3D printing, how do you do it?

How are you sealing your PLA printed parts? Have you had any issues with water intrusion?

Upstream of aluminum tube - epoxy aluminum tube on PLA mast mount, plenty silicone to seal the 3 cable outlets
Downstream of aluminum tube - double O-rings to seal sealmount piece with alu tube. Double lip-seals to seal shaft.
PLA itself is pretty watertight. I print all components100% fill. Hope this helps.

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Anything that you can use to seal PLA? Iā€™ve not had the chance to use my parts in the water for very long, but Iā€™ve read PLA doesnā€™t last long in water.

I donā€™t see how PLA could leak if you have another structure to it? Where did you read this?

Iā€™ve read about PLA not being waterproof in a few threads on Thingiverse. Donā€™t know how true it is. We will find out soon enough, especially in harsh salt water conditions. This guy had a printed filter in a fish tank and this was his result.
http://www.3ders.org/images2016/how-fast-does-moisture-break-down-popular-3d-printing-material-pla-02.jpg

Could have been just a cheap filament, who knows?

My experience is that all sort of other stuff will break down before the PLA degrades :smile:ā€¦ But yes you are right, PLA is biodegradable and it will break down eventually: Polylactic acid - Wikipedia. Great for prototyping and testing though.

Interesting! Damn you salt water!

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Anet A8, reallly cheap, but I have good resultā€¦ At Office, will be able to use Markforged : Carbon Fiber Composite 3D Printer: Markforged Mark Two
I will be able to do print with Carbon reinforcementā€¦ Will help for sure! :slight_smile: Go Canucks :):surfing_man::canada:

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PLA is not fully waterproof, even at 100% infill. It has to be coated with something else. I printed a full test unit and dropped it underwater for 2 hours. Opened it up and there was a bit of water inside. I then used pressure tests to so see if the o-rings or printed parts were leaking and it turned out to be the printed parts.

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I bought a CR10 mini great print results and a good quality and price.

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So what do you recommend for a coating for pla prints?

Epoxy resin is a good way

I have used polyurethane with good success. I submerge the parts for 20 minutes then let dry.

Hi Mate,

I exclusively print in PC-max. Itā€™s a bit of a headfuck at the start. One you have it dialed in itā€™s as simple as getting the mail each day. Happy to share what I know.

Aaron

Hey Mate,

Iā€™m using a prusa i3 MK2S. Iā€™ll be honest and say itā€™s not the best engineered printer out there. However once you spend 20-40hrs with the online support guys youā€™ll be sweet (itā€™s $699). I print PC-max parts exclusively with no issues now. You will need simplify3D though as the raft settings in sli3er are garbage. Thereā€™s a free copy on pirate bay :wink: hindsight is 20/20. If I did buy another 3D printer Iā€™d spend double and buy an original markforge createrPro. Let me know what you need to know. Happy to help.

Aaron

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Iā€™m really considering sending my parts off for SLS printing. It is watertight and seems so cool looking! Kinda expensive ($350 and up), but I shouldnā€™t need to print but one time.

Maybe this could be the answer to waterproofing prints?

Hi alarach,

I use PETG. I think, itā€™s the best cheap material to print mechanical parts.
I use wanhao i3 and cura.
Parameters:
Bed temp: 88Ā°C
Extruder temp: 250Ā°C
Flow rate: 102% (compared to PLA)
Layer height: 0.1
Infill: 100% (prop,stator etc.)
Infill: 30% Shell: 1.12mm (housing)
It works well for me.

solid works 2016, mesh mixer for some grabcad STL files that might need a touch up and then Sli3er and a custom cheap Anet a8 for the printing. cheapest printer around with a huge facebook support group to solve any issue.

my standard parameters for all my parts so far is PLA .2 layer height, 4 outer walls , 3 top and bottom layers all printed at 50-70mm/s , 100percent fan after the first 5 layers, 195 degrees on the hotend and 60-65 on the bed.

Cheers, David.

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@foiledagain @tylerclark I believe acetone vapour smooths out 3D print surfaces too. I guess a smoother surface would help avoid water penetration.