A quicker way to anneal PLA 3D prints

[@31416]

Thanks! Improved upon boiling water. Used glycerol. Cheap and reusable. Can reach higher temps than water without boiling. For Vlocano PLA, used 110C. No need to dry too. Is hygroscopic and will draw out any surface moisture from your part as a bonus. And main thing is it has a density euqal to PLA, so even less risks of gravity warping.

[@jozefbarton6604]

I had success annealing my 3D-printed PLA part in an air fryer on 180° at 30 minutes. An air fryer is just a fancy convection oven.

[@jozefbarton6604]

I did put one of those springy rubber bits under it though to stop it from touching the bottom. More to protect my air fryer than the part but I'm sure it helped.

[@Ucceah]

for smaller or thinner parts like these, there is the delightfully lazy alternative, to just leave the parts on the print bed, crank it to 75-80°C, and put something like a styrofoam cup or a little cardboard box over them. give it 10-20 minutes, or untill the top is getting the slightest bit soft, let cool to room tem, and enjoy.
stickling to the bed also helps to keep thin parts nice and flat. works like a charm when printing a batch of guitar picks.

[@topgun4229]

will try it for sure, thx fot the tip!

[@jamessever8936]

I cover mine in aluminum foil. It reflects the heat really well

[@drfredc]

If you've got access to a flash autoclave, such as a Statim that dental offices use, there maybe an even better flash annealing option. The Statim's flash cycle uses steam under pressure at 270F and the process, including dry time is done in 7 minutes. It's not totally cooled down, add a few more minutes after the case is opened up...
This discovery came about when one of my dental staff accidently put a PLA suction device in the Statim instead of the cold sterile tray. To my surprise, the suction device didn't come out as a pile of goo, Rather it came out relatively unchanged in shape. I've not done any 'real annealing testing on these suction devices with flash curing... It's not a flat item, rather it's a tube that has a 120 degree bend, and one end is a cylinder, the other a larger oval tube.
The downside here is a refurbished Statim flash autoclave runs about $2000. A less expensive option might be to try a simple pressure cooker... Pay attention to the limits of your pressure cooker as things can get dangerous under pressure and heat... (aka, use at your own risk). What I do know is the Statim process is very controlled and it works and works fast...

[@vt800c]

I used your process to anneal a z-axis rod knob for an ender 3 pro. I boiled it for 4 minutes, and quenched it in ice water. I hadn't planned for as much shrinkage I got, but I was able carefully drill it out for a pressure fit. I am VERY PLEASED with the product, and will be using that process to harden many more printouts. It inoticably mproves the strength and surface finish. Thank you for the tip!!

[@rbtoj]

Nice video. What I use as an oven is a small cardboard box on top of my heated bed. Works pretty well, but the parts warp a lot.

[@steven9492]

Thanks I'll give this a go with my PLA

[@UrosGavric]

Thanks Alex for the video. Was looking for this kind of experiment on PLA.

[@ThePazuzu]

FINALLY A 3D PRINTING CHANNEL WITH DEATH METAL! SUBSCRIBED!

[@brunosco]

Kool Zombie No ukulele, whistling and clapping!

[@danjones4271]

Haha naughty hotdogs hahaha. Good video!! Thanks for the information and your time!

[@Vilvaran]

Good thing to try: parts in a kettle.
I've done a sample run, it seems to work as a really nice quick and effective heat treating method, note that i had no foil or support metal, just dropped the stuff into the pot and turned it on; swirling the water to stop things touching the element...
The parts act as boiling chips, which seems to clean them somewhat, but may destroy fragile prints, or anything hollow that fills with liquid...
For things like spacers and other small components this works the best it seems!
Will likely try the brass hinge method later down the track, however i don't know if this is a symptom of being boiled alive, but the plastic "turns white" once it finishes drying, it appears as if there is a layer of some residue (which would suck) *-or-* the smooth surface has been roughened by the process of crystallization and boiling (which would be good, especially for paint adhesion)...

[@citronski]

Made my own experiments recently. I measured two 50g spools of PLA, put one for a few days in water, the other in a bottle of Steiner Chemie dissicant (silica with indicator). The watered spool had the same weight as the dry one. They both printed the same, no changes in feel, stringing or look. I didn't hear any popping sounds either wihle printing.
Water doesn't seem to be a problem.

[@AlexKenis]

Nice! I had been meaning to do some similar tests so that I could stop fretting about moisture. I think PLA filament is still made by melting the pellets into an extrusion die, which feeds it immediately into water to cool it, so my assumption was that I could be worrying too much about moisture. Thanks for sharing.

