RE: Tension pulley broken
Do I need glue stick if printing PC on a satin sheet ?
RE: Tension pulley broken
Prusa recommends it if you print with it often. I didn't when I printed the one pulley.
https://www.prusa3d.com/product/prusament-pc-blend-carbon-fiber-black-800g-6/
RE: Tension pulley broken
https://help.prusa3d.com/filament-material-guide
Kinda looks like "probably".... /me used a textured sheet (and a brim when the slicer whined.)
RE: Tension pulley broken
I've printed pulley holders on a Prusa satin sheet without issues. Don't try to remove it until it cools down completely and you should be fine. Not saying that's OK in general for PC-CF, but those holders are pretty small. (I haven't bothered with adding a brim.)
RE: Tension pulley broken
New word alert ! Im gonna presume that it means stingy 😂
I'd be interested to know your approach when trying a new filament mate, wrt nozzle/plate/chamber temps. Also speeds etc.
Mine arrived an hour ago so is in the dryer until midnight.
I’ve gone for a 500g roll, to compare to the Prusament, and maybe be a bit less parsimonious with it - wasting the Prusament is painful because it’s a bit like hen’s teeth, as well as being rather pricey.
RE: Tension pulley broken
New word alert ! Im gonna presume that it means stingy 😂
I'd be interested to know your approach when trying a new filament mate, wrt nozzle/plate/chamber temps. Also speeds etc.
Mine arrived an hour ago so is in the dryer until midnight.
Yep - use 'em or lose 'em 🙂
I don't really have an approach, beyond 'what's the nearest preset?', and 'how does it compare to what's printed on the label?'. And my dryer can't get anywhere near the recommended drying temperature for PC-CF, so I'm going to have to wing it for now.
My 500g sampler arrived today too - seems well packed with desiccant trapped in the centre of the spool (where it seems totally isolated from the filament itself by the vacuum packed poly bag sealing off the centre 🤣 ).
RE: Tension pulley broken
New word alert ! Im gonna presume that it means stingy 😂
I'd be interested to know your approach when trying a new filament mate, wrt nozzle/plate/chamber temps. Also speeds etc.
Mine arrived an hour ago so is in the dryer until midnight.Yep - use 'em or lose 'em 🙂
I don't really have an approach, beyond 'what's the nearest preset?', and 'how does it compare to what's printed on the label?'. And my dryer can't get anywhere near the recommended drying temperature for PC-CF, so I'm going to have to wing it for now.
My 500g sampler arrived today too - seems well packed with desiccant trapped in the centre of the spool (where it seems totally isolated from the filament itself by the vacuum packed poly bag sealing off the centre 🤣 ).
Yeah my drier only goes to 70 so I just hope if I give it a longer session that will be enough…I didn’t notice the moisture level rise in my drier before I turned it on, which is normally a good sign the filament is dryish to begin with.
Ive noticed this with the desiccant from other brands also, seems a bit daft.
RE: Tension pulley broken
I've had a go with the IEMAI filament. Starting with the Prusament PC-CF profile I did a couple of Extrusion Multiplier tests, and settled on a value of 0.85. That seems like a crazy low value, but it's the only way I could get the walls of that EM test to come out near the expected size. With an EM value of 1.00 some of the walls were coming out up to a third bigger than expected (so 0.15mm wider). Since I planned to print the tension pulley part and I wanted it to fit the channel, I went for this low value.
Having now printed the pulley parts I have a better idea what caused those walls to be wider, and I think a more conservative value of 0.90-0.95 might work too. I think the IEMAI has a much coarser surface finish than the velvety smooth Prusament, and I think it's just the higher peaks of the surface roughness that are causing this effect - see the photos below.
In the photos the IEMAI is the print on the left, next to the Prusament on the right. Dimensionally the two measure as close as I can read with my callipers. Layer adhesion at 0.15mm seems absolutely fine. If I squeeze the two arms of the pulley part together, the Prusament part is definitely more rigid than the IEMAI. Given that the rigidity from adding CF is the main selling point, that may say something about the quality of the IEMAI filament, and will probably be important for some parts.
