This is my first printer and for the past week and a half I’ve been having a blast playing with ABS and PLA. I’m about to order some nylon and have noticed others saying it has difficulties sticking to the bed. I’ve seen some solutions but would like to find some input from someone experienced in printing nylon with the mini. I’ll add my input once I’ve experimented myself.
Since this is also my first post I’d like to say that I’m loving this printer and I’m so glad I choose it for my first
We recommend using either Uhu gluestick on the bed when printing with Nylon, or a watered down solution of PVA (white school glue). It should be roughly milk-like in consistency. Wipe that onto the bed and once dried try your print again. Too much and the part will be really hard to remove, too light and it may not hold well.
First off thanks Orias for your comment. I’ve been holding back on adding my experience to this thread till I actually had some. Also I my order of bridge and 645 got bungled and I ended up with two spools of 645 instead of one of each. On top of that the spools had moisture contamination so they sat in a bag of cab-o-sil for a week… there dry now.
So I had found many suggestions regarding the white glue and just as many saying it doesn’t work. I was skeptical but went out and bought some anyway. My belief is that it does work but it’s not strong enough to fight the warping that occurs after the first few layers. The warping is probably something I can figure out over time, I hope. First off I started with Cura profiles from lulzbot.com then began adjusting them to what Taulman suggest on their website. The closer I use Taulman’s settings which are non specific to any one printer the less warping. I do have a felling that ambient temperature is playing a part. We’ve been experiencing some crazy swings in the weather going from 100f one week to 50f the next. I have rigged up a temporary inclosure using a clear trash bag and with the improvements it’s added I have plans to build a real one.
A couple of days after starting this thread and ordering my spools of nylon Taulman introduce Alloy 910, I immediately ordered some. First print was flawless till I popped it off the bed and gave it a bend test. All the five or so layers of the gear key chain you find in the support USB delaminated. That’s when I put a trash bag over the Mini and problem solved (no, I did not obstruct the fans cooling the board). It’s not as strong as I was hoping for. A friend at work tested a part with only 1 shell thickness by whacking it with a hammer (not a full strength whack but not light either) and it fractured. It did not split apart until I through it at the ground with all my might. I then gave PLA and ABS the same treatment and they didn’t hold their own comparison, not even close. The same part in alloy 910 with a shell thickness of 3 and fill of 30 only lost a chunk, it was not a usable part after that but it did not explode. I highly recommend playing around with alloy 910.
Back to getting nylon to work on the mini I’m hopping I can just swap out the heat element and glass with a 3/16 sheet of garolite from McMaster. If anyone knows that’s not going to work please let me know, other wise I’ll post what comes of it.
i have been printing large pieces with bridge nylon with absolutely no problems sticking to bed. simply make sure bed has a layer of pei on it. then use a glue stick while it is cool 2 crossed layers should be plenty any more and it sticks too much. pei comes standard on the mini. this method works for me every time with no problems.
I just started trying out prints in the bridge nylon. I have a sheet of buildtak on my KitTaz and with just a few layers on a cold bed of the recommended glue stick worked great. I applied the glue and then heated up the bed to 60C and printed out a couple of octo with no lifting at all.
How does the glue stick bed prep affect the ability for materials like ABS or HIPS to stick and release. This sounds like a great way to destroy the PEI material if you switch between nylon and ABS…
What am I missing?
I just cleaned the bed with some watered down alcohol on a rag between prints, has not damaged my bed as of yet and I have been using this method for about a month now.
I tried printing a ~ 2 x 2 inch part in nylon 910 on the mini with gluestick.
first with default cura mini profiles for 910. a lot of warping but it stayed stuck on until the end but was only about 50% of it was still attached.
then i tried the same profile but with cooling fan turned off. this was a lot better but still a little bit peeled up. maybe 75% of it was still attached.
not sure whta to try next. maybe with a big raft? apparently that is the way to go. or also with a full enclosure. I guess the idea with enclosure is the whole part stays warmer the whole time so that it will change size less and therefore peel up less. since the drafts can cool it quicker.
btw i am printing parts with 100% infill. so it is like worst case scenario for warping.
I just pour some elmers glue on the bed and create a nice thin layer, turn the bed heat on and let it dry. Then print on that, holds it great. Ive also found the UHU glue sticks to be crap compared to the elmers purple glue stick.
100% infill will certainly increase the warping effect due to the material shrinkage, which increases the force trying to pull the part off of the bed. try going lower. 50 to 70% max.
Not sure if it was a typo, but try a large brim (not a raft). See if that helps hold the part down.
-Jim