CEL ABS: only partially soluble in acetone?

[Omega64 @omega64 My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

Howdy,

while troubleshooting my Robox I have accumulated a lot of scrap prints, purge filaments, etc..

I decided to keep it (instead of throwing it away in the garbage can) as maybe someday I’ll buy a filament maker and recycle it, who knows.

Anyhow, I’ve also read that as ABS is soluble in acetone, you can make a good glue by mixing acetone and filament (of the same material and colour) and then using a brush to apply it.

So I’ve put some acetone in a small bottle and I have thrown inside some scrap ABS (original CEL, green).

While the parts dissolved (in more time than I imagined), they only partially did so, leaving a powder.

I don’t think the acetone is being saturated, as there’s maybe even much more than needed (I’ve seen videos where the resulting molten ABS was much thicker than mine).

Maybe the CEL quality contains additives that make this ABS granular (e.g. to make it stronger) and doesn’t completely dissolve in acetone? Have you tried to do the same?

By the way the acetone vapors technique works just fine (I experimented also with that).

Sorry for the quality of the photo. As you can see (?) the ABS dissolved in powder-like consistency, and the acetone is still almost transparent, a sign than very little ABS really went into solution.

Cheers.

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[smitty @smitty My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

@omega64 have you considered saving your old filament and at some point making or investing in your own extruder?

 

 

smitty

[Omega64 @omega64 My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

PS:

e.g. this guy has got it the way it’s supposed to be:

another example:

and three:

@smitty: you mean a filament maker (I’ve already mentioned it, yes I’m interested) or a real extruder that would work with scrap bits? Well in the 2nd case I’m afraid of air bubbles getting trapped inside, etc.. I don’t see it very reliable. But the filament maker is definitely an option, like e.g. this (it’s just an example, there are probably better ones):

http://www.mythings4u.nl/en/strooder/143-strooder-filament-extruder.html

[smitty @smitty My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

@omega64 yes I’ve seen the strooder myself im toying with the idea of buying one at some point as I’ve got a scrap bin full of pla ,I’ve also watched videos on you tube of people making them ,as you’ve come from an engineering background like myself im pretty sure it wouldn’t be too hard to construct ,lead screw ,something to warm the filament up nozzle etc etc

smitty

[Omega64 @omega64 My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

@smitty Indeed. I think the lead screw will need a lot of torque though.

I wish I had the time to dedicate to all this stuff..

[Andy S @andylion My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

The strooder people’s own website as far as I can tell is: http://strooder.com/

The £249.99 they are charging for a preorder is I believe, a fair bit less than the 349 euros on the other site?

I like the idea, but I think it would need to recycle or create from pellets a pretty significant amount of material to pay itself off. Still, if I was going to get one that would probably be the one.

[smitty @smitty My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

@omega64 i saw a bloke on youtube use a stepper motor and gear it up

@andylion yeah you’d need to make a lot of filament but think something like the strooder would be useful in using up scrap filament and disused builds

smitty

[click @click My Robox is a Green Kickstarter Limited Edition]

I do smile reading all you posted here. At least now I know I am not the only one who is methodically collecting and sorting all scrap plastic thinking of a day when it would make sense. £300+ just to start creating substandard filament (I have to assume that it need some knowledge and experience for it to be produced at similar, original, quality) is quite steep. I still daydream of making my own contraption but there are so many other things to do before I get to it…

[Omega64 @omega64 My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

To collect it while you find a use for it is not wrong at all, @clicky. In my experience recycling has 3 phases: the first phase is “I won’t throw it, it may become useful for something in the future”. The second phase is “I must throw all this useless stuff, it only takes space”. The third phase is “glad that I didn’t do it, now I found previously-unforeseeable uses for it”.

Well, when I find the time I have to try also to put some scrap plastics into a solder pot, bring it to the right temperature to liquify it, and then pour it into a mould.

You know, moulded ABS.

 

[click @click My Robox is a Green Kickstarter Limited Edition]

@omega64 totally agree. Why else I would collect scrap pieces of plastic and sort them by colour?!

[Steve N @discosteve My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version]

phew….. so other people are collected the crap too…

Steve N | Creator of things both virtual and physical

[Robofish @robofish]

Hi Omega,

It looks like you have used far too much acetone and the ABS has completely broken down.

 

I’ve successfully made “ABS Glue” with the grey, green and purple CEL ABS filaments, but I also used much less acetone to do so.

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