3D Printing with ASA: 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 3D 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 9 tips and tricks so that you can achieve that goal of being able to pull out a 3D 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 faced the challenge 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 3D 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 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 anyways have 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 depending on the bran 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 specific brand 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: Myth or not, Keep Your PEI Sheet Clean!

I have to ask you one thing: when you eat your dinner, do you use the same dish you use the night before without washing it? Or, do 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 3D printer is going to deposit the filament to build a beautiful piece or art made of plastic layers fused one over the other!

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 3D printing job to go to waste (or worse, a physical damage to the printer).
2. In some occasions after 3D printing multiple objects one after the other, there are some specs of plastic, dust, and whatnot that will avoid the first layer to stick properly.
3. From time to time, just clean, would you?...It won't take you long to be honest.

***photos of all 3 options

What to use to clean your PEI Sheet?

There are a few options, and I have use the next three:

1. Basic liquid soap and water. Yes, a few drops of liquid soap on the PEI sheet, 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).

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 ASA helps you through this journey.

Note: I am using Bambu Studio, however, keep in mind that names may differ but the purpose might 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. You may want to test some elephant foot compensation nohting over 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 feature. However, don't go over the board with the number of walls: 3 walls are the minimum, 5 wall loops are ok, anything over 7 walls is just an overkill. You test all of them and see what are the results are.
   
   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 printrer.
   
   
   
   
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