Review: Prusament PC Blend  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @oem

I have printed all of the replacement MK3S parts (except the electronics box and LCD cover) in jet black and natural. I'm using the stock MK3S Prusament PC Blend profile. Some of the parts were printed on the MK3S/MMU2S, no enclosure, with a textured plate by Thekkiinngg (aftermarket one on Amazon here). Some parts were perfect, some started to warp. No brim or glue stick used. Parts came off easily.

Why you printed all of the replacement MK3S parts? I think @charles-h13 stated that it is not needed to use PC Blend.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @peter-c20

Posted by: @oem

I have printed all of the replacement MK3S parts (except the electronics box and LCD cover) in jet black and natural. I'm using the stock MK3S Prusament PC Blend profile. Some of the parts were printed on the MK3S/MMU2S, no enclosure, with a textured plate by Thekkiinngg (aftermarket one on Amazon here). Some parts were perfect, some started to warp. No brim or glue stick used. Parts came off easily.

Why you printed all of the replacement MK3S parts? I think @charles-h13 stated that it is not needed to use PC Blend.

I think @charles-h13 seems to post an awful lot, and that since you see their name on basically every thread, that people tend to trust him/her/them. But I personally learn by doing and have found some of his/her/their advice to be nonsense. To answer your question though, the printer I printed the replacement parts for is inside an insulated enclosure so ambient temps are around 50ºC. The PC blend filament is stated to have higher temperature tolerance compared with PETG. The printer has something like 800 days of printing so parts are definitely wearing out. So I reprinted a complete set of parts, updating some parts like the X axis to make for easier adjustments, and also replaced the bearings, a couple rods that were grooved, and much of the wiring with better silicone wires that can handle constant bending better than the stock wires. I think I spent maybe USD 125 total for all the replacement parts including the filament to make it basically a brand new printer.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

If you plan to print in enclosure, you will need different material than PETG for the whole printer. You can get away for a while, but when it goes wrong it's spectacular.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@peter-c20

I am repalcing all my parts with black and grey PC Blend.  You can easily use PETG.  I have successfully printed with PETG and ABS parts for all of my printers in an enclsoure.  The issue is that PETG is nto a good product to print nozzle shrouds with to be used in an enclosure.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@obeliks

See above.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @oem

Posted by: @peter-c20

Posted by: @oem

I have printed all of the replacement MK3S parts (except the electronics box and LCD cover) in jet black and natural. I'm using the stock MK3S Prusament PC Blend profile. Some of the parts were printed on the MK3S/MMU2S, no enclosure, with a textured plate by Thekkiinngg (aftermarket one on Amazon here). Some parts were perfect, some started to warp. No brim or glue stick used. Parts came off easily.

Why you printed all of the replacement MK3S parts? I think @charles-h13 stated that it is not needed to use PC Blend.

I think @charles-h13 seems to post an awful lot, and that since you see their name on basically every thread, that people tend to trust him/her/them. But I personally learn by doing and have found some of his/her/their advice to be nonsense. To answer your question though, the printer I printed the replacement parts for is inside an insulated enclosure so ambient temps are around 50ºC. The PC blend filament is stated to have higher temperature tolerance compared with PETG. The printer has something like 800 days of printing so parts are definitely wearing out. So I reprinted a complete set of parts, updating some parts like the X axis to make for easier adjustments, and also replaced the bearings, a couple rods that were grooved, and much of the wiring with better silicone wires that can handle constant bending better than the stock wires. I think I spent maybe USD 125 total for all the replacement parts including the filament to make it basically a brand new printer.

 

I just want to contibute.  I make mistakes like everyone else.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Since my printer is working mostly fine, I worry that if I replace the parts in my printer, I may break something. How about printing some parts now and when it fails, replace with those parts?

@charles-h13  You mentioned that once you got the Z sorted out, printing with PC Blend worked out fine. Do you mean first leveling? Could you please tell us more about the Z leveling?

@oem In your case, what glue and leveling do you use?

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @peter-c20

Since my printer is working mostly fine, I worry that if I replace the parts in my printer, I may break something. How about printing some parts now and when it fails, replace with those parts?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! 😉

However, after hearing a couple of horror stories of extruder meltdown, I printed the extruder parts in ABS to keep in my 'crash kit' just in case.  I'm a member of the local 'makerspace', and I figured that if I needed to print any parts for the printer, I could book some time there and do it, but when they locked down I just went ahead and printed the spare extruder parts just in case.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@jsw

My main motivation was initially to print a new fan shroud to replace the original fan shroud because I had heard about cooling efficiency issues with the OEM fan shroud. By the time I managed to get a good shroud printed in PC-ABS my original fan shroud had a lot of damage from heat, exhibiting lots of sagging and melted spots.

