I am involved in a sport called HEMA (historical european martial arts) where we hit each other with blunt steel swords. The choices for hand protection are not great, so I am trying to make my own!
I printed all the parts out of polylite PLA for the prototype. Next, i tried ABS from village plastics, but the ABS is WAY weaker than the PLA. I thought ABS is supposed to be stronger (more impact resistant, more flexible, less brittle)? The plates cracked when using a rivet gun (the
PLA did not), they broke when struck hard enough (not that hard), and they prevent a lot less pain when being hit lol.
Could my ABS prints be structurally dysfunctional because of my print settings? I am currently printing using the lulzbot CURA recommended settings. Or is PLA the better option for this project? Or is there a third better option than PLA or ABS? What would be the best filament for making functional protective gauntlets fighting with steel weapons?
Thanks in advance!