Storing Nylon
I married a genius, I think.
When I told my wife I might have to bake my nylon between prints if I don't use it all up at once. She said, and I quote, "Why not use the food saver to repack it?"
If you don't know what a food saver is, it vacuum packs food in handy plastic, which comes in a roll/sleeve so you can make it as big or as small as necessary. I simply kept the silica pack and repacked it. I'll even keep the box... Wow. Just had to share!
Re: Storing Nylon
That is a great idea. What model of vacuum sealer do you have? The spools are pretty big, so does an 11" bag hold them?
Re: Storing Nylon
I've only used it on the Nylon, which is a .5kg spool that is about half as wide as a regular 1kg spool (which makes sense). I tend to doubt the Prusa spool, like what came with the printer, will fit... but I haven't tried yet. I'll report back here when I get a chance to experiment... Since typical nylon spools are smaller and tend to be more hygroscopic, I figured I'd share the idea.
Here's an Amazon link to the one we have...
Re: Storing Nylon
I've used vacuum bags, it becomes an issue with nylon because it absorbs water so fast you are better off putting it in a normal bag with desiccant then plan when you will use it and bake it for at least 6 hours before use. i bought a filament dryer just for this. vacuuming does evaporate water but you would need to use a vacuum pump on it for at least 15 minutes to start to make a dent and even then nylon will not release the water so you have to bake it.
Nylon starts to become usable after 10 hours as it just sucks in water you have to run de-humidifiers to slow that down or you need a filament dryer that can print and dry at the same time. so you keep baking the nylon as it goes into the extruder.
also after printing with nylon, you must remember to boil the item for about 15 minutes this hydrates the nylon and makes it flexible and stronger.
for printing the nylon must be as dry as possible for use the nylon needs to have max water absorbed into it.
boiling the nylon will swell it a bi t and that can cause fit issues so you have to figure out the expansion of your material before and after. since printing nylon tends to shrink it worse then ABS and then boiling expands it.
“One does not simply use a picture as signature on Prusa forumsâ€
Re: Storing Nylon
The absorption rates I've been studying on-line make me think a couple hours of exposure wouldn't affect it that much. I certainly didn't have to bake the material prior to printing straight out of the original package, so we'll see how it works from my repackaging next time. The parts I printed this time were very strong, had a nice smooth shiney finish, and appeared to be as good as printing with ABS or PLA. I only added a smear of glue stick to the bed and hit print.
I'd also like to know more about your source data regarding strength of materials based on moisture content. Can you provide links to data? No doubt tensile strength will go way down as it gets colder, but I'd expect water to have an adverse impact on that. I hear you on flexibility, but I'd like to read more about what moisture really does to the material (besides make it expand).
Thanks for the feedback!
Re: Storing Nylon
oh you do have to bake it extensively before use. it absorbs way faster then you think. Listen to the extruder as it goes with nylon you will hear tiny pops. Bake the nylon for a few hours and do the same thing listening you will hear silence then you will start to hear it popping about 6 hours after baking after about 12 hours it is very noticeable and you will start to get bad zits and stringing on the 3d print. a filament dryer that feeds into the extruder is the best since you can keep drying the spool as it feeds directly into the nozzle.
as for nylon and boiling it after printing. you can google it. as an example Nylon Zip ties after they are molded are put in final packaging with a few drops of water. they know it will take a few weeks for the ties to reach store shelves and the water is for absorption for strength, right out of the mould nylon is extremely brittle where it is most dry.
in the hobby world you boil old nylon parts in water because they lose water and become brittle again. naturally nylon absorbs water so if you do nothing after a week or two it will have some water absorbed in it not all the way to the center of the part but enough that strength will increase.
to speed this up you boil in hot water for like 15-30 minutes usually it is good enough Nylon has such a high melt point it will do nothing if you left it in the pot for an hour other then absorb more water to the center of the part depending on thickness.
now the water absorption will make the nylon more flexible as well so dry 910 feels very hard and boiling it makes it flexible but stronger since it gives more before snapping.
with nylon you may need to design .5mm tolerance it shrinks like crazy and can swell like crazy as well.
i've used nylon for years and dealt with out outside of 3d printing it reacts the same way with 3d printing, very dry to print, wet it to use.
i say figure it out for yourself. there are lots of google results on the matter with views going both ways. boiling PLA or ABS would have negative results.
Baking PLA or ABS after printing has positive results. baking relaxes the internal stresses of a part as during printing all the areas are shrinking at different rates. you get the material just hot enough before total melt point and it will start to relax and slightly recrystallize making it stronger as a post print process (similar to post process with acetone on abs or water on nylon)
“One does not simply use a picture as signature on Prusa forumsâ€