A soup pot, fan, heater, grill, and acetone.
Initial experiments have been cold, some using the fan. Have not achieved even results yet. The coffee heater was insufficient to vaporise the acetone. The heater is I have is a an old USB coffee heater. The wire grill holds the part above the pool of acetone.
I have tried parts for 10, 20, 40, and 80 minutes. 10 minutes was hardly noticeable, while the 80 minutes test came out varied. Some areas where very nice, some where very under done, and others areas melted and deformed.
Using electrical tape to seal the lid is sufficient to contain the acetone. I have use a single dribble for all the experiments, and there is still a puddle sloshing around in the base of the pot.
Before preforming longer tests I designed and printed a fine grill out of PLA. It was intended to support the ABS part while finishing deforming be base of the part less than the wire along. While the PLA didn't melt, it did soften and warp into a U shape. Heating it in the oven trying to flatten it out again only resulted in the melting the mesh into a solid disc.
Surprisingly the fan seams unaffected even after several hours operating in the pot. The wires on the heater suffered and went the consistency of jelly.
- The pot was purchased from KMart for $9. It has a 7.6 LT capacity and large enough for most parts coming off my printer.
- The base grill was made out of 1/5" wire mesh cut slightly smaller than the diameter of the pot with each corner folded back.
- The design for the fine grill can be found here.
Sealed pot
Old USB coffee heater, wire grill, 80mm PC fan
Fine grill model
