Review: Prusament PC Blend  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

During the height of the pandemic I printed spares of all of the extruder parts and put them with my 'crash kit', just in case I had a meltdown.  I printed these in Hatchbox black ABS.

I had originally planned to print any replacement parts I needed at our local makerspace, but it was closed during the dark days of the pandemic.

Earlier in this thread (I think) I mentioned that I printed a remixed fan shroud in PC Blend.  That is the one I still have on the machine.

Posted by: @srijken

 

Posted by: @cwbullet

@obeliks

Print extruder parts.  Start with fan shrouds.  This stuff is great.  Never print without glue stick.  Consider a dedicated print sheet.  

Where do I find these parts, and what parts should be printed?

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

PC Blend is fantastic for printer shrouds, but it is overkill.  

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

It is overkill ... unless you plan to print PC-Blend. If you max out the hotend temperature the shroud doesn't melt immediately but you can really see some heat related wear. The PC-Blend shroud on the other side is completely unimpressed by any temp settings you can do on a Prusa. Otherwise I don't think there is a need for PC-Blend on the printer. If you want to upgrade I'd rather go for Titan-X. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

I have not tried Titan-X.  I do like their ABS-Pro.  It is very similar to PC Blend.  

Posted by: @thejiral

It is overkill ... unless you plan to print PC-Blend. If you max out the hotend temperature the shroud doesn't melt immediately but you can really see some heat related wear. The PC-Blend shroud on the other side is completely unimpressed by any temp settings you can do on a Prusa. Otherwise I don't think there is a need for PC-Blend on the printer. If you want to upgrade I'd rather go for Titan-X. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Titan-X is very different. It is a heavily modified ABS it seems, but more in the direction of PETG judging by my feeling. It still features ABS like thermostability but has practically zero warping. For improved layer adhesion, enclosure and as low of a part cooling as feasible are an important factor though (even if not as much as for regular ABS). I think it is a great choice if one wants to print large parts, at risk of warping which should survive higher temperatures and or have limited creeping tendency. Like regular ABS it is not a good choice for outdoors though but it is for printing 3D-printer parts. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Posted by: @thejiral

Titan-X is very different. It is a heavily modified ABS it seems, but more in the direction of PETG judging by my feeling. It still features ABS like thermostability but has practically zero warping. For improved layer adhesion, enclosure and as low of a part cooling as feasible are an important factor though (even if not as much as for regular ABS). I think it is a great choice if one wants to print large parts, at risk of warping which should survive higher temperatures and or have limited creeping tendency. Like regular ABS it is not a good choice for outdoors though but it is for printing 3D-printer parts. 

Sorry, a bit confused on your post. Are you saying you still need an enclosure for Titan-X? I currently only have a Mini+. I have a MK3S+ on order with an enclosure, however the delivery date keeps getting pushed back for some reason.

RE:

No, you probably don't need an enclosure for Titan-X, but it is better for several reasons if you have one (I never printed it without but given how non-existent the warping is with a moderately warm enclosure I am pretty confident it doesn't warp much or at all even without one). 

Like any ABS based material it does loose layer adhesion with cool drafts. This is not as bad as with proper ABS though and layer adhesion might be still good enough for your application even without an enclosure. It can be better however if you take care of that aspect. 

The reason I would always recommend an enclosure even with Titan-X is because ABS based filaments are rather nasty in terms of toxic fumes (even if the smell isn't all that intense with Titan-X IMHO). So you want good ventilation in the room where the printer is but you don't want drafts on your print plate. That is hard to bring together without an enclosure which isolates the print chamber from the well ventilated room. 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Doing some quick research on this filament it seems like it’s some impressive material. Granted I’m a bit of a newbie to all of this, however I’m surprised there isn’t more mention of this material out there. Even here in the US only 3 retailers carry it.

Ironically 2 of them are within a 3 hour drive of my house! 😳

RE:

Titan-X is relatively expensive. I have recently always purchased the "rTitan", ie the recycled version. Prints just the same and looks the same but is more reasonably priced. The other option is "EasyABS" from 3jdake.com. Their shipping fees are a bit higher to the US (probably ship from the EU) but according to hearsay it is made from the very same pellets as TitanX, yet costs substantially less. 

