3D printed trim rings - heat and material

I'm using some uniquely ugly drivers in A-pillars - right where they'll be seen:
Attachment 16603
So I 3D printed some covers, and I did a run at a "normal" resolution, but I used PLA, which has a melting point below 200 degrees. After extruding it might be somewhat higher, but I'm not sure how much higher.
Attachment 16602
Even getting them this far, I'll need to do some bodywork to them, since they aren't perfectly smooth. So technically that will bolster the structure, although I'm not planning to do more than a normal bodywork thickness (thinness, I should say).

I do own some black ASA, which I bought specifically for higher heat needs. I think I'm only hedging because the two rings took about 10 hours on "normal" (not even "fine"), and the four square panels also took about 10 hours.

I should just bite the bullet and run them on ASA, but I am curious-

Has anyone used PLA for interior parts? Will it *really* run the risk of melting? These are not structural, just decorative overlays ...On the other hand, there will be magnets CA glued to the back in those recesses...

Just curious how much of an issue this really is.

Bear in mind I'm in Buffalo NY, so it only gets into the 90s for maybe a month at the most, each August. It's not Arizona, here.

90% sure I'm going to run these in ASA over the next couple days and go from there, but curious if anyone's seen softening.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geolemon

I'm using some uniquely ugly drivers in A-pillars - right where they'll be seen:
Attachment 16603
So I 3D printed some covers, and I did a run at a "normal" resolution, but I used PLA, which has a melting point below 200 degrees. After extruding it might be somewhat higher, but I'm not sure how much higher.
Attachment 16602
Even getting them this far, I'll need to do some bodywork to them, since they aren't perfectly smooth. So technically that will bolster the structure, although I'm not planning to do more than a normal bodywork thickness (thinness, I should say).

I do own some black ASA, which I bought specifically for higher heat needs. I think I'm only hedging because the two rings took about 10 hours on "normal" (not even "fine"), and the four square panels also took about 10 hours.

I should just bite the bullet and run them on ASA, but I am curious-

Has anyone used PLA for interior parts? Will it *really* run the risk of melting? These are not structural, just decorative overlays ...On the other hand, there will be magnets CA glued to the back in those recesses...

Just curious how much of an issue this really is.

Bear in mind I'm in Buffalo NY, so it only gets into the 90s for maybe a month at the most, each August. It's not Arizona, here.

90% sure I'm going to run these in ASA over the next couple days and go from there, but curious if anyone's seen softening.

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It's not so much that it will melt as excessive heat will cause it to warp. I have heard there is an annealing/tempering process to raise heat resistance, but I am unsure what that process is.

Right - the annealing process always fascinated me. I've heard of it for some of the other plastics (my ASA is one, I believe), but didn't know if it applied to PLA. Figured it must, to some degree, right?

Well, either way I did kick off a print of four more of the square covers in ASA - I don't want to jinx myself by saying "it's looking good so far", since this is my first attempt to print ASA, and it could easily go belly-up at any moment - but let's hope it makes it the 10 hours and gives me confidence to kick off the two rings as well. :lol:

I suppose part of my question is as a fallback plan - so let's hope I don't need it!
But I am genuinely curious, and I think you answered it - I can imagine warping, and I think I'd be at risk for that where the thin, straight sides of my flat-panel speaker covers are.

Has anyone printed anything for their system or interior with any type of filament at all? PLA, ABS, ASA, or one of those PLA-carbon composites maybe?
I'm pretty locked into the ASA spool that I just started, but curious if there's any other high temperature (meaning, say, car interior in the desert, but not 3D-printed fire pit :lol: ) filaments anyone has used?

I'm currently messing with a material called Onyx, which is a carbon fiber reinforced nylon. It is insanely stable and looks great off a MarkForged.

I use petg in my car. It is more heat stable vs pla. i would not hesitate to use petg, I also find it easier to print than pla as well ����

I'll share pics when this ASA completes.
It's got a couple hours left, but so far it's looking much smoother than PLA.

I've heard of PETG - almost bought that, I forgot why I picked up the ASA instead, I think I just read reviews.

That carbon-nylon sounds awesome. More expensive than the ASA but still reasonable - basically the cost of two rolls of PLA. Curious - is it more rigid and/or tougher to break? I wasn't sure since the fibers have to be tiny.

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Here's the pic of the ASA fresh off the printer, same "normal" print resolution (normal " 0.15mm layers I believe), compared to the PLA ones I made before.

The ASA seem inherently smoother, silkier. Heat resistance is a bonus, I like this stuff so far for the appearance alone!

I kicked off the two dome rings to run overnight. We'll see in the AM if it's any more difficult to separate the parts from the raft and supports underneath.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b1fa3d0b03.jpg

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by geolemon

Here's the pic of the ASA fresh off the printer, same "normal" print resolution (normal " 0.15mm layers I believe), compared to the PLA ones I made before.

The ASA seem inherently smoother, silkier. Heat resistance is a bonus, I like this stuff so far for the appearance alone!

I kicked off the two dome rings to run overnight. We'll see in the AM if it's any more difficult to separate the parts from the raft and supports underneath.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b1fa3d0b03.jpg

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

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Looking good!

Pick me coach :wave:

I had PLA deform in my car. It took a couple months. That was many years ago. Maybe it's better? All the people I have had print stuff have all refused to print stuff for a car from PLA. Even the thing that deformed. The guy didn't realize it was for a vehicle and I didn't know better at the time.

That's good to know! That makes me feel better about my buying ASA for this.

So this is my first set of prints with the ASA, and the square trim pieces came out decent.

For the most part the round ones did too, except in a few spots the layers didn't seem to bond at the outside. Usually that means "not enough heat" but in this case I think it's because the spool wasn't spinning freely and this ASA feels slippery, so the extruder teeth were struggling, so I think it wasn't pushing out as much material as consistently.

So I have a couple upgrades in mind there, and these pieces I can fix with some body work.

But I also designed them to have a 1mm wall that overlaps the speaker mounting ring, and that really wasn't thick enough. So that was a design issue I could change a bit if I did it again - I'll try to salvage these thin walls. Worst case I have to cut them off.

One more thing that's "good to know" about ASA (and probably ABS too) is that it STICKS to Mylar!

I probably had enough dust and PLA residue that my raft of the first print released.

But this second one with the round rings? Oh hell no. It became one with my Mylar sheet on my base. So that became trash. I loved that Mylar sheet for PLA...
...but I have always had a glass bed surface that I've never tried to use. So - I guess that's going on for now! [emoji38]

So if you ever use ASA, don't try to use a Mylar base! https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b03d4afa51.jpg

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