I melted my LowRider :(

LowRider CNC Your Builds
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My fault. Left it on the porch for a week away instead of bringing it inside, saved me five minutes of unhooking it from the table. The porch is all glass, facing south - on a 70 degree day it can get up to 110+, along with the sun hitting the black pla directly. Went to start things up over the weekend and realized the bracket that connects to the Z-screw is totally deformed, and the core itself has stretched down (I guess from the weight of the router) to where it’s so loose on the conduit tubes that it pulls right off to the front.

This article did a good job of explaining melting point vs glass transition temperature (where it can start to slowly flow) : What is the Melting Point of PLA? - 3D Insider

Guess I’ll be printing some new parts this week…

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I just closed the curtains so mine wouldn’t melt. :smiley:

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And maybe print the new parts in a white or other light coloured pla?

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Direct sunlight can be brutal, even when the air temperature is not that high. I once painted an object (black) and left it outside for the paint to dry. It was maybe 80 outside but the part still deformed.

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Roughly 1kW per square meter on the earth’s surface.
That’s a lot of power.

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Thats a good call. I’ve got white and orange, but I also have a shiny golden PLA Silk (need to check the spec sheet to see it’s as strong as regular PLA) and a translucent lavender PETG. I know Ryan strongly recommends PLA for stiffness over toughness, but how cool would that be? :slight_smile: