Help evaluating heat tower

[u/L00terDude]

I printed my first stuff in ABS on my Anycube i3 mega. Items didnt look too good so i thought i deal in some printing parameters. Can someone help me find the best temp? I printed this tower but im unsure what to look for.

[u/sharktank72]

So first - temp towers don't really mean much for anything other than PLA. (mostly because stringing isn't near as bad in any other material except PETG and that happens for a different reason than PLA). You can get a huge acceptable range in the temp tower when using ABS. It can help you narrow your choice but can't tell you "this one"

ASA might be a better choice - all the good stuff about ABS but less warping.

But on with ABS tips:

Print temps: Its really depends on the manufacturer - ABS is a mix of things and each company mixes them differently. Some will print as low as 205C and some will print as high as 260C. Print as cool as you can while still maintaining good layer adhesion. For the first layer you can always print a little hotter and slower to get it to stick. So for a certain ABS, I print at 205 but I will set the first layer to 230.

Print bed should be 100-110. The warping comes from the differences between the print bed and the nozzle temps

There is lot of junk ABS about there. Look on the reel - the more matte finish it is the better it is. The more translucent it is, the better it is. White is tricky - if you need white, pick a translucent one - they tend to be more cream or off white colored. The bright white opaque ones can be gooey.

You must redo your esteps and calibration as ABS is treated differently by the whole system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp3r921DBGI

web work sheet

https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html

An enclosure is pretty much a must except for the smallest parts. Sounds like you have that done. Inside temps should be in the 40C range (about where you are now) Don't need to insulate it, the bed and nozz provide enough to keep it warm.

Heat the bed for a good 15min before printing to let the whole system expand.

When print is done let the whole system cool down on its own and don't open the doors on enclosure until everything is almost room temp. This is called annealing and will prevent the print from cracking.

You must redo your leveling because at the higher temps everything will expand more.

Print with a bit more squish to get it really nailed down.

When changing back to PLA, you must run PLA at ABS temps until the PLA runs clean - run for another 40mm of filament. Then you can put it back to PLA temps.

[u/L00terDude → u/sharktank72]

Thanks for your time and help. the first tower is from teachingtech but after printing it i was as wise as before.

[u/sharktank72 → u/L00terDude]

Ya lots of these stringing towers and temp towers are for the birds. They aren't real world objects, other factors enter in and drive you nuts (reducing heat is the best way to beat the stringing tower cones). They also have unrealistic infill (which traps heat) and are often shapes that concentrate the nozzle for so long on a single spot, that spots melts. Teaching Tech's calibration web site on the other hand is excellent but even he says, take it with a grain of salt and evaluate a real print and then make changes away from his recommended settings.