3D Printing with ASA: 12+ Tips and Tricks!

I will not tell you that "3D printing is easy". Period. Joking! It's easy (or it becomes easy) when you get the hold of it, you practice, you try, you fail, you learn, and you repeat, consistently! And to be honest, a huge part of my strategy to be able to successfully print with this fairly tricky and mysterious ASA filament is to have patience...and a really good roll of filament ASA.

Let me give you 12+ tips and tricks so that you can achieve that goal of being able to pull out a printed part from your printer proudly and smilling!

This is something you might think "meh, right...tell me something different", but trust me, sometimes to purchase a fairly good roll of ASA filament can be way over our budget, and sometimes (depending on the brand) you can buy 3 cheap rolls for the price of a good one... but, how much are risking here?

Let me tell you this, I challenged myself and bought two different ASA rolls: one from a really good and popular brand (I will tell later you what brand and where I got it from), and a second one from a local company (or that's what they say, but I am sure it's just a rebranded spool).

I will start talking about the "Local" one. At the beginning the packaging looked good, good box, nice vaccum-sealed plastic bag, nothing special, but that doesn't mean the filament would work as I expected. It didn't surprise me at all: the slicer settings had to be changed so many times that I couldn't recognize what type of filament I was working for and even made me think I had a problem with my 3D printer (I will tell you later what printer I am using).

Well, guess what...I stopped using this filament, and briefly:

• Wasted about 400 grams of this cheap ASA filament.
• Multiple temperature tests.
• Multiple speed tests
• Multiple flow ratio tests
• Multiple pressure advance tests
• About 10 hours spread across a few days
• Dried the filament multiple times for about one hour (enough to run these tests)

***photo of failed tests

So, I decided to give it a go to the expensive roll of filament. As promised, I bought the Orange ASA Polymaker PolyLite, locally as well, in Adelaide, from "3D Printing Solutions" (nice people, distributors of Polymaker, family owned business...buy from them and support them please!)

There was no difference in packaging, this is pretty much standard, I thought to myself: "if this is an expensive roll of filament, I will just run a quick test using the default slicer settings for this type of filament", and guess what! IT WORKED! It printed as if it were PLA, no hassle, no big issues (small details due to fine tuning required).

Conclusion: you can buy the cheap stuff, but make sure you are aware that you might find yourself fighting over things that have no solution.

(Note: I reached the company, informed them about the issue, they sent a new roll of filament, and it printed with less problems, but still not as easy as the Polymaker one).

Tip #2: Drying your filament

Drying your ASA filament can and will potentially improve your printings. Remember, water is everywhere, and even though each roll of filament is stored in a vacuum-sealed bag with a desiccant bag, the filaments will always contain some percentage of water, humidity. Be careful not to overdry it, otherwise you will achieve a negative effect.

Remember that you need to have a reason to dry your filament, and usually (the most common reason) is excessive stringing. Yes, it's called stringing because when the filament contains a higher percetange of water and it's heated up to the required temperature (for ASA and depending on the brand, it could vary from 240 degrees Celsius to 270 degrees Celsius) it softens, but not with the characteristics you are waiting for. I call this the "chewing gum effect", making the filament sticky, and causing that "just-woken-up-hair-style" finish on your printings, like the image below:

If your printings come out like this, then it's good to give it a good dry (STOP, not with a hair dryer or in the oven!). There are some tools that would help you to achieve a proper drying job with the right temperatures, and they are called "Filament dryers" (I bet you didn't expect that).

***photo and link to filament dryer in amazon

I don't use a separate dryer, basically because I own a Bambu Lab P1S 3D printer, which I bought with the AMS 2 Pro kit (I will talk about this printer in another blog) which allows me to dry up to 4 rolls of filament at the same time.

***photo and link to printer website

Tip #3: Keep Your PEI Sheet Clean! It's not a myth!

I have to ask you one thing: if you were to eat your dinner right now, would you use the same dish you use the night before without washing it first? Or, would you wash it so that you can present your food appropriately and make sure it tastes deliciously? Well, your PEI Sheet is pretty much the same, the dish where your printer is going to deposit the filament to build that beautiful piece of art you sketched and 3D modelled with massive efforts.