The IEMAI is noticeably blacker, but the most obvious difference is the surface finish. These close-up photos exaggerate the difference on these small parts, and in the flesh the finish is quite pleasing. I had no trouble at all printing this part, on the satin sheet with the standard Prusament PC-CF temperatures, but it's only a small part and I want to try a bigger part next.
So far I'm quite happy with this filament as a budget alternative to Prusa's rocking horse sh poo.
RE: Tension pulley broken
Interesting stuff Chris, I too have had a quick bash with this filament and was pleasantly surprised, I mean its never going to look as good as Prusa's, but at under half the price you really can't expect it to.
My only issue is with adhesion, but stupid work is stopping me from the important things in life right now 😂
When you say layer height at .15...is that just for first layer, or the entire print ? Im guessing you're using the Satin plate ?
I've had a go with the IEMAI filament. Starting with the Prusament PC-CF profile I did a couple of Extrusion Multiplier tests, and settled on a value of 0.85. That seems like a crazy low value, but it's the only way I could get the walls of that EM test to come out near the expected size. With an EM value of 1.00 some of the walls were coming out up to a third bigger than expected (so 0.15mm wider). Since I planned to print the tension pulley part and I wanted it to fit the channel, I went for this low value.
Having now printed the pulley parts I have a better idea what caused those walls to be wider, and I think a more conservative value of 0.90-0.95 might work too. I think the IEMAI has a much coarser surface finish than the velvety smooth Prusament, and I think it's just the higher peaks of the surface roughness that are causing this effect - see the photos below.
In the photos the IEMAI is the print on the left, next to the Prusament on the right. Dimensionally the two measure as close as I can read with my callipers. Layer adhesion at 0.15mm seems absolutely fine. If I squeeze the two arms of the pulley part together, the Prusament part is definitely more rigid than the IEMAI. Given that the rigidity from adding CF is the main selling point, that may say something about the quality of the IEMAI filament, and will probably be important for some parts.
The IEMAI is noticeably blacker, but the most obvious difference is the surface finish. These close-up photos exaggerate the difference on these small parts, and in the flesh the finish is quite pleasing. I had no trouble at all printing this part, on the satin sheet with the standard Prusament PC-CF temperatures, but it's only a small part and I want to try a bigger part next.
So far I'm quite happy with this filament as a budget alternative to Prusa's rocking horse
shpoo.
RE: Tension pulley broken
Interesting stuff Chris, I too have had a quick bash with this filament and was pleasantly surprised, I mean its never going to look as good as Prusa's, but at under half the price you really can't expect it to.
My only issue is with adhesion, but stupid work is stopping me from the important things in life right now 😂
When you say layer height at .15...is that just for first layer, or the entire print ? Im guessing you're using the Satin plate ?
Yes, satin sheet, 0.15mm layer height throughout, structural profile with 4 perimeters and 100% infill.
RE: Tension pulley broken
Interesting stuff Chris, I too have had a quick bash with this filament and was pleasantly surprised, I mean its never going to look as good as Prusa's, but at under half the price you really can't expect it to.
My only issue is with adhesion, but stupid work is stopping me from the important things in life right now 😂
When you say layer height at .15...is that just for first layer, or the entire print ? Im guessing you're using the Satin plate ?Yes, satin sheet, 0.15mm layer height throughout, structural profile with 4 perimeters and 100% infill.
Completely unrelated, but I saw a Josef Prusa post recently in which he mentioned to avoid using 100% infill, due to variations in filament diameter it's always best to go at 95 when possible. * I think it was 95, might have been 90. Ill see if I can find it.
