Printing with Nylon

[jimc]

Rob, i have not actually used or tried the sandpaper trick as of yet. Actually i think that was recommended to me at one point by davo from hyrel. I think he said he used 220grit. You could shoot him a pm. As for psa paper though try indasa redline in 2 3/4" rolls. I hate indasa paper for sanding but it does have a much stronger adhesive than 3m or norton. Its also alot cheaper. Once you cover your bed with it inwould rinse the paper with some water since mist sandpapers have a anti loading agent in them called stearate. This would probably effect adhesion of the nylon. Abs slurry doesnt work. For nylon its either garolite, a cellulose type board like mdf or actual wood like poplar. The third choice is actually a piece of nylon. I think thats all you got to choose from. My 618 is gone and i have a roll of bridge sitting here now for a couple months which i have yet to try but its supposed to be easier.

[RobH2]

Hi Jim, ok, thanks for all that good info. Since garolite doesn't work for me I guess I'm on to nylon or wood. I'll grab a few sheets of "new" sandpaper and see what happens. I think mine might have been old as the grit layer released from the sublayers. I did find the Indasa paper. If nylon and wood fail I'll try that. I like the idea of nylon and wood as there is no adhesive involved. I worry about the wood getting scarred up and going through a lot of it. I do have a planer so I can always start out thick and then shave it down. Since I did the auto-leveling upgrade, that not a problem anymore.

I'll report back. Thanks again for the good info on the paper and stearate issue.

[jimc]

I have heard of alot more success stories with nylon

[RobH2]

I'm hoping I'm able to join that "success story" club soon. I have some ideas and need to print the parts in nylon. I'll figure it out. Your input was valuable. I'll keep at it.

[RobH2]

I had success today. I printed on wood and used a clip light behind and one in front to create heat. I set the bed to 80C and the wood did heat up to that temperature. I surrounded them with foamcor to create an envelope and my 4"x3" part printed perfectly. I've had 5 failures with the same part using different substrates and techniques.

I hope to repeat the success so that I know I have a technique instead of a happy accident. It's a 7 hour print and most of the warps don't start until it's over 1/2 way done so it's been frustrating. But for now I'm thrilled. I can't wait to use up this 618 Nylon as I've ordered some Nylon Bridge per Jim's suggestion. It should make life much easier.

Nylon618Success.jpg

[jimc]

Nice! Progress

[RobH2]

I have a Makerbot Replicator 2x and I want to start printing using nylon. I have the nylon filament coming this week but I want to know people's experiences.

Thank you in advance.

I have great news to report. I've now made two prints with Bridge Nylon and it is amazing stuff. I took years off of my life trying to print 618 Nylon. Bridge prints on glass with Elmers glue stick and it sticks like crazy. In fact, I had some filament stream out of the hotend at 'Home' and it coiled up on the bed (untreated area over in that corner) and it stuck to the bare glass. How nice is that?

The only problem I had was on a small layer that printed in too short of a time several spots tended to melt and get ugly. I need to change the 'minimum time per layer' parameter from 5-seconds to something longer and test again. But, I think that will solve it.

So, to come full circle in this long thread, Idabkey, get some Bridge and try it. Thanks to Jim for recommending it.

[RobH2]

Final wrap-up. Today I printed one of the cleanest parts I've ever printed. It was with Bridge Nylon. I didn't use particularly thin layers or a slow print speed (.24mm and 40mm/s). Granted, I've spent months calibrating this machine and I do expect good prints (as long as I can get them to stick and not warp), but, I am thoroughly impressed with Bridge.

Here is a shot of the part. The hole is a 1/4" hole for a 1/4-20 bolt and is really, really clean. I'll pass a bit through it to clean it up but I really don't need to. The flutes (grip) at the left printed nicely too. I got zero warp on the contact surface with a 6 line brim. I mean zero. It's glass flat. So anyway, just wanted to pass this along.

_Bridge.jpg

[RobH2]

Be careful what you wish for...lol... I've solved my "sticking" problems too well.

I read about using PVA glue to coat the glass bed in a post by Zennmaster. "Cool," I thought, as I've tried everything else. So I ran to my shop and looked for some Elmers Glue. I had none but I had some white wood glue without a label so I used that. Well, the print stuck, well, like glue!

It stuck so well, that it cracked my new borosilicate glass down the middle while it was cooling off of the machine. I've ran it under hot water and that did not soften the glue so I've been trying to carefully lift it with a single-edge razor blade and a putty knife. So far, only one new crack in the glass. It's really stuck. If I ever get it off I'll have my first truly "warp free" nylon part.

PVA.jpg

[jimc]

Haha watch what you wish for right rob? Lol. Sux you cracked the glass. I have heard it sticks to glass really well and guys are using glue stick to actually keep it from bonding so well. Ive had my roll here quite awhile and i still havent printed with it. If you print with it enough im sure youll get a good procedure worked out for it. Keep us posted!