[@brunosco]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@UrosGavric]

One question though. Can a sequential quenching, eg heating and cooling multiple times increase the strength further?

[@natewalton3838]

@UrosGavric. Yes and No, this depends on how consistent the heating environment is as well as timing between processes. If you do it too many times it will drastically affect the size dimensions as well as leave more room for error in regards to deformation / can greatly alter tolerance specs etc. If you have access to a suitable environment with consistent temp / time settings / go through enough trial and error yes it could increase the strength but it depends on what "strength properties" youre looking for, such as compression, tensile and shear strength. each of those properties are critical to understand and drastically depends on the materials used, geometry and sizes of the parts to create successful print post processing. I.E) If you alter settings to match compression strength you will likeluy lose "strength" in the field of shear or tensile. It is an entire science field so you'll have to experiment accordingly

[@trobert132]

have you tried since then the boiling/quenching method on complex parts?

[@casykid]

what are your opinions on the powdered salt remelting method? have you tried it? are you gonna make a video about it?

[@XJeepWerks]

How would vacuum sealing the parts first effect these results?

[@kyrie26]

*affect vs. effect

[@fortoday04]

But at least you're concise and funny. Overall, thumb up.

[@JoergGebhard]

maybe put the part in an bag add sand, extract the air and dann heat treat it, this should stablize the part despite the form, still this is a lot of effort

[@AlexKenis]

THat's some clever thinking. I'll keep it in mind for more complicated shapes!

[@TheCreat]

since the pla gets at least somewhat soft, wouldn't some of the sand stick to it (or even be embedded in it), especially for more complex shapes? or does it not get soft enough for that to be an issue?

[@citronski]

Only one way to find out!

[@Vilvaran]

@@TheCreat I'd assume so, depends on whether it's an issue or not...
Plus drying is not that much of a pain if you spray rinse the part with isopropyl to get the excess water off, then gently warm it with a hair dryer...
I've gotten away with just leaving them to dry naturally, i'm only concerned about parts with infill - filling up.

[@jgarmer]

what about a sous vide cooker then you can set the water to a lower temp

[@AlexKenis]

I read an article about that somewhere a while back. should work fine if you have one around

[@dougc3086]

And for next weeks anneal project we will be using a steam cleaner... Psss don't tell anyone it is our secret.

[@AlexKenis]

HA, nice.

[@andersmeiniche2746]

Did you try sous vide ? maby it's the ansver

[@dhupee]

so we are using precision heated water and put the part in the vaccum bag to prevent shape change like shrinking and expand?

[@swomflys3380]

I really want to see somebody build a toaster at a 3D printer parts the laser to toast it and then multi colour nozzles to print butter peanut butter or Nutella in the perfect amount that you choose. Will somebody please build one of these?

[@pmally2006]

Boiling parts directly in water is terrible, water gets inside the parts and destroys them.

[@lukefenske3039]

Shake part out. Use bag+rice or silica. Or just use a dehydrator on low...

[@SianaGearz]

Why? It's not nearly hot enough to induce hydrolysis, and in absence of such water is harmless to PLA.

[@mDeltaKilo]

Chris Valin,
So we should expect your replication using acceptable scientific standards soon, right?
Keep that nonsense to yourself unless you’re also going to post a reference to information you find acceptable.
You must have an example since you feel confident enough to criticize his effort.
Otherwise, you’re just being a pretentious jerk.

[@Vilvaran]

@Chris Valin Apparently, PLA is water-cooled as it is extruded at the factory... Which makes sense, since it allows them to speed up the process of production.
Water on the surface / trapped in surface defects on the filament is likely a bigger issue, and also fingerprints etc.
As for boiling, it's probably a bad thing for parts with low infill and thin walls - if water gets into the enclosed space, it will suck to try and dry it out [days] or worse, if it nucleates [boils] on the inner surfaces, then there will be a rapid increase in pressure inside the part as the steam bubbles expand; if you hear a loud pop and come back to a split-banana, it could be this kind of failiure...
Hence 80 degree temperature control is the best option, and as mentioned elsewhere, glycerol can be a better alternative to water.
But for solid parts of small dimension, throwing them in the kettle is not at all unreasonable, just spray them with isopropyl to rinse the water off the surfaces, and let that dry off [5 minutes or so]...

[@fortoday04]

God that music in the beginning was God awful. Instantly skipped.

[@zoghunter82318]

Bro.... back that camera up. nobody wants to see whats up that snoz...