Wax Filament

[Wes@MachWax]

We have been working on a wax that will function in the filament type printers. Yesterday was the first time we were able to prove the concept! We are still in the very early stages, but I still wanted to share this exciting development. Let me know what you think!

[awerby]

If you get it working, it would probably burn out better than PLA, so metal casts will likely be cleaner. I don't see it being fine enough for jewelry or dentistry, but for simple functional parts it could work well.

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com

[Wes@MachWax]

Correct on both points. It will definitely burnout cleaner than PLA, and the detail would be sub par for most jewelers/dental labs. There is some minor interest for the smaller operations who may not have the money to buy the more expensive printers who would be willing to print, and modify by hand to suit the finer detail necessary with jewelry.

[LambdaFF]

Let us know how it goes. Sounds interesting.

[curious aardvark]

Hmm, I'm guessing the flexibility with sufficient hardness to go through an extruder is the hard part.

Interesting though :-)

[Wes@MachWax]

Hmm, I'm guessing the flexibility with sufficient hardness to go through an extruder is the hard part.

Interesting though :-)

It is a delicate balance. It wants to wrap around the filament feed motor much like the ninjaflex type filaments. I am going to modify the drive slightly so I can insert some ptfe tubing to help guide it down to the heat block.



I used Simplify 3D for the first time printing this smaller NASA wrench last Friday. All the settings, besides temperature were default. I came in Saturday to try some larger scale items. It didn't go as well. I had issues that mostly were ironed out by slowing down the feed rate while extruding. Then, halfway through a decent looking print, the filament jammed. So, I just called it a day, and decided to continue it on Monday.

[Wolfie]

Hmm...3d printed Nips. Well there is a curious thing right there eh? Wondering, can you make this stuff food grade?

[Wes@MachWax]

I did a 5mm step calibration test.


I also ran a few surface calibration prints. This was the better of them at 50 micron. The wrench supporting it was a 200 micron print.


Not exactly where we want to be, but getting very close.

[Wes@MachWax]

It could be food grade if we pursued the certification, but for it's intended purpose of casting, I don't think we would.

[Wolfie]

It could be food grade if we pursued the certification, but for it's intended purpose of casting, I don't think we would.

For your intended purpose of casting, no. But why not broaden its market by getting certified at some point and then branching out into the culinary market. AFAIK, the only thing available in that market is the ChefJet which has yet to ship. Since you are working with low temperature source material, chocolate, butter, even stuff like fondant could be in your grasp.

And I was wondering if anyone had considered stuff like caramelized sugar and isomalt. Isomalt melts at 150c ish. Right in the range of many extruders. Can you say 3D printed candy?

I was also wondering if anyone had considered a cooling bed instead of a heating bed, perhaps using peltier chips? Might enhance deposition of cool melting products like wax, chocolate etc by more rapidly solidifying it before it can sag/ooze. Not thinking actually frosting a beer mug cold but more along the lines of sinking heat away from the deposited material and taking it down to room temp or slightly below before it can distort after being deposited. Just a thought. Dunno if it would help or hurt.