ASA

[tomas.fudor]

ASA is the most recommended material for our 3D printable RC tanks.
You can print most of the parts of every tank with ASA, or ASA275.
They can withstand temperatures up to 100°C (85°C FOR ASA275).

ASA is preferred instead of PET(G), because of the sanding, gluing and painting.
PET(G) is chemically resistant and sanding is not that easy (sticky stuff).
Its much easier and more confortable to glue parts from ASA.
ASA can be glued with acetone with very comfortable drying time.
Parts glued with acetone are welded together, we can say.
Bonding is very strong.

ASA and ASA275 are slightly different.

ASA
temperatures: 240° - 255°
bed: 90-110°

ASA275
temperatures: 210° - 230°
bed: 60-70°

With this simple comparison, you can see that ASA and ASA275 is not the same stuff.
ASA275 is easier to print with less shrinkage and better layers bonding.
Its softer and more elastic in comparsion with normal ASA.

I think i can get better details with ASA, but it can be only my personal experience and it can depend on my slicer settings.
With more tweaking, it can be the same, maybe.

Gluing with acetone works great with both.Little bit better with classic ASA, maybe.

Using ASA on most of the FDM printed model parts.
75% of this prints are with ASA and 25% with ASA275.
ASA275 is great for 1/6 scale tanks.
Specially for the tracks and wheels, but we use that stuff on the whole 1/6 vehicles excepting the biggest body parts.

If you are affraid of shrinking or other related problems, you may need to know that we print with ASA275 on Anycubic Chiron without warping or shrinking.If we can do it with this big, moving bed without closed box, you can do it too.

Definitely worth of try.Absolutely recommended.

[Snipah]

ASA filament (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate) is the perfect all-purpose 3D printing thermoplastic, suitable for many different applications. It has a similar chemical makeup to ABS plastic but offers three improvements: better mechanical properties, superior aesthetics and it’s UV resistant.

Thank you for the recommendation. Do you run cooling fan on the parts or not?
Some mention cooling of parts not required? I am not sure?
ASA looks good but is 3x more expensive so do not wish to fail too many prints (lol). I am going to try ASA filamentum brand.

[tomas.fudor]

I dont run cooling fan, mostly.
Only for some small and thin parts, like 01-09 and 01-10 for the 1/16 scale Hetzer.
Printing almost all detailed little stuff with resin printers, but without resin printer - i will print them with ASA and runing cooling fan.
I think parts 01-09 and 01-10 from the 1/16 scale Hetzer are the biggest parts, printed with fan.

Cooling fan speed must be limited to 20%!!!
You can try some 30% for very small parts, but they can be fragile.

As i use ASA275 only for the 1/6 Hetzers and biggest parts, i dont use cooling fan for this stuff.
Printed parts looks good.

Anyway, ASA has many advantages but the best one is possibility of gluing with acetone.
Great thing.

Fillamentum ASA is definitely recommended.Using lot of this stuff.
Without additional color - natural.

ASA275 - definitely Spectrum.

ASA is not the cheapest, but tanks printed with this stuff will be able to withstand normal sunny day in exterior.
I will never forget my first tank, melted during a normal summer day (PLA).Preparing post about this, with some pictures.