I received an order to print two wands. One was the Elder Wand 1 from thingiverse, the other had a section 5mm x 6mm, 136mm long. i was asked to print these in ABS. After making a test print to see what the surface finish looked like using support, I decided that the surface finish wouldn’t be very good, and it wouldn’t be easy to clean up. To me, the only reliable way to print this is either split into two long halves (5mm x 3mm) or on end. Even then, I’d want to make the parts shorter than 20cm.
On a test print of the smallest cross section, I noticed that after a couple of cm, the print was very flexible and would wobble around the extruder - so I’d need to add support ribs manually. My prpopsal to do this made the price no longer appealing to my customer.
Is it sensible to print this sort of part vertically, given the risk of delamination? Should I have suggested using PLA instead (I seem to be able to get better bed adhesion with PLA, and am more comfortable with cooling it).
Would others be comfortable in taking on an order like this given that its hour long print runs, with what seems like a high risk of failure?
Indeed, it is pretty strange that the customer wanted this specifically in ABS, I think printing in PLA would have been a much more sensible solution. They might have only been relying on the colour of material and didn’t really care about the material type.
I would have suggested printing this in PLA instead of risking with ABS.
