Modular Fiddle in the Sun
Channel: David Perry
Date: 13/09/2019

No violin likes high temperatures! But can you leave your Modular Fiddle in a hot car? Generally speaking, no, Modular Fiddles, like any violin built with PLA plastic, will quickly warp beyond repair when they get above about 110F. So what can we do to address this? 

One option is to print the body in a different material that will resist higher temperatures. PETG and ABS are both reasonable choices for this, but neither offers the stiffness of PLA, so we would be sacrificing the instrument's sound to achieve the higher temp resistance. 

High temperature PLA, and in particular Proto Pasta's high temperature carbon fiber PLA, is the answer! But it's not enough to simply print parts with this material, they will only stand up to higher temps after the parts are annealed, or heat treated, after printing. 

In this video I'll show you what happens to two instruments side-by-side in hot sun. One is annealed HTPLA-CF, and the other is not annealed. 

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Learn more: https://openfabpdx.com/modular-fiddle
Fiddles for sale: https://openfabpdx.com/shop

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