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Success! - With NylonX

Discussion in 'Show and Tell' started by adikted2astro, Feb 7, 2019.

  1. adikted2astro

    adikted2astro Active Member

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    Just wanted to follow up on the question I posed a week or so ago. I wanted to know if anyone had success printing with NylonX before I tried it.

    Anyways, I made a couple modifications, but the results were excellent. I'm printing some parts for the UNM rocket design team to house electronics and to keep the rocket motor centered in the tube. The rocket is about 6" in diameter and 8 feet tall. I'll post pics of it when it's finished.

    The one major-type modification I made (although it may not have been necessary) was to add a heatsink and small 30mm fan to the back of the extruder. I did this because I had trouble with the extruder stopping mid-print when I tried printing with TPU, which hasd a higher extrusion temp (275 C) than NylonX (260 C), but I didn't want to chance it. So, I wne on amazon and bought this and this. I had to cut off 10mm from one side of the heatsink because if you don't, it will run into the back of the printer and grind your y-axis motor; it needs clearance.

    I wired the fan (5V) to a USB cable and plugged it into the raspi of the printer. I used 6-32 socket head screws to secure the fan to the heatsink and I just used the provided silicone thermal pads to adhere the assembly to the extruder. I ran the wires and usb cable along the uptown adapter and through the hole in the bottom of the printer where the 2nd extruder (if they had ever provided a kit for) was supposed to go. Here's what it all looked like when I was done:

    heatsinkfan.jpg

    So far I've printed two parts out of the NylonX; hotend at 260 C, bed at 85 C, layer height of 0.200mm and glue stick for adhesion. I kind of went overboard on the glue stick, but I did not get any warping whatsoever on the printed parts, so it was worth it. Here are the two I've done so far (if you want details about all the settings in Simplify3D, let me know).

    20190131_150022.jpg
    20190207_101842.jpg

    I do need to play with my retraction settings a bit to prevent oozing, but they both printed almost flawlessly. Also, I just witnessed a compression test for the cylinder object (centering ring). It was printed with 2 perimeter shells and 35% rectilinear infill. Failure occurred where you would expect (at the neck), but only when it reached 11,000 pounds. That's pretty impressive to me. Here is what it looked like after failure:

    20190207_100332.jpg

    Long story short, this material prints very, very well. The only trouble I had with it was getting the parts off the bed. This is now my favorite material to print with and certainly one of the best (if not THE best) for load-bearing parts. If you have questions, let me know.

    EDIT: fan and heatsink have not moved whatsoever, so the silicone pad provided in the kit was enough to keep them secure.
     
    WheresWaldo and mark tomlinson like this.
  2. adikted2astro

    adikted2astro Active Member

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    Got timelapse working too. Had to increase speed by 1000% though because the video was 5.5 minutes long (10 hour print). I wanted to upload it here but it looks like that won't be possible.

    I will admit I am not a fan of the camera angle though.
     
  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    The camera angle is because the built the stupid mount at an angle. Then hoping no one would notice they rotate the picture only in their OctoPrint plugin, robotheme.
     
  4. adikted2astro

    adikted2astro Active Member

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    Yeah I noticed that from my timelapses. It's quite annoying.
     
  5. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    Is the thermal pad still holding the heatsink / fan assembly?
     
  6. adikted2astro

    adikted2astro Active Member

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    Yes it is!
     
  7. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    The TPU filament (which I am using) says 200-220 C. Which TPU filament were you using?
     
  8. adikted2astro

    adikted2astro Active Member

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    Honestly I can't remember, but I'll try to find out.
     
  9. adikted2astro

    adikted2astro Active Member

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    I was using Matterhackers Pro Series TPU. The extrusion temp for this material is 240-260 C, but I may have been using a higher temp. At the time, I wasn't taking detailed notes like I do now, so I cannot say for certain. All I know is that I was getting some heat creep and the heatsink/fan mod alleviated the problem.
     

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