I’m thinking of items like cookie cutters or drink glasses. Generally seems to be iffy, but would be nice to find more concrete answers, specific to the printers & materials at the Dallas Makerspace.
Some general findings:
Per Wikipedia: “ABS can be used for the storage of cold food. However, alcohol can produce a reaction similar to heating and styrene is evolved.”
ABS filament, which is not always pure ABS, should not be used to print products that will hold food or be in your mouth because BPA, a synthetic estrogen, may be surfaced by the hot printing process as well as hot washing and so forth.
Polypropylene is considered food safe, and I believe PLA is used in some takeout containers, but again you have to be wary of plastic mixes in filament. I suggest only using filaments specifically marketed as food safe.
The surface texture of printed objects generally is not smooth enough for effective cleaning. It may be viable to coat a part with a food-safe lacquer.
That aligns with my findings - makes it easy to park such projects indefinitely, or e.g. only consider ones like the food-safe lacquer idea or ones which use the 3D printer to make a mold for food-safe materials.
Let’s keep a lookout - maybe somebody will come up with food-safe filament or some other a decent approach - we could post to this thread if good methods surface…
yes some of the web links talk about that - one shows how to do it at room temp with soaked paper towels under a can, while another shows how to do it at elevated temperatures.
either way, I’d still be concerned about the base material - smooth or not, seems like unknown filament material poses a risk of releasing bad stuff…
I have some Taulman T-Glase which is PETT it’s FDA approved food safe. The main issue is the crevasse can harbor molds and bacteria just like scratched up cutting boards.
But as a Makerspace newbie, I understand that we should only be using ABS filament - or is there a process to get this stuff characterized / approved for use at the DMS?
Have to talk to the PolyPrinter guys or @LisaSelk about using the Taulman, as I understand now that the PolyPrinters have removable heads you could buy your own print head and use whatever filament you want. That’s what I want to do to print ninjaflex.
Carl & Mitch… We do have plans on allowing members to purchase their own extruders; but, the prices and details have not been solidified. I will make a separate post once I get more details. In the meantime - only ABS is approved for use in the three PolyPrinter 3D printers at the 'Space.
Please don’t rush on my account - from my view I started this started thread purely as an academic question so that I could help prioritize which projects to chase first. Of course, as a newbie to the DMS, there’s no shortage of ‘shovel ready’ projects
Having said that, I’m open to help tracking down details or issues - especially if somebody wanted to work together on it or point in productive directions. I think it’d be cool to be able to print highly personalized cookie cutters, drinkware, serving bowls or other everyday kitchen items…
