Review: Prusament PC Blend  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Hi,

Can I print Prusament PC blend with the stock nozzle (brass) ?

I got a very good print using ASA so far and I would like to test the PC blend.

Thanks

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Sorry,

Just found that on the prusa blog:

The material is not abrasive, which puts it in the same league with PLA and PETG. This means that the standard brass nozzle (which is used by a majority of FFF/FDM 3D printers) is perfectly suitable

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@nabil-m

No issue.  I assumed it was like other PC Blends.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

Have you ever used any of the Polymaker PC products? Particularly the Polmax PC/PC-Max product. If you have, how does that compare to the Prusament PC blend?

Thanks,

Mike

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @mgruenloh

@charles-h13

Have you ever used any of the Polymaker PC products? Particularly the Polmax PC/PC-Max product. If you have, how does that compare to the Prusament PC blend?

Thanks,

 

Mike

Yes.  I like Polymaker PC-MAX.  It comes in Black and White.  I purchase it in 3 Kg rolls for which it is available in black and white also.  I would say the quality is on par with Prusament, but it tends to curl more and adhere to the bed a little too much.  I would never recommend that you ever print without glue stick.  I would give it a big thumbs up!

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

I'm using the PolyMax PC in Black and I've had a few issues with it. My top infill areas aren't very smooth so I've halved the speed for those areas. When printing the extruder-body the tallest section of the print, the piece that sticks up next to the adapter-printer part that holds the ball bearing, ends up a little melted looking. To solve that problem I'm in the middle of trying the auto cooling function to see if that helps. Overall I think maybe the profile for that filament might be a bit aggressive as far as speeds go. As a proviso, these prints are my first done with the Polymaker PC. I've printed a couple of pieces with the ".10 mm detail" system preset and they came out looking amazing.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

Did you dry it?

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

Dry it prior to using the filament? No. It came out of the vacuum packed bag and went straight into the dry box that feeds my printer. All of my filament, even PLA lives in dry boxes with a hefty layer of desiccant on the bottom. I never leave filament on the printer unless its being used or will be used shortly. Both my dry boxes have silicone seals to keep air out and the filament runs from the print spool to the enclosure in a PTFE tube. If anything shows signs of being wet I'll dry it but so far nothing has needed drying.

The settings changes helped out tremendously The reprint of that piece was beautiful

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Sometimes, the PC comes wet.  It depends on how long it was on the shelf.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Nice review, do you have a way to test the mechanical properties of the materials?
I would be interested in how Prusament PC blend and PolyMax PC compare to each other in term of mechanical performance.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@3dprintingscience

Charles posted a pretty decent review of it.

I’m planning on finding out next weekend. I’ve got a spool of Urban gray and a spool of jet black on the way now, they should be here Wednesday. I just finished printing all the extruder/X carriage parts in Polymax PC. I’ll do the same thing next weekend using the PC blend and see how they turn out.

For reference purposes I’m using a third party PEI powder coated plate from tthheekkiinngg(it’s a v4 plate) and no glue stick of adhesion aid. All settings were stock for the Polymaker PC profile except for Grid infill at 20%, and auto cooling checked because I had some issues with some small surface area layers not solidifying before the next layer being deposited. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

Just so you know, the glue stick in this situation reduces adhesion.  Or at least, that is what I am finding.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@3dprintingscience

What sort of mechanical performance are you interested in? I'm using PC mainly for its heat handling characteristics due to the proximity of these parts to the hot end. I could have used Polymaker Polymide CoPA which is even better than PC for heat resistance but I'm not sure I'm going to need a heat resistance that high.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @charles-h13

@mgruenloh

Just so you know, the glue stick in this situation reduces adhesion.  Or at least, that is what I am finding.  

My impression and experience is that the glue sticks, in particular the Kores and the 'Disappearing Purple' ones, have two effects.

1. They help (A LOT) with adhesion on a smooth sheet, mainly for items with a small build area, and when supports are involved on a smaller area. This was one of the first 'tricks' we were shown in one of my very first 3d print classes some time ago.

2. They also act as a release agent, again on the smooth sheet, and particularly with ABS.  I found out the hard way that an ABS print with a large contact area can be a challenge to remove, and I got impatient and used tools and ruined a couple of areas on the coating.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

I discovered that. I had been using glue stick and the X-carriage part was giving me fits with lack of adhesion and when I tried without the glue stick it printed perfectly the first try. The textured plate either Prusa's or the theking plate will now my go to plate unless I need a perfectly smooth bottom surface.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Considering how my OEM fan shroud looked when I replaced it with one made of PC-ABS, i really don't want to know what the other OEM printed parts look like anywhere near the hot end. I'm just glad I finally got the kinks ironed out for printing with the Polymaker PC.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

Difference in sheets.  My parts are concreted to the bed unless I use Gluestick.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@jsw

You are probably correct.  I will tell you that it is near to impossible to remove prints from my PC sheet if I do not use a gluestick.  I am testing brands right now.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

I've got two different powder coated sheets now, and a third is on it's way. They are both brand new as of early May and I haven't really needed to use anything on them to get things to release. I used the glue stick on the theking v4 and really didn't need it, I actually think using the glue on it caused problems. Without glue stick they both seemed to handle PETG, ABS, PC-ABS, CPE HG100, and PC with no problem at all. After I get done printing the rest of the plastic MK3S parts in PC I've got some purple TPU 95A and grey Flexfil 98A to play around with. My wife wants phone cases printed...

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

Like I said.  Each is different.  I have 6 Prusa printers and 18 of each surface (smooth and textured).  I use a dedicated sheet for ABS and PC, one for PETG, and one for PLA for each printer.  My experience shows that no two sheets have the same adherence.  Age increases or decreases stickiness depending on the filament used.  PETG and ABS (maybe PC) increase adherence with the age of the bed and PLA decreases.  

I also have a huge number of other print sources form my experimentation phase.  I can tell you about just about any printer surface.  Hakc, I even tried glass on the Prusa.