My Favorite and Least Favorite filaments to print on a Core One
Favorite
- PCTG - I love this stuff. Kind of expensive but more vendors are joining the game. Approaching PETG prices
- Prusa PC-Blend - a very nice functional filament when stiffness and high temp resistance is needed
- igus i150 - Great for gears, a bit expensive. PPA is another option
- ASA - for anything outdoors
- PC-CF - the most accessible "engineering grade" filament for a Core One. Easy to print.
Least Favorite/Avoid
- POM (Delrin) - To be fair, this probably shouldn't be attempted on any printer. I created a whole topic on this filament: How to print POM (acetal Delrin) on a Core One and why it is hell-spawn.
- PPA-CF - This is just on the edge of printability. You can print it with a 290° nozzle but layer adhesion suffers unless you print it VERY slowly as in 2-3mm^3/s. Also it's extremely stiff and brittle so feeding into the Nextruder can be a challenge. I was only able to get the Nextruder to clamp onto it by removing the Bowden and top-feeding it directly
- PPS-CF - Do not attempt, nozzle cannot reach the optimal 310°
- PET-CF/GF (*) - It's possible to print these but just barely. Layer adhesion for the CF variants are poor at 290° and must be printed slowly. Why I put an asterisk next to it? On my H2D it's by far the best functional filament I own.
- Prusa Ultraglow PLA - This stuff is so abrasive it will eat everything it touches. It'll print just fine, you will just be replacing everything that came in contact with this filament after 1 spool. I might pick up a "sacrificial" Ender 3 just to print it.
RE: My Favorite and Least Favorite filaments to print on a Core One
Correction Prusa Ultraglow PETG (not PLA). Oh and it's > $100/kg. I bought it to print warning indicators for my telescope tripods (during public night so people don't bump into them).
RE: My Favorite and Least Favorite filaments to print on a Core One
Do you mean that Ultraglow PETG eats not only hardened steel but also TC or diamond tipped nozzles ?. If so, then it costs much more than $100/Kg, if we consider the worn components that needs replacing.
I'm curious to try HT filaments like PPS-CF or PPA-CF. Nozzle temps. up to 350C aren't a problem on my Klipper based Voron printers, but without an active heated chamber, I don't think it will be feasible.
Reading the TDS for CF filled PPS, PPA and PET, all of them have a poor Z impact strength; the higher the temperature endurance the lower the impact strength. All considered, it seems to me that PC-CF is a filament more useful in real life than all these others, if we don't need extreme temperature resistance. PC-CF isn't very expensive, has a good impact strength, it's very stiff and doesn't warps nearly as much as unfilled PC or PA. There're others like ASA-CF or PET-GF which seem interesting too. Fiberon ASA-CF is one of few CF filled filaments that are available in different colors ( albeit very dull ), probably because of a low fiber percentage.
RE:
Do you mean that Ultraglow PETG eats not only hardened steel but also TC or diamond tipped nozzles ?. If so, then it costs much more than $100/Kg, if we consider the worn components that needs replacing.
I'm curious to try HT filaments like PPS-CF or PPA-CF. Nozzle temps. up to 350C aren't a problem on my Klipper based Voron printers, but without an active heated chamber, I don't think it will be feasible.
Reading the TDS for CF filled PPS, PPA and PET, all of them have a poor Z impact strength; the higher the temperature endurance the lower the impact strength. All considered, it seems to me that PC-CF is a filament more useful in real life than all these others, if we don't need extreme temperature resistance. PC-CF isn't very expensive, has a good impact strength, it's very stiff and doesn't warps nearly as much as unfilled PC or PA. There're others like ASA-CF or PET-GF which seem interesting too. Fiberon ASA-CF is one of few CF filled filaments that are available in different colors ( albeit very dull ), probably because of a low fiber percentage.
Ultraglow eats everything, the PTFE tubes and eventually the Nextruder gears if you print enough of it. Prusa even fondly refers to it as "liquid sandpaper" It definitely will not eat through a DiamondBack nozzle which is why I picked up a roll of it. Once that roll is finished I probably won't buy it again. Needed it for a specific project. It does have a pretty intense glow.
PPS and PPA are really only useful for high temperature brackets and fixtures once you orient the part so that Z is orthogonal to the load stress. PPS has ridiculous chemical resistance. It's impervious to anything below 200°. Unless you are making something that is going in a car engine etc, there really isn't a lot of use for it. PPS-CF in particular requires a very hot chamber to crystalize or Z strength suffers. Even with a 65° chamber, the parts need to be annealed at 110° afterwards to complete the crystallization.
On my H2D I've been printing a lot of Siraya Tech PET-CF. It has the best strength to cost ratio of all the high-end engineering filaments. Didn't really know about it until I watched this: