So printing Taulman Bridge Nylon is easy? Not for me! Help needed plz

**RepRapi3** · 03-06-2015, 08:42 PM

Hi and thanks for reading my thread!
So I'm having some issues printing Taulman Bridge Nylon. The extruder seems to be having issues feeding the nylon, it has a brief moment when its feeding then slips on the nylon (rinse and repeat) When I received the filament it was damp (steam coming out from hotend, cracks and pops.etc) I have dried the filament out and those issues are gone. My printer prints PLA and ABS like a champ. So why this nylon is causing so much trouble has got me stumped. The filament measures 1.76~1.78mm so its a fraction on the large size. Not that I would expect that to cause the issue?

What I've tried so far:

Adjust idler lose
Adjust idler tight
Made a tiny adjustment to align hobbed bolt perfectly
Raised and lowered printing temp (235~255c)

My Setup:

Custom build Reprap i3
Gregs Wades extruder
E3D V6 1.75mm hotend

**richardphat** · 03-07-2015, 08:05 PM

Do you have a bowden tube (push setup) by any chance? Assuming you're using E3D, which might be the case.
Also, what the printing speed and z resolution ?

Nylon by nature is slippery, which is why it is a pain to deal with. Nice thing with nylon is the ability to dye it.

**Wolfie** · 03-07-2015, 08:43 PM

Rofl! I got it to feed in my Taz but I couldn't get it to stick to the build plate nor painter tape

Following with baited breath to see what this thread yields for info. I was trying T618 but if I can get close settings for bridge, I might get somethig to fly.

**RepRapi3** · 03-07-2015, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by richardphat

Do you have a bowden tube (push setup) by any chance? Assuming you're using E3D, which might be the case.
Also, what the printing speed and z resolution ?

Nylon by nature is slippery, which is why it is a pain to deal with. Nice thing with nylon is the ability to dye it.

Im using a Gregs Wades extruder (direct drive), Print speed of 20mm/s for first layer. Then 50 mm/s (though obviously Ive never made it past the first layer lol) I didnt know you could dye nylon. Good to know! no doubt that will come in handy.

**RepRapi3** · 03-07-2015, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by Wolfie

Rofl! I got it to feed in my Taz but I couldn't get it to stick to the build plate nor painter tape

Following with baited breath to see what this thread yields for info. I was trying T618 but if I can get close settings for bridge, I might get somethig to fly.

I had no problem getting it to stick to my heated bed. I use a pva/water 50/50 solution and spray that on my glass bed. You only need a very thin coat for it to work great. then heat the bed up to 90c.

**richardphat** · 03-07-2015, 10:28 PM

You need some sort of porous surface... really porous. I plan to try on plywood. Glue or hairspray don't work with Taulman.

Garolite, is overkill and you might just destroy your print or garolite by trying to remove it.

Also about nylon dye

**richardphat** · 03-07-2015, 10:35 PM

Back to the topic, have you ever considered that your nozzle might be partially clogged?

Can you try extruding in the open and watch the pushed plastic out of the nozzle? If the nylon goes straight then it is clean, if it curve to one side, then it is dirty.

The following topic explain how you can clean your nozzle with Nylon filament, and considering the fact you already have, it is very handy.

http://blog.teambudmen.com/2013/09/s...er-nozzle.html

**RepRapi3** · 03-08-2015, 01:26 AM

Originally Posted by richardphat

Back to the topic, have you ever considered that your nozzle might be partially clogged?

Can you try extruding in the open and watch the pushed plastic out of the nozzle? If the nylon goes straight then it is clean, if it curve to one side, then it is dirty.

The following topic explain how you can clean your nozzle with Nylon filament, and considering the fact you already have, it is very handy.

http://blog.teambudmen.com/2013/09/s...er-nozzle.html

So I tried a couple of cold pulls like suggested, nozzle was clean as a whistle. So I figured that the problem likely had to be related to nozzle pressure. So I tried printing at 265c and bam works. 1 layer kinda failed in a print so maybe another 5~10c will be perfect. Obviously its realistically impossible to measure the true nozzle temp. So my guess it my true nozzle temp is about 10~20c lower than measured. Im using the supplied semitec thermistor, its a top quality thermistor so Im sure that isnt the problem. Anyway was an easy fix. Thanks for help and I hope anyone else having the same issue finds this thread

EDIT, also many thanks to Richard for info on dying nylon!

**RepRapi3** · 03-08-2015, 05:41 PM

UPDATE: For anyone interested these are my final and working settings. Hotend 275c (recommend only using an all metal hotend for this temp) and the 2nd key setting was the idler tension. Only med~loose tension. Med~tight tension only resulted in slipping.

First successful nylon print!