Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
I have some Eryone CF-PA12 that I'm having tons of trouble finding a support material that will work with zero Z interface distance, does anyone have any suggestions? I'm using a 5-tool XL and printing from a dryer. If the filament has a builtin profile in PrusaSlicer, I generally use that. If it doesn't, I generally use a builtin profile for a similar material. (ex: Prusament PA11 Carbon Fiber for the CF-PA12)
I've tried:
- Polymaker Polysupport for PA12 - sticks too well, very time consuming to remove without remnants
- ABS - Test went well, but got pulled off when I printed the actual model.
- Polymaker Polydissolve S1 PVA - Looked good initially then started balling up instead of sticking, fortunately dropped pea size balls around the print instead of creating a blob of doom. Retrying didn't stick at all. (Could having it in the dryer be causing some kind of issue?)
- Fiberlogy BVOH - Balling up on the purge tower. Looked like it was trying to stick to the print, but the ball from the tower picked it up before long. Had very weak adhesion when I stopped the print and tried pulling off the few bits that stuck.
- Airwolf 3D Hydrofill - Looked like it had a good balance between sticking while printing and pulling off afterward to be a breakaway support, but the older spool I have was too far out of spec and jammed in the nozzle tube. They don't seem to even offer 1.75mm diameter anymore. (Any suggestions for ways to decrease the diameter to be in spec?)
Strangely, I tried some Esun ePA (seems to be PA6) with the BVOH and it worked great with the same exact print file. The BVOH also came with a sample of Fiberlogy CF-PA12 that had the same results as the Eryone CF-PA12
RE: Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
Did you try ASA and PETG?
RE: Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
I've been meaning to give PETG a try, probably tomorrow.
I don't have any ASA, is it likely to work better than ABS?
RE: Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
I got a roll of ASA and tried both today.
At default settings, neither stuck, so I tried reducing speed and increasing line width for the interface for both.
ASA warped up at the corners. PETG worked for this small representative section of my object, I'll see how it goes for the whole thing.
RE: Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
I have some Eryone PA6-CF that I have used PLA+ and PETG supports with. PLA+ worked best but I'm assuming pa12 temps would cause the supports to fail, maybe a HT-PLA would work but PETG is far more economical. Both didn't stick at all once cooled but enough that the purge tower stays intact, honestly some of my most successful multi-material prints to date.
Wish I had PA12 to experiment with but I only picked up their PA6 for now, wish you the best of luck with your prints.
RE: Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
I found Raise3D PA12 CF Support which does stick well when printing, but is a bit more difficult to remove than I'd like. Only slightly easier than the Polysupport I tried, but holds together better so isn't too bad.
Strangely, when I was testing on my Mk3.5 (I'm often away from my XL) with manual swaps some materials like PETG worked great, but when I went to my XL it didn't stick well enough to be usable.
RE: Struggling to find a support interface material for CF-PA12
Try 3DX-Tech Aquatek PVA. I use it for PA6-CF, and it works very well (almost too well). I can't say about PA12, but it would be my first try.
BASF BVOH is also excellent (all of the BASF filaments are top notch), but it's temperature profile is a bit low for PA. It will probably work, but you might get some artifacts at the interface from excessive melting of the BVOH.