Every now and then, but more importantly when you have the following scenarios:

1. Sometimes removing 3D printed objects can be difficult, forcing you to manipulate and grease the whole build plate with your fingers (because it's natural), thus, a good cleaning is recommended after this. The reason? Grease on the build plate will not allow the first printed layer to adhere properly risking your whole model to go to waste (or worse, a physical damage to the printer).
2. In some occasions running printings one after the other for long periods of time without cleaning the printer bed, specs of plastic and dust can impede the first layer to stick properly.
3. From time to time, just clean it, would you?...It won't take you long to be honest.

What to use to clean your PEI Sheet?

There are a few options, and I cleaned the PEI flexible bed using the next three:

1. Basic liquid soap and water. Yes, a few drops of liquid soap on the PEI bed, a soft sponge (don't use abrasive scrubbers that could scratch your printer build plate), some water, scrub it, rinse it away, and dry it up...that's it, easy!
2. Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA): This one is even easier and my preferred one! My recommendation is to never use a spray to apply the IPA, because part of it will land in parts of your printer that are meant to be away from these type of liquids (lubricated parts for example). Just use a microfibre cloth, pour some IPA on the cloth, and clean your build plate, done! Faster, and easier!
3. Last but not least, The Pink Stuff! Yes, I said "no abrasive stuff", but this one is a popular, mild abrasive cleaning brand best known for its versatile Miracle Cleaning Paste. Made with 99% natural ingredients, it tackles grease, grime, rust, and limescale on hard surfaces like stovetops, sinks, cookware, and tiles. Now, the caveat for this one is that you can scrub it, but do it gently don't force too much, and use it once every two months (which I do).

***show all 3 options

BONUS: How to treat your 3D printer PEI Sheet build plate?

In short: have you ever bought an expensive non-stick teflon or ceramic pan? If you have, you now know what I am talking about, therefore, treat your 3D printer build plate as if it were an expensive non-stick ceramic or teflon pan: no metals, no scrappers, no knives, no hard scrubbing, no abrasive stuff!

I will take you through a fairly quick and briefly explained options I take into account when 3D printing with ASA so that the printing job finishes with no issues! Let me give you the basics of what you need to set up in your slicer software to make sure that printing with ASA is a good and friendly experience in this journey.

Note: I am using Bambu Studio. However, keep in mind that names may differ between slices but the purpose should be the same.

1. Elephant foot compensation:

This setting shrinks the first layer on the build plate. Set this to zero. This will allow the printed parts to stick a lot more to the build plate. You may want to tweak this setting, but remember to never exceed the value of 0.2 mm...test them, and learn!

2. Increase Wall Loops:

The more walls (or vertical lines) you have in your 3D printed object, the stronger it becomes. Since one of the objectives of using ASA is to produce strong and durable parts, more walls will help this characteristic. However, don't go over the board with the number of walls: 3 walls are the minimum, 5 wall loops are reasonable, anything over 7 walls is just an overkill. You test all of them and see what is the number that suits your needs!Note: Increasing the number of wall loops increases the printing time and material used, so make sure you account for this before sending the job to your 3D printrer.

3. Increase Top and Bottom Surfaces:

Similar to "Wall loops", top and bottom surfaces (or shells) will also help to reinforce the overall quality and durability of the final 3D printed product. Keep in mind that increasing the number of top and bottom shells increases the printing time and material used, so make sure you account for this before sending the job to your 3D printer.

4. Adjust infill percentage:

Similar to adding more vertical or horizantal shells, increasing the percentage of infill will bump up the printing time and filament consumption.

Is there a median infill percentage I recommend? Well, I do. I usually print with filaments like PLA and PETG with an infill of 10%. With ASA I print with an infill of 15%, nothing more than 25% (depending on the model I am printing).

5. Speeds:

Printing with ASA is trickier and more challenging than 3D printing with something like PLA or PETG. The thermodynamics and cooling characteristics of ASA filaments are diametrically different (that was a mouthful one) compared to PLA for instance. Basically, ASA solidifies with no air cooling down the deposited filament, so slower speeds are required! This will give enough time to that recently deposit filament to solidify.

