filaments other than ABS or PLA

[harveyl]

Hi,
I'm a total newbie to the world of 3D printing but it excites me and I'm looking to get my first printer with the printrbot high up on the list.

I'm interested in printing in chemically-resistant material in order to make customizable reactors. Polypropylene (PP) and HDPE are two materials which would be of interest - I've seen a few reports of test runs, mainly with repraps. Has anyone tried to print with PP or HDPE on a printrbot?

Also, I came across this site:
http://www.taulman3d.com/
where they seem to have a nylon co-polymer that looks really interesting. It's been tested with a printrbot at a temperature of 238-247. Has anyone in this forum tried it out?

Thanks,
Harvey

[holmes4]

Some discussion here about Nylon 618.

[Mooselake]

And some more here using a specific cheap weed wacker twine.

Sorry; I'm just slow.

Kirk

[RetireeJay]

I've been using Taulman3D nylon for a month now. In fact, I only ever used ABS to print one thing (Mr. Jaws) - and decided the fumes were too bad for me to use the printer in the house. Nylon is almost (not quite) odor-free.

Nylon makes nice strong objects that are not brittle, and they won't break down with age. It's immune to almost all organic chemicals (strong acid is about the only way to attack it).

In the world of 3D printing, it has the disadvantage that it continues to flow out from your nozzle even after you have withdrawn the feed filament out of the hot zone. That is to say, there must be a pool of molten plastic that continues to ooze out. This makes certain parts of certain prints rather "blobby" or "stringy." So it depends on what your goal is. I would not recommend nylon for creating art. But for engineering prototypes where you have some control over where the "difficult" points land, it can be great.

Another unique property of nylon is that it doesn't stick to anything. Since 3D printing requires a base layer that's fixed down to a flat bed, that's a problem. However there are solutions. See viewtopic.php?f=74&t=2391

[plexus]

I've been using nylon, wood and polystyrene, as well as ABS and PLA. i printed the nautical gears in each material and place to post them in the forum soon.

WIth the Taulman Nylon 618, i have to say its very very strong and flexible. there is none of that sounds of layers breaking when you bend it (like with ABS). however it is very very stringy and ooze like niagara falls. no amoutn of retraction helps. so with prints with open spaces i get lots of stringy infill that i didn't ask for. and because nylon is so strong its hard to clean up. i think its good for prints that have less small details and open areas. although if you need strength you can print with it and clean up the print. the nautilus gears work but barely.

polystyrene is the opposite: very precise printing and clean clean prints. but its not very strong at all, the weakest material of the 5 i've tried so far.

[Michele31415]

Anyone seen this stuff? http://store.makerbot.com/flexible-filament.html They're pretty cagey about it - lots of specs, except for the actual name. "Flexible filament", OK - what is it? At $130 per 2.2 lbs., it must be very special indeed!

I'd like to find something that I can make flexible objects with, like custom sized washers.

[SilverFingers]

Anyone seen this stuff? http://store.makerbot.com/flexible-filament.html They're pretty cagey about it - lots of specs, except for the actual name. "Flexible filament", OK - what is it? At $130 per 2.2 lbs., it must be very special indeed!

I'd like to find something that I can make flexible objects with, like custom sized washers.

Check out NinjaFlex: http://www.fennerdrives.com/ninjaflex3dprinting/_/3d/

Or filaflex (1.75mm coming soon) : http://recreus.com/?post_type=product

[Michele31415]

Thanks! That looks like just what I was looking for. Unfortunately, no matter which type or color I select, it always says

"Pricing information is not currently available for the selected item. Please try again later. "

Perhaps they're part of the government shutdown.

[REPRAP SQUAD]

I use makergeeks.com a lot as they have every kind of filament I could imagine at good prices. I was pretty impressed with less than 24hr response to emails. All in all they have been a pleasure to work with. They even stock conductive filament. I have some but I haven't tested out the conductive filament yet but I've used the majority of their other stuff and it works well.

[Michele31415]

They even stock conductive filament. I have some but I haven't tested out the conductive filament yet but I've used the majority of their other stuff and it works well.

Have you measured the actual resistance of this stuff? I could think of all sorts of cool applications if it was a good conductor.

[Mooselake]

[quote="Michele31415]Have you measured the actual resistance of this stuff? I could think of all sorts of cool applications if it was a good conductor.[/quote]
It's quite high, 10,000 ohm-cm. Makergeeks says 104, but that's likely a misprint of 10 superscript 4. RetireeJay can probably tell you what that means for a cm of typical 0.3*0.7mm extruded filament. My friend Sly Drool is out of reach.

Over on cnczone Hoss has somewhat successfully printed with pewter. It liquifies and has serious dribbling problems, but it can be done. Reprap.org has discussions about printing with fine copper wire.

Kirk

[Tdeagan]

They even stock conductive filament. I have some but I haven't tested out the conductive filament yet but I've used the majority of their other stuff and it works well.

Have you measured the actual resistance of this stuff? I could think of all sorts of cool applications if it was a good conductor.

I bought some of this. It's conductive in the same manner as the static control packages that chips are sent in. I've been back and forth with the Makergeeks on the conductivity. Here's the last they sent me:
"Hey Tim, I did a little test print; about 20 layers thick and about 4" long and hit it with 12v and I was reading about 10.8v at the other end of the trace. So it's not copper that's for sure but still pretty cool for something that you can 3D print with"

My tests so far show it to be less conductive than that (I'm seeing mega-ohm resistance,) but I'm still playing with it. They seem to have lit some LEDs with it.

[RetireeJay]

"Hey Tim, I did a little test print; about 20 layers thick and about 4" long and hit it with 12v and I was reading about 10.8v at the other end of the trace. So it's not copper that's for sure but still pretty cool for something that you can 3D print with"

That test condition is obviously not designed by an electrical engineer - or if it is, he's intentionally trying to hide the facts. Because you need to know (A) how much current was flowing and (B) the cross-sectional area of the conductor in order to calculate the resistivity. How thick were the layers? And how wide was the printed object? And how much current was flowing? If all he was using was a voltmeter, then the current flow was very low.

In previous work with my employer a few years ago, I really searched diligently for a conductive plastic but at that time all the candidates were, as Tim says, in the mega-ohms range. Don't expect to print an operating circuit board with this stuff. It's OK for draining static charge, but not much more.