TAZ 5 purchase

Hello All,

I am in the process of buying a TAZ 5 and I have a few questions:

  1. It seems that the FlexyDually Tool Head has a bigger nozzle (0.5mm) as opposed to the normal head (0.35mm?).
    According to the website “Each standard nozzle is .5mm which is optimized for flexible filaments, but this also limits the resolution that can be achieved with this tool head.” which is fine when I print flex or rigid & flex, but if I want to print in a finer res can I then swap out the single head? Is that a moderately easy task?

  2. Can I replace one of the nozzles on the FlexyDually head to a smaller diameter?

  3. Is there a better option for using a twin head using flexable material.

  4. What head for carbon fiber?

Sorry for all of the questions from a total noob, but I only want to buy as close to what I need from the beginning.

Thank you,
Muggs

Hiya!

  1. You need a larger nozzle orifice to print flexible materials at a decent speed. You can achieve fine resolution with a 0.50mm nozzle/hot end- by printing at finer layer heights. It’s tempting to correlate nozzle diameter with print resolution, but it’s not needed. See this thread on printing with at 0.50mm nozzle at 0.05mm layer height: AO-101 Prints at 0.05mm

  2. You can, but it’s not recommended. We would have equipped the Flexystruder with a 0.35mm nozzle if we had found that it performed better. Stick with the 0.50mm nozzle.

  3. The Dually Flexy works well! https://www.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-taz-flexydually-tool-head

  4. The stock head can print with it- but you’re risking your hot end and nozzle. While carbon fiber filaments seem like a good idea, there hasn’t been much testing to see how they perform compared to the stronger nylon filaments. It may not be worth it/ as strong as you’d think:

A special note on Carbon Fiber Filament:
From: > Colorfabb.com

A special point of attention is the abrasive nature of the carbon fibers. In general these fibers will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. Therefore we recommend to use nozzle’s from Stainless steel or hardened copper alloys.

While it’s tempting to try using filament containing carbon fiber, many users are reporting trouble extruding after using that material, even from different vendors. We’ve seen people that wear out the inside of their nozzle, not to mention having lingering extrusion issues after switching to more common filament types.

One of the benefits of carbon fiber containing materials are it’s strength, similarly to good quality plywood. The interlocking long carbon fiber strands give the material a super-strong core. All the filaments we’ve seen so far however, don’t have that same kind of long carbon fiber strands, so your prints are similar to Oriented Strand Board (cheaper plywood with smaller fiber length), which isn’t as strong or as durable. That somewhat defeats the purpose of using carbon fiber materials.

We find that for applications needing high-strength printed parts Nylon is a great material. While a bit slower to print, the parts are much, much stronger.

Orias,

WOW, that’s great information. Thanks so much. I’ve been involved with FDM for a long time and I’m excited to be getting my own.

Unless you’re printing a continuous strand, the conductive nataure of carbon fiber may be the only bemefit of the filament. “Chopped” carbon fiber is only as strong as the material binding the pieces of CF together. The weave of carbon fiber also contributes to the strength and rigidity.

Of course, printing a continuous strand of carbon fiber requires a mechanism to cut the strand on retraction or layer change. Not an every day feature of a normal hot end. :slight_smile: There was some coverage of a machine at CES that could extrude a filament with a continuous strand of CF. But it’s almost 3 times the cost if the Taz 5.


My Taz 5 just arrived. Its well built and I can’t wait to get printing on it. The beefy thread screws definitely instill confidence in the ability to crank out high resolution prints. I hope you’re just as satisfied with your machine when it arrives!

kcchen_00,

Thanks, I have been wondering just that, and I have been reading plenty about it. But thanks for your input.
I just ordered my TAZ 5 yesterday so I’m very excited to get started.
I was wondering…what if I printed “hollows” in the design and paused the machine (can I enter g-code that will pause the machine at certain points in the build?) then inserted real carbon fiber cloth into the hollows and continued with the build?

Muggs

I think I accidentally responded to your question in the Filaments section… :slight_smile: I’m no expert with carbon fiber… just have a fascination from car parts and multirotor hobby.

Sandwiching carbon fiber cloth would be an interesting idea, but it would be difficult to get the cloth packed into the opening in a tight enough fashion to produce the rigidity. The cloth is usually impregnated with epoxy and vacuum formed around a mold… then its cured in an oven which is really the key to carbon fiber’s rigidity and strength.

I guess you could design a hollow section in your project, lay in pre-pregnated carbon fiber then finish it off… but if the epoxy doesn’t cure, the cloth would just shift against each other. I’d be more concerned with the epoxy getting on your TAZ or the hotend. :slight_smile:

Well, once I get my TAZ 5, I’ll definitely be doing some sperimentin’!!

Do be honest I really don’t believe in extruded carbon fiber. The strength of carbon fiber is in the fiber, not the resin its embedded in. When working with it in epoxy resin, you want to lay out the strands along the projected stress path so the stress is applied along the fiber, not across it. The popular carbon fiber weave is a compromise here for simplicity of use and ease of construction. Its strong in two directions as normal cloth is. However on its diagonals its weaker.

Now imagine taking that cloth and grinding it up into tiny bits. Where is the strength then? Nowhere. And thats exactly what you get in extruded carbon fiber filament. Ground up carbon fibers and a binder (usually abs or pla from what I have seen). In my honest opinion, its hype and not backed up by sufficient testing that I have seen.

I, too, am just getting into 3d printing and frankly I wouldn’t touch the stuff. Too much possible damage to the printer (like running sandpaper through the extruder) with no appreciable benefit.

Yep… exactly. Chopped strand is only as strong as the resin/plastic holding it together.

Here’s the link to the continuous strand machine I mentioned:
https://markforged.com/

Seems promising… you won’t get the weave of cloth, but you could potentially lay down strands in the direction of stress. But it seems as though you wouldn’t be able to get the density of strands.