Printing with Nylon
First I have to point out that apart from a couple of mistakes I made in the beginning which damaged my PEI, I have been so excited with the beautiful quality of prints I've been able to produce on the MK2.
I've started to become a little adventurous and have been trying to print using Nylon filament (from a reel, not grass trimmer!).
I've tried printing at different temperatures and speeds and coated the bed with everything I can think of: hairspray, glue, ABS juice, clothing glue, just cleaned with window cleaner, IPA - None of them stick the print down enough to hold it.
I've tried printing with a 5mm brim and a 2 layer raft - closest to success, but still not quite.
I store the Nylon in a zip-lock bag with a lot of desiccant for moisture purposes, and at about 240C it prints fairly nicely without sizzling and popping, however the layers don't bond well together and you can literally pick it apart. At higher temperatures the nozzle dribbles all over the place, retraction or not, but at least the layers seem to bond better.
I wondered with the accumulated knowledge on this forum whether anyone can give me any tips on how to:
a) Get the Nylon to stick to the bed
b) Print without fizzing and popping
c) Have the layers stick properly together!
Re: Printing with Nylon
Here are some tips for printing with nylon: http://www.matterhackers.com/articles/printing-with-nylon
Enjoy...
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Printing with Nylon
Thanks Peter. I've unfortunately tried the steps from that website without much success - thought it might need MK2 specific settings?
Re: Printing with Nylon
OK, so nylon is a supposedly "supported" material, so I guess you could contact support and ask them what the best settings to use are.
Settings for supported materials should be readily available...
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Printing with Nylon
I personally don't have any experience with printing nylon as the nylon is known to be quite a difficult material to print with, namely it has to be kept dry, which means drying the filament before printing. So please take my comments with a grain of salt.
Based on the following writeup:
http://www.tridimake.com/2014/01/how-to-3d-print-nylon-and-trimmer-line.html
> a) Get the Nylon to stick to the bed
I would try to print on a paper sticker. I don't guarantee it will be easy to remove the glue from the PEI foil though.
> b) Print without fizzing and popping
The filament has to be dried.
> c) Have the layers stick properly together!
Increase the nozzle temperature.
Vojtech
Re: Printing with Nylon
I am printing with Nylon this weekend fingers crossed. I will update everyone with my results. Has anyone on here had any good success with Nylon yet?
Re: Printing with Nylon
I've never printed with nylon but have looked into it: Temps depend on which type of nylon you use as some can reach melting point at around 205° while others need 260°... Try to find the makers recommended settings and start from there.
Nozzle: 210° - 260°
Heatbed: 75° - 95°
Speed: 30 - 60 mm/s
Layers: 200um - 400um
Print Fan: Minimal or off if possible
Thoroughly pre-dry filament. If possible use an enclosure with both heating and some form of dehumidifier.
Larger nozzle sizes give better adhesion (Eg. 0.60 - 0.80) to both bed and between layers.
Warping is an issue and can be helped/eliminated with a raft.
Bed adhesion can be helped with Glue-Stick.
Just try small things to experiment at first and see how you go. Good luck!
Re: Printing with Nylon
I was running 245C .2mm layers and the nylon was printing very well and the nozzle clogged 😡 . Don't use a raft to print, I found just print the same as ABS otherwise. I used glue to adhere to the print surface with a bed temperature of 80C. Initial testing went well and would have been successful if the nozzle didn't plug. I use a Hardened A2 with a .4mm orifice nozzle.
Re: Printing with Nylon
I make spare parts to my rc car from nylon.
Nylon is pa12, nozzle 268C, bed 120C, layer .2mm. little bit uhu stick to bed.
Not very good picture...
Re: Printing with Nylon
How did you manage to put heatbed on 120? Have you adjusted PSU voltage to achieve more power?
Re: Printing with Nylon
No, I made box for printer ftom plywood and lexan glass where I can see printer. Glass slides up. It works like oven. Of course heating up takes time, but I have had solid 124C with it.
Re: Printing with Nylon
Did you measure air temperature inside the box while printing heated up to 120C?
Re: Printing with Nylon
No I did not, I don't have air temp mesurent tool for over 34C, but it is on shopping list.
Re: Printing with Nylon
But I know it goes over 50C, because extruder fan starts to blow during heating, even I dont heat nozzle same time 😉
Re: Printing with Nylon
That's why I put my question. 🙂 I wonder if this high temperature environment inside the box can negatively affect cooling of hotend or electronics (steppers, Rambo).
Re: Printing with Nylon
Rambo, maybe...
But I did not have choice, printer is in basement and there is cold breeze form windows and that makes cracks to ABS. So I use this "oven" for ABS and Nylon. Other filaments I use open system.
Re: Printing with Nylon
Using Taulman 618 here is the setting we us in simply 3d
Room temp is 80F normally is about 74F. AC unit is turned off to prevent drafts.
Nozzle is 252C
Bed is 80C
Speed is 1200mm/min
nozzle is .4mm
layer height is .2mm
line width is set to auto
fan is off
Re: Printing with Nylon
Failed to add, material is dried for 12-24 hrs at 90c then move to the print dry box at 70c. Where it is then printed directly from the dryer, to limit exposure.
Very important to do this.
Adhesion to the bed has not been a problem. But we have not printed any big and tall parts.