Best printer for nylon

Hey everyone,

I've been doing all my 3D printing at my uni so far, but I want one on my bench at home for some rapid prototyping on a project I'm planning. I don't have a lot of space, so it'll be my only printer and I want it to be able to do just about anything (within reason) on it. Most of my jobs are structural, so I'll be printing with nylon a lot, so I'd appreciate an enclosed print chamber, or the ability to modify it to be enclosed. I'm wondering what my best option would be for under $1000 USD? At this point I'm tossing up between building a Voron 2.4 or getting an Ender 5 plus and modifying it as I need. Does anyone have any other suggestions they'd throw into the mix for a universal printer, or insight into my choice between these two?

Thanks in advance!

With nylon, you'll certainly want an enclosed printer, one with an all-metal hot end, as the temperatures can reach the point at which a PTFE liner will degrade or otherwise become damaged. I have a Qidi Tech X-Max which is fully enclosed. Additionally, there is a mount for placing the spool inside the enclosure. The videos and supporting documentation I've seen for printing with nylon indicate that it's critical to keep the nylon filament dry. I've read that even a two hour print with the spool external to the enclosure can cause moisture problems.

Some people will build what is called a dry box, but for nylon, you'd want a hot box!

I was looking at the Qidi Tech X-Max but the price is just too high for now. That's why I was thinking about something a bit more modular that I could upgrade and customise over time. The internal spool is definitely a huge plus though.

I paid US$350 for my X-Max but I feel like that was a lottery win of sorts. I "fixed" the alleged underextrusion problem by changing the filament routing. That printer is where I got the internal spool holder idea, but the review I saw on the Tube also mentions it for nylon printing.

If you can use Nylon+Carbon Fibre or Nylon + Glass Fibre, then it actually makes the printing much easier. Those can typically be printed without an enclosure and at reasonable temps (245-260/85).

Any decent printer with hardened extruder gears and a full metal hotend. Printbite+ bed, and hardened steel nozzle will do the job nicely with that material.

I was definitely hoping to use some fibre re-enforced filament. Do they warp less than regular nylon when printing?

Apparently adding CF to nylon seems to fix most of the normal issues associated with printing it.
I'm personally not a big fan of PLA with cf - but have yet to try nylon.

stefan at cnc kitchen is a big fan though.
One of the very few 3dprinting youtubers who actually knows what he's talking about.

I like Stefan. Haven't seen his comparison of nylon to fibre reinforced nylon though. I'll take a look!

From what I'm hearing, I think I'll go with the Ender 5 plus. Seems like a good platform to upgrade and modify along the way.

Stefan was talking about the nylon in his mini voron build video - I posted a thread on it this week.

Pretty sure he wasn't printing it in an enclosed printer either.

yeah the ender 5 is probably the best machine creality currently make.
There is very little you can do to bollox up a standard cartesian printer.
Apart from giving it a bowden setup - which they did. But that's an easy fix and you can usually use the existing extrder - like I did with my sapphire pro.

I'd switch it to a direct drive extruder before actually running it - but I just do not see the point in a bowden extruder on a cartesian setup.
Particularly when you look at some of the lightweight all-in one hotend extruders there are around at the moment.
No excuse for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3BA Shop

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Zortrax line of FDM printers are the best 3D printers for nylon I have ever used. Not only do they have enclosures, one of their models has a heated enclosure, which allows you to print ABS and nylon with almost no shrinkage. I get much better results on my Zortrax FDM printers than I do on my fully enclosed creator pro/creator pro 2, and custom CR10'S with creality enclosure. Using a Zortrax essentially guarantees a perfect 3D print in ABS/Nylon every single time. The Zortrax Inventure, which has the heated chamber, and dual nozzles for water-soluble support, is only 1800 CAD, rivaling the price of options from QIDI, but making their offerings look like toys in comparison, in my personal experience.

If you are interested in learning more, take a look at my website:https://3baprinting.com/

The link to the M200 with a full HEPA enclosure is here: https://3baprinting.com/store/ols/pr...lus-hepa-cover

The link to the m300 with a full HEPA enclosure is here: https://3baprinting.com/store/ols/pr...lus-hepa-cover

The link to the m300 dual with a full HEPA enclosure is here: https://3baprinting.com/store/ols/pr...ual-hepa-cover

The link to the inventure is here: https://3baprinting.com/store/ols/pr...trax-inventure


All prices are in CAD, there are a lot of resellers in a lot of countries. Tell me your country, and I can connect you to your nearest reseller.

Edit: I realize that these are a bit out of your budget, but they will pay off in the long run due to their reliability. A failed print in nylon can be costly, nylon is not cheap.

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Yeah That's cool.

I would recommend the Zortrax line of printers. I previously posted a response with 3BA shop, but my account got banned and honestly I do not know why, but I assume I did something wrong so I will take it on the chin. I have since written some pages about each of the Zortrax printers with some more information, purely for educational use. You can read about them here.