To start, I would just simply use PLA. PLA is an environmentally friendly and renewable type of filament, is much stronger then ABS and has little to no flex, which is a plus for your project and has a relatively low cost. Most important it is a much more forgiving material, by not warping as much of ABS and prints much more easier. Personally I never liked ABS, this is also a reason I do not offer it as a filament choice on my hub.
Back to your project, in my opinion, I would print the initial prototypes with regular PLA and low infill. This way you save on material and time, and once you finalize your prototype you can then choose a different filament to print on. It is then a question of how strong and sturdy the turbine needs to be.
Take a look at my profile, I have printed a large cut-out model of a turbine for educational purposes. It was printed with PLA at 100 microns.
Everyone has their own opinion of what to print in. I am sick of throwing ed3v6 hotends in the trash after they jam up with PLA, so I only print in ABS. ABS dissolves in acetone, which is a natural non toxic solvent. Dissolving PLA requires dichloromethane which is so toxic you’ll probably have to order it online from Russia. This is why I think printing in PLA is the dumbest idea since pet rocks.
True and false my friend… I have heard about PLA clogging hotends, however I have never had a hotend clog up while using PLA, as for the Dichloromethane, I have a local source providing me with all the necessary chemical solvents I need. But like i said, I had NEVER had a hotend clog up. It really depends on the quality of PLA one selects, the quality of the printer, and the settings one uses on printing. Then ultimately, it really depends on the final use and purpose of the printed part. I am against ABS, because it is a totally different material which lacks all the PLA properties that delivers a nice and good quality part. I have tried ABS, for months on end, and no matter how I tweak it or what quality material I purchase, it is still far inferior compared to PLA after the print is done. I have even tried other hubs to see if it was me or my printer or my settings, to have them print a test part I designed. 99.9% of the time all other hubs i have tried (roughly about 30) delivered a much better and higher quality part when printed with PLA versus ABS.
Hmm, I never have had hotends or nozzles clog so much with filament than I have to throw them out.
Mind you, I print just about anyhting my printer can handle, PLA, ABS, PETG, Nylon, NGEN, XT, HDGlass, Flexifil, HT, ASA and I am going to try POM.
I DO have had problems with clogged PTFE-tubes and clogged nozzles, but that is usually caused by switching filaments without cleaning the printhead of any residu. But PLA is probably the most troublefree filament I have ever used.
1. Pla will dissolve in hot water 200 F for about a week will work on most. Some are very fast and other’s may take some time. We make one that is gone in 24 hrs.
2. Pla with impact modifiers added will add some flex. A lot of your plastic forks, spoons, knifes is made from PLA and most have some degree of flex to them. And there are other compounders that do make a soft flexible PLA.
3. Pla could be recycle to be reused, but at what expense. We compound PLA for other industries, but we do not recycle any of our scrape.
Personally I think the old ABS versus PLA debate is pretty much redundant these days… we’ve moved on. Filament manufacturers are now using all sorts of new co-polymer’s in their products which are sometimes derivatives and blends of both but also blends of neither. As someone already mentioned below… better to make your decision on functionality rather than sustainability. From just your comment that it’s a ‘turbine prototype’ model I personally would use a carbon mix like Colorfabb’s XT-CF20… which gives accurate and relatively inflexible prints suited for something like a workable/functional turbine.
Alternatives could be Apollo X (an ABS derivative) and ColorFabb’s HT (a co-polyester derivative) already mentioned here by TypeR.
