Struggling with Taulman Bridge

Filament
1

I’m having a ton of issues trying to print anything with Bridge material. I wonder if the humidity is too high here or something. I’ve tried baking the spools at 170 degs for 3 hours to dry them out. I also have the roll inside a dry box while printing with box of Silica gel desiccant, but of course there is still a few hundred mm of material in the tube between the dry box and extruder. So that’s my first problem. Secondly, and my biggest issues, 3 out of 4 times I try to print ,the bridge filament jams and kinks at the hobb.

Details: TAZ 5 Hexagon Hotend, 0.35mm nozzle. The printer is only a couple weeks old. I’ve had HUGE success printing lots of large intake tubes that are 200mm tall and 114mm wide at the base that taper down to 50mm with ABS. I’d like to convert over to 100% Bridge as it is more chemically resistant and much stronger for my application. Hoping I can get to where i can consistently print with Bridge like I can with ABS. I’d like to eventually be able to produce these parts with the nylon bridge material, possibly even buy several printers to do so in the next month or 2.

My settings
Nozzle: 250C
Bed: 110C
Note I’ve tried, 235, 240, 245, and even 260C on the nozzle and the bed I’ve tried 80C all the way up to 120C. I can’t get any adhesion unless I print at 110 or above.

Print speed, 50mm/s and also tried 60mm/s, I’m using the Cura profile downloaded off of Lulzbot page, (Fine). I did change the nozzle settings to 0.35mm. Cura slicer.

Filament Diameter is measuring with calipers about 2.71 average, ranges between 2.7 and 2.72.

I’m waiting patiently for the 0.5mm nozzle Hexagon hotend to be available for retail. Hurry Hurry! :smiley:

Lastly when I use the bridge material is tends to oooz out of the nozzle, whether I’m printing or not. Doesn’t stop as long as the temperature is hot enough to melt the material. Is that normal for this material as well? Thanks for the help!!

2

Does anyone else think it’s confusing to have filament called “bridge”? I keep reading and thinking he’s talking about how his prints look when bridging (i.e. spanning an open space). We really need to get more creative with the names in this industry…

Anyways, can you post a pic? It might help to see exactly what’s going on. Or is the only issue that the hotend just oozes a lot when idle?

3

This is a late reply, but I think your problem is print speed. I just started printing with bridge today, so I’m not an expert, but at 40mm/sec I got weak interlayer adhesion and overall disappointing results. At 20mm/sec it is virtually indestructible. I print at 245C/80C on PEI with a thin layer of PVA glue stick. Maybe I’ve just had a lucky first couple of prints, but as of right now this is my new favorite material.

4

The only part I can address is the last paragraph as it is working absolutely great for me on the mini.

Yes,bridge is drippy and you need to remove the last bit just before starting the print.