PLA Vapor Treating w/ Ethyl Acetate - First 2 Tries No Effect

Hi All,

I tried vapor treating PLA parts for the first time yesterday with no success. I'm sure it CAN work, but I have to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

1. First attempt - few tablespoons in the pot, covered with tin foil, heated a bit, uncovered, dipped in a fairly large test part attached to a disassembled metal tool with handle (that part worked well). Tried repeatedly to hold in for ~20 seconds, re-cover, let the vapor build up, and attempt again, even putting the foil back over while I was holding it. No effect on the part until the liquid was all evaporated

2. Second attempt - I thought maybe I wasn't giving the seal up top enough credit, so I selected 3 smaller junk parts, and put them on a small metal stand inside the pot this time, and covered the pot with it's proper lid. I heated for a longer period (~1-2 minutes) before I first peeked, but no effect. Tried recovering and waiting longer until it was evaporated again, but nothing

The whole process of both trials took about 45 minutes. I even watched a few YouTube videos. Any tips or suggestions on what might be a hole in my methods?

--Jim--

Really no one that's done PLA vapor treating around?

Well... that might be because EA is actually not really good for polishing PLA

That'd be the first I've heard that. People seem to have SOME success with it. And for ABS I was at least able to get the acetone to eat my part pretty good. Do you have any alternative substances to suggest for PLA?

[www.vinland.com]

Have a read of this.

---

Out of the box thinking is easier when you never fitted in the box to begin with.

Thanks, I took a look at that. While the article was more focused on efficiently dissolving PLA support structures, plenty can be garnered from it.

It looked like the person was getting close with Weld-On #5 (and maybe #5)

Quote

Weld-on #5 contains: Methylene Chloride(75-09-02), Glacial Acetic Acid (64-19-7), Methyl Methacrylate Monomer (80-62-6)

Weld-on #4 contains: Methylene Chloride(75-09-02), Methyl Acetate (79-20-9), Methyl Methacrylate Monomer (80-62-6)

As well, here's a few links I've tried reading over, some from these forums:

[forums.reprap.org]

[www.youtube.com]

[printedsolid.com]

I may try it one more time with a slightly larger amount of Ethyl Acetate, since I was at least able to do ABS with Acetone. I've just been stingy with how much I pour in since I got the one pure bottle of EA from Amazon for ~$20 and didn't want to foolishly waste too much per batch. But, since I'm not getting any results would love to try again.