How to Fix ABS and ASA Warping
ABS and ASA shrink harder as they cool than any other mainstream filament — enough to peel their own corners off the plate, crack along layers, and tear brims in half. Every fix for ABS warping is a version of one idea: keep the whole part hot until the print is finished.
Why ABS warps so much
Every thermoplastic contracts as it cools, but ABS and ASA contract a lot, and they do it across a wide temperature span. Each cooling layer pulls on the layers below like a ratchet strap; the corners, with the least material anchoring them, lift first. On a big flat part the accumulated force is enormous — it will beat any glue stick and most brims unless you stop the material cooling in the first place.
The three non-negotiables
1. A hot bed: 90–100 °C. Bambu’s stock ABS profile sets 90 °C on textured PEI and the ASA profile 100 °C — ASA gets the maximum because it shrinks even more aggressively. Other vendors agree on the ballpark: Prusa and RatRig both default ABS beds to 105 °C. Below roughly 90 °C the bottom layers stiffen and start ratcheting.
Filament settings → Filament (bed temperature row for your plate)2. Almost no part cooling. Bambu’s ABS fan window is 10–60 % and ASA’s just 25–35 %, with no fan at all for the first 3 layers. If you or a downloaded profile raised those numbers, that alone explains the warping. The auxiliary (side) fan stays at 0 % for these materials.
Filament settings → Cooling3. Still, warm air around the part. On printers with active chamber heating (Bambu X2D/H2D, QIDI’s enclosed machines, and others), use it: Bambu’s X2D profiles set the chamber to 65 °C for ABS and ASA. On passively enclosed printers (X1C, P1S, K1-class), close the door, keep the lid on, and let the bed preheat the chamber for 10–15 minutes before starting.
Open printers: the honest section
An open-frame printer — a stock Ender-3, Prusa MK4S, Sovol SV07, A1, any machine without walls — cannot hold warm air around the part, and for ABS/ASA that is usually fatal: the material shrinks too much without an enclosure. No slicer setting overcomes room-temperature air on a large ABS part. Your realistic options:
- Shrink the problem: small, low parts with rounded corners and a wide brim can survive on an open bed in a warm, absolutely draft-free room.
- Add walls: a cheap tent-style enclosure or a DIY box transforms ABS results more than any amount of tuning.
- Switch materials: PETG reaches most of ABS’s toughness for hobby parts without the chamber demands — see our material comparison.
Fine-tuning once the basics hold
- Brim: outer brim,
8 mmwide. On ABS a brim is not a nice-to-have; it is standard equipment for anything with corners. - Geometry: fillet sharp corners in CAD and add mouse-ear discs to stubborn ones. Long straight walls warp more than curved ones — orient the part diagonally if it barely fits the plate.
- Plate pairing: never put ABS or ASA on a Cool Plate or SuperTack surface — the profile marks these combinations unsupported (bed temperature 0) because a 90–100 °C bed ruins low-temperature coatings. Textured PEI or an engineering plate, plus a film of glue as a release agent.
- Watch for delamination: the same shrinkage that lifts corners also cracks layers mid-wall. If you see horizontal cracks rather than lifted corners, continue with the ABS/ASA layer separation guide.
General warping theory (all materials, all printers) lives in the main warping guide; the full ABS/ASA settings picture in How to Print ABS and ASA.
Frequently asked questions
Why does ABS warp so much more than other filaments?
ABS and ASA contract more as they cool than any other mainstream filament, and across a wide temperature span. Each cooling layer pulls on the layers below like a ratchet strap, and the corners — with the least material anchoring them — lift first. On a big flat part the accumulated force beats any glue stick and most brims, so the only real fix is keeping the whole part hot until the print finishes.
What bed temperature and fan speed should I use for ABS?
Run the bed at 90–100 °C — Bambu’s stock ABS profile uses 90 °C on textured PEI and ASA gets 100 °C, while Prusa and RatRig default ABS beds to 105 °C. Keep part cooling almost off: Bambu’s ABS fan window is 10–60 %, ASA’s just 25–35 %, with no fan at all for the first 3 layers and the auxiliary fan at 0 %.
Can I print ABS on an open printer without an enclosure?
Usually not for large parts — no slicer setting overcomes room-temperature air around a big ABS part. Your realistic options: keep parts small and low with rounded corners and a wide brim in a warm, absolutely draft-free room; add a cheap tent-style enclosure, which transforms ABS results more than any tuning; or switch to PETG, which reaches most of ABS’s toughness without chamber demands.
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- Printed Model Warping: Causes and Solutions — Bambu Lab Wiki
- Bambu Studio chamber temperature setting — Bambu Lab Wiki
- OrcaSlicer vendor profiles — SoftFever/OrcaSlicer (GitHub)