Happy with HIPS

[Tdeagan]

I've been running a good bit of HIPS (purchased from Amazon) through my Printrbot/Ubis. I've bought both 3mm and 1.75, running them through my 3mm stock Wade's extruder and my secondary 1.75mm Bowden extruder.

I've been treating them just like ABS, heating the head to 235C. Slightly oozier than the ABS, and definitely more brittle as filament. But generally pleasant to work with.

The big draw, of course, has been the selective dissolving via Limonene. I bought a quart from Amazon. Overnight the HIPS completely dissolved away leaving the ABS untouched. Even without the Limonene, most of the HIPS that was in contact with ABS (as support) broke cleanly away unless it had formed a mechanical bond.

I read lots of 'holistic' fear of Limonene, but every single scientific reference I find declares it surprisingly safe. The product I bought from amazon is labelled 'FOOD GRADE'. Given how much acetone I spill on myself, I am not even slightly afraid of this stuff. (Of course bravado may be the first sign of brain damage )

[halley]

Limonene (to dissolve HIPS) is generally safe. It's used in tons of cleansers. I wouldn't drink it straight, but it's a very safe degreasing agent.

Tetrahydrofuran THF (to vapor smooth PLA) is pretty dangerous to store and use. It's extremely flammable, and apparently even the dried deposits remain very potent even if all the liquid evaporates out of a storage container.

[AlexC]

Haven't been quite as happy with HIPS, i got Jet 1.75mm grey (more khaki in reality than grey) also from amazon. it does seem to like similar conditions to ABS, but my spool seems to be very temp touchy, to cold and layers don't bond well to each other, to hot and i start to see grey/black bands of burning in the print and still iffy layer to layer adhesion, i ended up at 220 @ tip. but the plastic at the tip will also burn if left for longer than a few moment without movement it seems (which makes me wonder how well it will sit to the side on standby till needed in a duel extruder situation). and if that was not enough adhesion is trickier than ABS, and the parts seem to "deflate" while cooling, even if it looked perfect moments after printing finished. stayed perfectly adhered to the print bed, & you give it an hour to cool slowly without touching,. i can see it as dissolve-able support, but im struggling to find any other practical use for it where it beats out ABS, PLA, or Nylon.

have you encountered and defeated any of those issues?

A hair to cold = slinky

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A hair to hot = char rings that become slinky s later

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[Tdeagan]

Interesting! I've only used it as a support material so far. The physical properties don't seem to offer it much advantage over ABS as a primary material. The more I read about it, the more it seems like the big advantage is that it's cheap (which certainly isn't true about it in filament form!)

I'm running my HIPS extruder at 235C (or at least, that's what I have the temp set to. It tends to run about 8-10 degrees cooler on the exterior of the tip.) I haven't seen any burn or scorch marks, even when it's had to sit for a considerable period (I let it sit for 15 minutes at temp while I went back and reworked my model the other evening.) I always purge my hotends if they've been sitting at temp before starting and while it does come out bubbly, it hasn't looked bad. I've seen no issues while waiting it's turn at the layer during dual extrusion. I usually use KISSlicer's wipe Pillar with it and that may be catching the ugly bit, but I can't say I've noticed any issues.

I haven't noticed the adhesion issue, but that may be because I'm happy if it comes apart while removing it as support. I'll set it up soon and try printing a full part by itself. I have appalling issues with delamination of my ABS prints, so my whole shop may be jinxed. I've been edging up to 240C to try and improve adhesion with ABS, maybe I'll try that with the HIPS and see if I see scorching.

So far, I've used PLA, ABS and HIPS. Of the three, PLA is my clear favorite. HIPS is likely only going to see support use.

[AlexC]

yah iv been quite surprised by HIPS charring,. when i bump up to 225+ i get,..

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Is there such a thing as a defective batch?

Iv gotten ok at PLA, but so far for accuracy, my favorite is ABS, it takes a bit more to get it right but strength, bridging + accuracy seems really spot on with ABS for me.

Layer bonding is a lot better for non thin walled printing, but then you have the cooling deflation factor to battle with.

[Tdeagan]

Wow! That's serious scorching. I know that one of the spools of ABS I bought is utter crap, so there can be variance. The amount of moisture that the spool has absorbed can make a huge difference. If it was stored badly before shipping, that can be a big issue. The water will boil in the plastic at the hot end and cause bubbling. That might be part of what you're seeing.

[AlexC]

yah, I put my new filament, including this spool, through a minimum two week drying process prior to using, locked in a large ziplock bag with a Eva-dry unit. ill toss it back in for another two weeks and see if it does any better. otherwise i have a buddy with a dual 1.75mm extruder I am sure he would be happy to give it a try as dissolve-able stuff,.

[Tdeagan]

by the way, great quality photos!