What about using a vegetable steamer for smoothing ABS prints?
I’m assuming with Acetone instead of water?
id be super curious to see how that turns out- keep me posted
@John_Schneider might take a while to smooth with water.
@Matthew_Fitton & @Flink_Flack my parents have an old one they don’t use. i am at their house over the weekend. i might offer to look after it! as for fumes im not sure as these are sealed to contain steam so acetone fumes should be ok.
Hopefully it’s not made of plastic.
Unless it’s a pressure cooker, it’s probably not designed to completely contain steam, and I’d be concerned that acetone would dissolve components in the base. Be careful.
I’d expect it to work more or less the same as the deep fryer trick, but if it’s similar to the one pictured here I’d want to know what sorts of plastic it’s made out of. It wouldn’t be fun to accidentally discover your container is acetone soluble.
I’d be curious to see what a steamer would do to PLA prints, but I would absolutely NOT put acetone in that thing. That sounds like a great way to send everyone in the room to the hospital.
Well, assuming it doesn’t melt it should be relatively safe. I’d do it in an area with good ventilation, but acetone vapor is heavier than air, so it’s not like it’ll boil out all over everywhere and contaminate the whole room. Just don’t breath directly over it when you take the top off and you should be ok.
run it in the garage with the door cracked and a fan going…?!
For those of you worried about acetone fumes igniting or anything…the worst that they do is catch fire like a Bunsen burner. They don’t explode or anything like that. Acetone vapors are not nearly as potent as kerosene/gasoline, etc.
Catching on fire in a plastic vessel like this has the makings of a very bad day. The glass cylinder on heated print bed or metal deep fryer still seem like better ideas to me for that reason.
@Stephen_Baird this is the worst the happens with acetone catching fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJWhfpWlGFg
Something with a lid like this, the fire isn’t even likely to continue to burn more than just a tiny little puff. Obviously, the plastic being made out of something that acetone is a solvent of is a much larger issue.
That video is awesome! But I’m always a fan of videos that involve fire.
So assuming this thing isn’t acetone soluble, and you keep your wits about you and put the lid on if you (somehow, bizarrely and unexpectedly) get a flare up, it’ll work just fine. Cool.