nylon printin trials

so I started my trials with nylon printing. This stuff absorbs moisture even worst than pla.

so i stuck it in the dryer on medium heat for 2hrs. It worked for a little while. I was able to get a nice print that took 2 hours to print but in that timeframe. It picked up more moisture from the air so I think it needs more drying time in the dryer.

also garolite le works great as a print surface. Too well actually. I have to use a hammer to remove the part...=/. I have some cast nylon sheet coming today to try out and hopefully that will work better for part removal.



third print above is after tweaking settings and drying the nylon.You can see that the nylon stuck enough to the part that it was damage some during the removal.

also the printing temp was not what I'd expected. anything above 240c and i could not get a nice smooth finish. but at 235c I was able to get a better quality print.



my final print for the night was printed with a raft and it was a lot easier to remove. I just slide a razor blade under the part and with just a little force it came right out. I didn't have to take a hammer to it. After it was removed I carefully peeled the raft from the part


in this last photo you can see how strong the bond of the nylon is to the garlite le. It removed some of the coating from the top layer of the garolite le sheet. The nylon still sticks like glue to it though. I will be receiving some cast nylon sheet to try out later today and hopefully it will work better than the garolite le.



photo below is of my nylon drying in the clothes dryer..haha it works though

 

I mentioned before that Josef Prusa did a heated feed tube for Polycarbonate about 2min in. It seems like this would work great with nylon too.

 

Why work with Nylon ? Stronger ? recyclable? if its a pain to wok with why bother ?

 

Mostly because it's stronger, It's significantly stronger the PLA and ABS.

 

Cambo is this 645 or 618? Like the dryer trick what was your heat "setting" you ran it at? Also would kapton or blue tape on the garolite help?

 

michael its 618, i ran the dryer on medium heat for 2 hrs, not sure about the kapton and blue tape haven't tried it. According to the manufactures specs it should work but nylon warps significantly more than abs and tape isn't strong enough to hold it down.

 

Thanks, Cambo. The finish of the nylon @ 235 looks virtually polished compared to the higher temps. Also, with 235 within PEEK range, maybe a metal hot end won't be needed right off. The raft looks good... maybe add a stripe or two of tape for even easier removal. Or try some ice air/freezing. It will also be interesting to see how the nylon dyes. Great colors would be great fun as well.

 

yeah the taulman specs say that 50% of the part can be overlayed with blue masking tape to make it easier to remove when printing on garolite le, though I have not tried it yet.

 

nylon is not the easiest stuff to work with, mainly because it absorbs moisture if you leave it out. In two hours it will absorb moisture from the air and you will have to dry it out again. It warps badly.

not so impressed with this stuff so far.

further reading suggest, once all that moisture is absorbed it takes 12hrs to dry in a 180F oven. No way I'm doing that every time I want to print with it.

I'm going to be experimenting with vacuum drying. It may be a quicker way to dry out the nylon.. more to come on this later.

 

Wow.. the whole moisture think is very concerning to me as I live in the moisture capital of the U.S..... Florida. And my printer will be in my garage. Not looking good for nylon printing for me.

 

Cambo where are you printing at? In the house? Garage?

 

its in my house,

 

Do you have climate control / AC running? Seems weird that is would absorb that much moisture in a climate controlled house.

 

of course, its hot in florida.

for all that ordered nylon in advance and kept it in storage waiting for your printer. Make sure you dry it out before use or you will not get a decent print. desiccant that came with it isn't enough to keep it dry.

 

Here's a idea, like I posted in my thread for keeping filament dry, you could keep it in the tub, and have feed tube and a spool holder system from the tub to the printer, that would eliminate contact to humid air, you could even do the heated feed tube for extra drying.