by RetireeJay » 2015-Dec-Thu-11-Dec
I instantly gave up on ABS after printing one part because of the smell. Same with PLA.
I spent a long time printing with nylon. It has some desirable properties. It's odorless to my nose, although it does seem to give off some white "smoke" when printing that does accumulate slowly on nearby surfaces (I noticed that when cleaning a nearby window). Nylon is very tough, meaning resistant to breaking. It's somewhat flexible, but depending on how thick you make the parts it can be quite strong and almost rigid if you need it to be. However, it's quite tricky to find a good bed for adhesion. My last, best, attempt is using glue stick on top of glass, heated to 75 or 80C. Nylon is just about impervious to glues and paints. It absorbs moisture from the air, so you need to keep it in a dry chamber for storage. But the worst thing about nylon is that it oozes from the nozzle big time, even when you are not pushing it. Perhaps one of the newer metal nozzle types with a very small hot zone ameliorates that problem to some extent.
I've printed several pounds of T-Glase. It is not as flexible as nylon, but it is surprisingly strong. If you bend it too far, it will break rather than bend. I've never worried about moisture absorption from the air when using T-Glase. It will ooze a little, but nowhere near as bad as nylon. It's a little friendlier to glues and paints. I print it on a glass bed with glue stick at 70C. If it doesn't stick, then I know I need to refresh the surface - at least by cleaning, perhaps with more glue stick. When the crud gets too thick on the glass, I take the glass plate off and wash all glue off in the kitchen sink to start over. T-Glase used to be transparent/translucent, but now there is an opaque white option. Parts made with the translucent versions of T-Glase seem to look a little more "textured" than parts I've seen made with opaque materials.
Printrbot Plus operational January 2013
Brass threaded rods (5/16" X 18) & nuts for Z axis
GT2 belts & pulleys
Cable chain to reduce probability of fatigue failure in wires
E3D V5 Hot End, 0.4mm nozzle, also 0.8 and 0.25 in use occasionally
PB fan mount + 40mm fan -- using printed mount adapter, not the E3D supplied fan
Injection molded extruder gears
Optical Z "endstop" (custom designed and built)
Have used many pounds of T-Glase filament. Now also doing some work with Ninjaflex SemiFlex
Print on glass with Scotch Craft Stick or other glue stick
"My next printer is..." Prusa i3 MK3, upgraded to MK3S