After running with an upgraded fan shroud design printed in PC-ABS for 3 weeks of printing with both PC-ABS and PC I decided to print a new fan shroud in the Prusa PC blend. By the time I had gotten one printed I discovered that my previously upgraded fan shroud was having heat degradation issues as well.

Now I’m running one of the RHD CS fan nozzles printed in the Prusa PC blend. Since I’ve had enough problems due to heat with the fan nozzle I went ahead and prioritized printing the extruder-body, extruder-motor-plate, and extruder-cover in Prusa PC-blend. The thought process behind that is that if any of the parts are going to have heat issues it will be those three parts plus the cooling nozzle due to their proximity to the hot end. Eventually, during lulls in printing things that have to be printed, I’ll be printing all of the original stock parts in the Prusa PC-blend. My printer lives in an enclosure and I’ve regularly seen temps in the enclosure get up to 50C. I’d rather have all the parts printed in a more heat tolerant material eventually because I’m interested in pushing the limits of the printer particularly in the area of materials it can print with. My goal is to have my crash kit populated with parts printed from the most heat tolerant materials I can print with. Eventually once I acquire some of the Polymaker CoPA, all the printed parts will be upgraded to that.

I’m currently printing with PC-ABS, PC, and PC blend. All of those materials use a pretty high bed temp. Any nozzle for the print cooling fan is going to be spending a lot of time near a print bed heated to temps of 100C or higher. Fan nozzles, at least on my printer, are going to be taking a beating so I need them to be a temperature resistant as I can make them.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

If i use the glue stick, parts won't stick. Had my one and only blob of death with this stuff using the glue stick on textured sheet that everything sticks to. The parts come off without it once the plate cools. I have been having warping issues printing the bear version of the part you pictured at only 20% infill. The corner opposite the pinda warps up. Does this stuff require a lot more first layer squish? My first layers look great. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@matthew-c35

As far as first layers go, @jeffjordan has researched and come up with a good way of making sure your first layer is good. Search for "life adjust Z - my way" here in the forum. I use a lot of what he talks about to dial in my first layer. When I do my first layer setup for a new filament, I try to evaluate how well it sticks to the build surface as well as making sure it is the correct thickness. I try to make sure my first layer thickness is as close to .2mm as I can make it. If I can get my first layer thickness to .2mm +/- .02mm I consider that good enough and move on. I had to put that tolerance in there or my tendency to obsess over making sure things are perfect would have me working on my first layer Live Z numbers until they were perfect. I have an inexpensive digital caliper I bought from Home Depot that I use for checking first layer thickness among other things.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@matthew-c35

You probably have the Z too high or the glue stick on too thick.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13 and @matthew-c35

I have to admit that I haven't used the glue stick with the textured plate while using PC-Blend at all up until this point. I've just been printing directly onto the Prusa textured plate. When the print is done, I remove the plate from the bed and let it sit outside my enclosure to cool. As it cools, from across the room,  I can hear popping as the printed parts separate from the plate on their own. Once it's cool, I remove any pieces still adhered to the plate by popping them off with very minor pressure from my fingers, clean and print again.

Now I wouldn't recommend that anyone else do this, but it works for me. As Charles has pointed out, plate performance can vary from plate to plate. I've either been lucky, or my particular textured plate just doesn't need to have the glue stick for this filament.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

In particular, I think the degree of removal ease is dependant on  the youth of the plate.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

I'll keep an eye on that, mine is a little over a month old. Thanks for the lookout.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@charles-h13

For my plate the Z is perfect. I get a nice clean first layer. The glue may have been thick but i didn't think so. I only used enough pressure to get the glue on the plate. No overlap either. I did run through and lowered my Z some to almost the point it curls up and is too close. No longer a pretty first layer but not horrible. See if it changes anything. Still no glue tho. Other smaller parts print great and self release one cooled. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

Mine is like yours too. No glue and parts slide off after plate cools. My only issue is warping right now on certain parts. Even with a brim. Smashed my Z a bit more to see if that helps. No longer perfect first layer but if it keeps it stuck all the way around during printing I'm ok with it. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@matthew-c35

What do you clean the plate with?

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@mgruenloh

I'll wash it in soap and water once in a while if needed but mostly just wipe it with what I'm gonna call 95% ipa. (Had a quarter bottle of 91 and a quarter bottle of 99 i mixed together.) So i lowered my Z a touch more and lowered my nozzle temp to 265 and i got a successful print of the bear extruder body. 3 perimeters and 15% gyroid infill. The part is super strong even at that lower infill. Also used a 2 perimeter full height skirt and 5mm brim. But it didn't warp up where it normal does. Print looks good despite 602 being very noticable. Not sure what to do there. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

@matthew-c35

I haven't used IPA yet. I use dish soap and water as hot as i can stand on my hands and a plastic scrubbing sponge for doing dishes. I wash it once a week. If I notice things not adhering,  I heat up the water and scrub it again right away. So far it has been working really well for me.