RE: Tension pulley broken
Completely unrelated, but I saw a Josef Prusa post recently in which he mentioned to avoid using 100% infill, due to variations in filament diameter it's always best to go at 95 when possible. * I think it was 95, might have been 90. Ill see if I can find it.
I can appreciate that. I rarely use 100% anyway, but I have tended to just go for a lower extrusion multiplier - a habit I started with PETG (I usually use 0.97 regardless of brand now) because I found it prevented a build up of blobs on the nozzle, regardless of the infill ratio. The proper extrusion multiplier and a lower infill are definitely the more correct way of avoiding a problem with filament variability though.
RE: Tension pulley broken
I'm curious if some of the difference between the prusa brand and the ones we have tried is the amount of CF. I just looked and I can't see any numbers stating what percentage of CF is added to prusament vs the YXPOLYER one I used(15%) and the IEMAI stuff(20%). My pulley ended up looking about like the above pictures, maybe slightly smoother. the .99 I used definitely could have gone lower as it was REALLY heard to squeeze the square nut into the part and it was snug fitting into the tensioner channel.
RE: Tension pulley broken
I'm curious if some of the difference between the prusa brand and the ones we have tried is the amount of CF. I just looked and I can't see any numbers stating what percentage of CF is added to prusament vs the YXPOLYER one I used(15%) and the IEMAI stuff(20%). My pulley ended up looking about like the above pictures, maybe slightly smoother. the .99 I used definitely could have gone lower as it was REALLY heard to squeeze the square nut into the part and it was snug fitting into the tensioner channel.
I guess there could be a difference, but I doubt they use LESS, given that the Prusament is noticeably stiffer than the IEMAI. So how could they use more, yet still end up with a velvety smooth finish?
RE: Tension pulley broken
Fair point. But I have only the one experience printing a pulley with this stuff so I can't really offer anything other than WAG(wild a** guess) 🙂
I'm curious if some of the difference between the prusa brand and the ones we have tried is the amount of CF. I just looked and I can't see any numbers stating what percentage of CF is added to prusament vs the YXPOLYER one I used(15%) and the IEMAI stuff(20%). My pulley ended up looking about like the above pictures, maybe slightly smoother. the .99 I used definitely could have gone lower as it was REALLY heard to squeeze the square nut into the part and it was snug fitting into the tensioner channel.
I guess there could be a difference, but I doubt they use LESS, given that the Prusament is noticeably stiffer than the IEMAI. So how could they use more, yet still end up with a velvety smooth finish?
RE: Tension pulley broken
Maybe strand length has something to do with it. Longer fibres would only be able to come out aligned with the direction of flow, creating a smoother surface, whereas shorter fibres could come out at any angle, creating a rougher surface. Longer fibres would produce better stiffness. Probably more expensive to source too.
RE: Tension pulley broken
Overall I'm happy with this filament. I was reading a thread on here where people were slating it (after I'd ordered it), and I regretted not ordering something more premium but I'm glad I didn't now. I just printed a couple of slightly larger parts and they came out fine.
This one now sits alongside Tinmorry PETG-CF in 'bang for your buck' filament.
I just can't justify spending what Prusa and many other companies charge for PETG-CF.
Hopefully we'll see more companies start selling it at reasonable prices like we've seen with most (common) filament types.
RE: Tension pulley broken
This is what mine looks like with the YXPOLYER PC-CF, 0.2 mm layer height and EM=1.0. I did a EM calibration cube and it came out right at 0.45 mm.
RE: Tension pulley broken
That's the one I would've gone for if we could get it at the same price as the Americans 😂
RE: Tension pulley broken
Quick update on my ABS pulley mounts - the belts are no longer loosing tension, since I re-tightened them after they'd dropped a couple of Hz. I actually took them slightly higher than the recommendation (101Hz and 95Hz), expecting them to slacken a bit, but that's where they've stayed after several days of printing PC-CF and ABS. Slightly annoying since the Carbon app only goes up to 100Hz, so I have to switch to the Prusa app!