Recently I have settled on two favourite engineerining materials for bigger objects. If I need the higher stiffness (not anywhere close to PLA but still quite ok) and temperature stability, than I use TitanX. For the other use cases, especially for outdoor applications, where chemical resistance matters and if I want stellar layer adhesion and impact resistance and don't mind or even want a bit more flexibility than I go for PCTG (So far I have tried out only 3djake PCTG but other decent brands are probably delivering something similar). 

The great thing about both is that they are both very easy to print and show minimal warping. PCTG is just a bit more prone to humidity and stringing, so always make sure it is dry. 

PS: Just an additional advice. Be careful with white coloured filaments. Due to the pigment they can behave quite different from natural or even black ones. This is definitely the case for white TitanX which is a bit weird, much softer.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Partsbuilt 3D is good to deal with.  I have to agree on the rTitan.  

Posted by: @razor

Doing some quick research on this filament it seems like it’s some impressive material. Granted I’m a bit of a newbie to all of this, however I’m surprised there isn’t more mention of this material out there. Even here in the US only 3 retailers carry it.

Ironically 2 of them are within a 3 hour drive of my house! 😳

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Love coming here. Learn something new all the time. I see Partsbuilt also sells a lot of Prusa components, not that you can’t get them elsewhere. And as a previous sales manager of a BMW Motorcycle dealership, I like that they are riders. 😉

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

So I caved and ordered a roll from them today. Had shipping confirmation within an hour! Awesome service.

Then there’s Prusa. Ordered a MK3S+ and enclosure at the end of August during the back to school promotion. Everything was back ordered until October 20th, just noticed it got pushed back to December 4th. No email, no notice. 🙄 

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Holy cow! Titan was just delivered. I know they are only 3 hours away from me, but getting my order 27 hours later? Partsbuilt 3D Is the bomb!

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

I tried the Prusa Blend today. A Benchy and pretty happy what my old MK2.5 can do.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

I would LOVE to have an ABS filament that did not warp!

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

The key to avoid warping with ABS is a good enclosure, perfect Z offset, and good adhesion.  I have found that with some ABS, I have to use hair spray.  

Posted by: @annier

I would LOVE to have an ABS filament that did not warp!

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

Not Titan-X, but Apollo-X (ASA), I had a bad experience with a few months ago.  Same vendor, FormFutura.

It always behaved for me until I tried doing the screen part of a laptop chassis, and it cracked when cooling.

Although it's relatively expensive, I may try Titan-X for this project, as I want something more heat resistant than PLA but without the warping of regular ABS.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

 I have had decent results with Apollo-X.  Maybe you received a bad roll.  I have also tested r-Titan, Titan-X, and their PC Blend with good success.  

Posted by: @jsw

Not Titan-X, but Apollo-X (ASA), I had a bad experience with a few months ago.  Same vendor, FormFutura.

It always behaved for me until I tried doing the screen part of a laptop chassis, and it cracked when cooling.

Although it's relatively expensive, I may try Titan-X for this project, as I want something more heat resistant than PLA but without the warping of regular ABS.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

My guess is that the fracture occurred as the point of least resistance as the dimensions changed slightly as the print was cooling, rather than separating from the build plate.  I do admit I OD'd with the Layerneer on this one in order to control warping and possible separating from the build plate at the corners and edges.

Another print using PLA worked fine.

I am going to have to re-print that cover again, due to a slight angular issue.  The main surface where the fracture occurred is (intentionally) thin, and I may increase that slightly and/or bump up the infill, to try to give it a bit more strength.

It's my impression that ASA should not shrink as much as ABS, but in this case there certainly was an issue with the dimensional changes.

RE: Review: Prusament PC Blend

I was printing a lot with PC Blend, but I started to get very strong smell of it while printing. Anyone experienced the same? I print at 285C nozzle and 110C Bed temp.

Maybe its getting such when become more wet?