First Layer Speed: Comparing values and not going in circles, for ASA I print using a speed of 35mm/s for this first layer (50mm/s when printing PLA for example).

Initial Layer Infill: For ASA I use 80mm/s, whereas PLA runs at 105mm/s (in my case...)

6. Supports:

In this case I will not talk about general supports, like for overhangs... I will only talk about supports for holes for bolts or nuts. In short, you should always try to avoid printing supports due to a couple of reasons. The first reason is to avoid increasing time and filament wastage. The second reason is to avoid supports coming off the bed destroying your hopes, and the printed part with no doubt.

I said supports for holes for bolts and nuts, and you might be thinking "what is so special about this?"...well, there is a small technique to have holes 3D printed without needing supports. You just need to design the hole as follows:


Yes, it's easy: make a circle (you decide the diameter), and then place a small triangle on top of the circle, like so:

Leave a distance of about 1.5mm between the top vertex of the triangle , you don't need anything else, maybe up to 2mm if you think it's not enough.

7. Do I need to use brims when printing with ASA?

The short answer is yes! You may not want to use brims, but since ASA tends to warp printed corners, brims will help those corners to stay stuck to the bed. There is no long answer, just enable it, and use all the brim you want (I don't use nothing over 5mm, it's always been enough for me):

8. Beb temperature for ASA

ASA requires high bed temperatures so that your printing job stays stuck to the PEI sheet. The ideal temperature is 100 degrees Celsius. Depending on your printer, you will be able to reach higher temperatures, like 105 or 110 degrees celsius. However, some 3D printers like the Bambulab P1S goes up to 100 degrees which is enough for ASA filaments.

To set this up in your slicer (Bambu Studio or Orca Slicer), edit your filament, and then under "Filament" find the legend "Textured PEI Plate". Make sure you set the same temperature for both "First Layer" and "Other Layers"

9. Nozzle temperature for ASA filaments

This is a number that completely depends on your filament, brand, quality, but more importantly, on your calibration results. I will talk about calibrating your filament in another post (or you can watch my video below about how to calibrate a filament).

The calibration results are the important ones to keep in mind. Your filament may tell you what ranges a roll of ASA filament (or any other filament) should be printed at, but it will vary depending on what 3D printer you own. Printing temperatures will vary also depending on your printer model since technologies differ.

Now, if you just want to give it a go, find the middle point of the ranges of your filament. For instance, if the label on the spool you bought says "240°C - 270°C", then go with 255°C (middle point), and see how it goes...you may be lucky and may not need to run "temperature calibrations", at least.

10. ASA Cooling Settings

ASA filaments don't like cooling, meaning fans blowing out air, that's it... If you enable cooling (even 10%) this will lower the PEI sheet temperature, causing the parts being printed to start warping, or even worse, to come off the bed. So, use no cooling...zero, nill, nada, zilch!

On you slicer, edit your filament, go to the Cooling tab, and then set all Min and Max Fan Speeds to zero, untick or disable anything that relates to cooling or fans.

11. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's)

This one is extremely important! In short words, while you 3D print with filaments like ASA (or ABS, PC, Nylon, and so on), you should always:

• Keep the area well ventilated while printing and after a print job finishes.
• Chamber fan ON (Exhaust fan for air filtration )
• Stay away from the area for at least 15 minutes after a printed job finishes

VOC's are dangerous and are deemed to cause cancer when being exposed to them for long periods of time. This is not medical advice, it's more a recommendation to keep yourself safe and away from this! Make sure you research further, gather enough information, and set a good printing area!

12. Pre-heating Bambu Lab P1S printer for ASA

ASA requires an enclose area to avoid dropping temperatures, and to be able to achieve a successful 3D printed job, the chamber or enlosed area of your printer needs to maintain a temperature of about 60°C. This is why it is imperative to pre-heat your printer for at least 15 minutes before starting a print job. Basically, set your bed temperature to 90°C, close the door of your printer, avoid cool air drafts around the printer, and then send your job to the printer.

Surely you will be closer to be able to successfully print with ASA filaments if you follow these 12 recommendations! You may want to tweak some settings to see how your printer behaves and how reliable those settings are for you! Happy Printing!