Testing of Many New Filaments

Hello fellow Roboers!

I had the good fortune to receive a bunch of new/sample filaments this past weekend in 1.75mm to try out. I'm working on a blog post, but am kind of behind. Two of the filaments are on a kickstarter that ends in 3 days, so I'm posting here now. Will follow up with a reply when I get the blog post done.

I tested:
Proto Plant Carbon Fiber Filled PLA (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...a-gourmet-food-for-your-3d-printer?ref=search)
ProtoPlant High Temperature PLA (same kickstarter)
colorFabb XT (colorfabb.com)
colorFabb woodfill fine (colorfabb.com)

Here are some pics. Parts were printed on a mix of the Robo, Replicator 1, and Ultimaker.

Carbon Fiber:
This stuff is incredibly stiff and prints quite well.
Parker bridge at 300 micron. Check out that awesome bridging! No cooling fan on this BTW. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:130096


colorFabb woodfill:
Got to print the tiki : ) 200 micron on the robo
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:33746


And a skull 100 micron on Replicator 1


High temperature PLA: I'm going to hold off on posting those pics for now because I used it for experiments that require more explanation. Short summary is that it does hold it's shape better at elevated temperatures, but requires annealing first. At the annealing temperatures, the material droops. So, you need to be able to hold it in it's shape when annealing. A water bath might work great. Not necessarily a problem, but something to consider.

Finally, colorFabb XT.
Heart vase at 200 micron on the robo:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:42570

This material is quite flexible, strong, bridges very well, and can be printed without a heated bed with no/minimal warping.


Twisted Nautilus vase on Repliactor 1 at 300 micron
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40142

 

looks very nice. Was it the colorfabb filament that needed the annealing

 

The colorFabb materials do not require annealing.

The high temperature PLA from the protoplant kickstarter is the one that requires annealing if you want it's high temperature characteristics. Before annealing, it is very flexible, which might be a nice benefit on it's own.

 

Here is my full blog post. http://www.printedsolid.com/testing-new-3d-printing-filament-carbon-fiber-wood-filled-xt-and-more/

 

It really is good material. The material that I tested was not the laywood. It is a different filament from colorFabb that is only available for direct order from colorfabb.com.
The material you bought from ebay is most likely laywood. I've never tried it myself so I can't say anything about the differences.

Last night I tried running a piece where I had colored the filament with sharpie first. It definitely worked, but I didn't really like the way it looked. I might try the rich rap rit dye tye dyed filament trick on it next.

 

The carbon fiber is a bit of beast to print with simply because it is stiff and not on a spool so feeding it is 'fun'.
I have a spare empty spool I might try to spool it up on. I got by with some loops of large tyewraps Hey, it worked.
The quality of the printed filament is awesome.

 

I would just put it on a pole or something and let it unspool itself. If you try forcing it onto a small diameter spool, you might get trouble.

 

Yeah, that was quite obvious. I strung a long ziptie through it and another through that and hung it from the filament pole. That seemed to work ok (but I kept my eye on it).

It is really stiff which complicates things, but the output is righteous.

 

The original one could not, I am not aware of whatever limitations exist on the R1 version. @Printed Solid probably knows, I think he has some R1 units.

 

Why are you thinking it won't work on the original? It's pretty much just PLA.
Should work fine on the original hot end or the hexagon.

 

Yea, you are right, I rechecked the settings we used and it was simply 195. Nothing fancy.