Hello,

I am experimenting with some exotic filament that I purchased. I am using the stainless steel filament that Markforged sells for their MetalX printer. The filament is very delicate but after heating my enclosure I have successfully been able to print a part. I guess this would be called a green part. The problem is sintering it....

Currently I have only done one experiment where I put the completed part into a metal casting foundry I built for casting aluminum to try and burn out the PLA binder. I slowly heated the part over the course of 15minutes to around 600 deg F. While heating it slowly smoked a bit and then stopped. At this point I turned up the foundry to 1200 deg F and left it in there for maybe 15 more minutes. I removed the part to see what I had done to it and it basically just fell to dust. Can anyone explain what happened here? Did I basically just burn out the binder and have a part made of dust? Is there some process I missing by allowing it to be exposed to air? I know the real sintering ovens they sell fill a chamber with some type of gas and then bake the part for hours. Does anyone have any ideas for how I could sinter the part correctly?

Thanks!