3d printers, whose made the jump to ABS?

Now that I actually have a project for the inside of my vehicle, I need to step up to ABS. Black truck, black interior, PLA won't stand a chance come summer time. 

No need to get into machine specific settings, but has anyone made that jump yet? 

I'm seeing lots of back and forth information about insulating the heat bed and building an enclosure around the printer to keep temps correct. Maybe not so much back and forth, yes it needs done, but lots and lots of ways of going about it.

I'm thinking plexiglass for an enclosure. It's fairly cheap, easy to work with, and clear so I can see what's going on. 

As far as insulating the heat bed though, I'd like to hear some first hand experiences. I've seen people silicone cork board to the bottom, others press in fiberglass bat sort of like a picture frame, I've seen mention of rockwool and thin blue board as well. I have everything but cork board on hand, but before I spend my weekend testing and leveling, I'd like to hear some inputs. 

My friend prints in ABS almost exclusively.  He says that you need to make sure the bed is fully insulated from drafts, like from the AC.  Any draft on it will cause a temp difference and the work will pop off the bed.  He uses a cardboard box, I think, these days.  That is, he puts a large cardboard box around the whole printer.

Given that stereolithography has only been around since the early-mid eighties, I'm going the let the technology mature a little more before I jump in.  Any hope that a sub-$500. printer can actually be useful?  I know someone who got a kit for Christmas.  I think it has yet to produce its first print.

It's nice the county frivolously uses taxpayer monies to buy 3d printing equipment for use by the unwashed masses.  I've been very happy with the results obtained by emailing them the .stl file and picking up the print a day later for a nominal fee.  That puts the burden (and expense) of equipment acquisition and setup on them.  I think they even offer a choice of materials, but I'm not sure of that.  I know they'll run whatever color you want.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Define useful.

I'm just under $300 into mine and it has been running consistently since November. 

Toys, tools, and now I have a need for interior parts. Since the interior parts I bought from professionals didn't remotely fit, I can't do any worse myself. 

In reply to RevRico :

Nice!  What machine do you own?  How big can it print?

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I've got an Anet A8, it's a clone of the more popular Prusa i3, at about 1/3 the cost and 1/3 the English assembly instructions. 

As it sits, I can do a 9"cube, but if I really wanted to I could scale it up, which is why I picked the kit I did. 

It's build thread despite my complaints, the only "factory problem" was the power supply I was planning on swapping anyway. All other problems I complain about with it have been created by myself.

I did see people just using cardboard boxes for enclosures, I'd just like to be able to keep an eye on things while they print. Octoprint and some leds could let me keep an eye on it inside the box though, more reason to buy a Pi. 

I think he put a plastic window on the box, and I know he has a web cam pointing at it and can monitor it from anywhere in the house.

Window, so simple yet easily overlooked. Then that's the hard part figured out. 

Any chance you know what brand he uses or stays away from? 

I've become a big fan of 3dsolutech for PLA, but they don't have an ABS that I noticed. I looked at Hatchbox on Amazon, but the reviews were mixed to negative, and a lot of the ads said they were "unused returns". Not that I'm against buying returned stuff for cheap, but seeing reviews of people getting 2+ year old spools of plastic doesn't excite me. The spool of white PLA I bought from eyesun(I think) has a 2016 make date on the box, and it was super brittle fresh out of the bag. Still printed decently though. 

My friend says buy from a reputable shop, like Ultibots.  It is worth the extra money for the quality filament they sell.  He said that an ebay seller with reall good ratings would be OK too.

I've only ever printed in ABS.

The other shop teacher really prefers the low-stink of PLA.  I never notice the smell of the ABS; I do enjoy the colours SWOOSHING around the room though.

I'm still playing with PLA, but ABS is in the plan.  A roll of Black ABS will be on the birthday wish list.

I need some oddball pieces for my Valiant, such as wedge-shaped adapters to correct the angle of the Caravan visors, and AC control knobs that match the rest of the knobs in the car.  Oh, and an oil pressure gauge bracket that mimics the rest of the dash.  The list is growning.

Yet to print with ABS, but am going to just jump straight to PETG  (and carbon fiber composites for some prints once I upgrade my printer - have the Olsson Ruby nozzle, just waiting to install it when my Prusa 2.5 upgrade kit comes in as want to do all the changes at once.) There are some nice PLA and PETG based carbon fiber composite ones. PETG prints like PLA but is tougher and better working temp, like ABS. Do plan on making a box out of insulating foam to help no matter what I print with.

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/l/colorfabb-xt-cf20-1.75mm/sk/ME2G85Y9

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/l/carbon-fiber-pro-series-petg-filament-1.75mm/sk/MHQ646TD

I’ve printed a bit in abs.  Heated bed, no enclosure, but only somewhat flat things.  Haven’t really had an issue, but nothing more than a centimeter tall.  Hatchbox ABS.  I haven’t tried anything that would be considered difficult from a shrinkage standpoint but It seems to work ok to me.

I've been able to print some smaller things in ABS without an enclosure. Besides blocking drafts, I think an enclosure would help the heated bed reach and maintain the desired temperature easier since the enclosure would heat up quite a bit so there would be a smaller delta T between the bed and the surrounding ambient air. My bed seems to struggle to maintain a high enough temperature and hold it there with out an enclosure.

I have mostly printed in PLA.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Cheap printers can absolutlety be useful. I've used mine to make a depth stop collar for my drill press, to make a blade insert for my band saw, to make a bushing for a water dispenser on my kitchen sink, make holders to display plaques and trophies, to print out a 9" tall lego minifigure (ok, so that is not really all that useful, but I like him).

I just ordered in some ABS from 3D Solutech, a dark blue. I probably won't have time to mess around with it for a little while, at least a week, but I will be trying it out. I already found the piece I need to print too, but I'm still going to render one myself for practice.

For those interested, I'll be starting with something simple, the double to single DIN head unit mount for the ranger. The one Metra sold me is off by a few millimeters in several places and doesn't work. Should this turn out well, the mount for the hinge on my center console is busted, so I'm going to make a new one those. 

I also got a spool of flexible PLA. It's not as flexible as some of the other options, but it does have more give than regular PLA.I bought it exclusively to print tires with for an rc project, although it could replace some bushings in a pinch.

If you were going to print a high stress, high speed gear, would you bother with ABS or go straight to a nylon or carbon fiber product?