PID Controller

I love ABS vapor smoothing with acetone. It's amazing: You stick a dull model with tons of visible layer lines in a tub, and half an hour later, you take it out and it's mirror-shiny and much, much smoother. Not smooth enough? Stick it back in to cook again!

To effectively vapor smooth with acetone, you need three things:

1. Heat (35-40C)
2. Air movement
3. A sealed container large enough for your model and the heated tray of acetone

I started by using my wife's heating pad under a plastic tub with a PC case fan hung over the side, along with some weatherstripping around the top to seal against the lid. I then literally dumped acetone into the bottom of the tub and placed the model inside on whatever junk I could find to keep it from sitting right in the acetone. This pretty much worked, but the heating pad isn't controllable and would randomly shut off, plus my wife kept stealing it back to keep her feet warm. :) This project aims to solve Need #1: Heat.

This consists of a PID controller and solid-state relay off of Amazon, along with a few basic electric components for plugs and such. The 3D printed part is the enclosure that keeps the dangerous voltages safely contained while supporting the electronics and giving you a nice cubic device for your workbench. This makes controlling the heat of your acetone bath (or really, anything at all!) super, super easy and it looks swanky!

Here is an Amazon wishlist you can use to order the exact same items I used in designing and building this project.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2IHE4BUFP4JLB?ref_=wl_share

Since this is an electronics project containing mains-level voltages and potentially up to 1000w of switched energy, I highly recommend you print this out of a high-temperature flame retardant filament such as Bambu Labs' excellent PC-FR. ABS-FR would also be a good choice. PLA is not recommended as it's possible for the heatsink on the solid state relay to reach temperatures hot enough to cause heat creep or total failure of the PLA. I haven't seen the heatsink get much over ambient temps, but there's a reason why the heatsink exists. Plan accordingly.

As always, fully expect and welcome any comments or feedback on my design. Requests for modification are welcome as well, but I may not have time to affect the change depending on its complexity.