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Comment by ezst | Hacker News Reader

not a pro by any means but here are some pointers:

- if applicable, swap the default, white Bowden tube by one that's heat resistant (Capricorn comes often as a recommendation), that's for your health

- get a PEI sheet, ABS will have a tendency to detach/warp over long prints that PEI mitigates slightly

- draft being the main cause for warping and failed/dimensionally inaccurate ABS prints, you need an enclosure. A cardboard box is enough, but then you need to refrain from looking inside (which is difficult for complex and long prints), having a transparent side could help

- pre-hear enclosed, give it time, and tune your z offset accordingly

- dry your filament

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> - if applicable, swap the default, white Bowden tube by one that's heat resistant (Capricorn comes often as a recommendation), that's for your health

Capricorn makes great bowden tubes, but even they're quite explicit about the risks of using any PTFE tubing--theirs included--inside a hot end at ABS temperatures.[0]

The health risks come from toxic PTFE off-gassing above the normal temperatures for PLA (though it starts off-gassing in small amounts at around 200°C). It's nasty shit, and you don't want to be breathing it in. Heat resistant bowden tubing doesn't do anything about that off-gassing; it's just meant to help mitigate deformation of the tubing at higher temperatures.

You're infinitely better off just tossing the PTFE-lined hot end and upgrading to an all-metal one. That anyone--cough, cough Creality and others in the inexpensive intro printer market--is shipping them on any of their printers in 2023 is just insane.

0. https://www.captubes.com/safety.html

I think it is less of a problem than it used to be, but historically PTFE-lined hot ends have been prefered for budget machines because they are more forgiving if all you want to do is print PLA.

When everything is working right there should be no difference, but when things go wrong, not having plastic stuck to the heat break makes it more likely that a beginner can fix their own problem.

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