf.
* Switch to a brushless motor for the fan so it doesn't create sparks millimeters away from flammable solvent vapors.
* Do something to hide the exposed mains wiring
* Do more to keep the mains-powered PSU away from the solvent vapors
* Use a dedicated microcontroller controlling things. It will control the temperature of the heater as well as the power/frequency of the ultrasonic transducer.
* Add a screen for displaying stuff and maybe a buzzer/timer.