Printing WAX

I received a spool of machinable wax filament a couple of days ago.
I took a little time this evening to setup the wax filament. I’m starting my first test, printing the front of the Corsair wheel. The first layer went down better than any other print I’ve done ever. The print is on the 5th layer. I’ve bumped up the speed by 25% and it is looking great. If this continues to perform like this, I will become a big proponent of this filament. Anyone wanting to do lost wax castings will want this stuff!

Nozzle temp 135
Bed temp 65
Layer height 0.08mm
Nozzle dia. 0.25mm
Print speed 35.0mm
Fan 75-100%
shells 3


Cheers,

Scott

Having problems with bed adhesion. I won’t be able to do any more testing until Sunday.

Cheers,
Scott

In general, the higher temperature you print at the hotter you will want your bed to help adhesion. Our PLA prints at 205c and sticks great on a 60c bed with clean PEI. For a 135c printing temp, I would suggest a 40c bed on clean PEI first. If still having issues, throw down a layer from a washable glue stick before the print and see how it goes.

The manufacturer’s recommendation is for a nozzle temp of 135-140 and a bed temp of 65-75. I started a new test at 135, 75, and so far, 1.3mm in height with no problems. The other tests failed before this point.


Scott

Well, the last one failed after I went to bed at 3.1mm. Now, I am trying blue tape.

Scott

Tried and failed with blue tape. Tried and failed with glue stick, but it might not be the right type. I used a clear washable Scholastic brand.
Now I am trying to print on standard printer paper. At 1.4mm, so far, looks ok.


Cheers,

Scott

If that doesn’t work, you might see if you can find a wax slab somewhere and print directly on to that. Wax sticks to Wax, but not much else well.

How about a taped down with painters tape piece of waxed paper. AKA wax on wax.

Might be a possibility. direct on paper failed, but what did stick, stuck better than other attempts. I’m trying again with a brim. The more I think about it, the more I like your idea.

The saga continues . . .
Scott

Wax paper failed the worst. The problem is that the wax on the paper is a much lower temp wax. The print pulled up on the second layer.

I am now trying a 2 layer raft (0.16mm) with a 1mm margin on copy paper. I have high hopes for this test.

Scott

Grrrr. Finding a good method for bed adhesion is more torture than the Search for Spock! The raft on paper was a good idea. The part adheres to the paper really well. The problem is that the paper has no way to stick to the bed, so the part warps.
Next up, raft on build plate.

Scott

Thick cardboard sheet held down by clips? Or a thin sheet of plywood?

I was just thinking about that. My first thought was 1/8" MDF. I tried a raft, but the part peeled from the raft. Then I tried adding a 2 layer thick base to the part,but again, it peeled up from the base. I really want to find a solution to working with this material. It would be the perfect material for a lot of projects I’d like to do. Particularly for parts that would be very difficult to mold.

Scott

Make your own wax paper using the same wax as your printing with?

I’d try to just saturate a piece of paper with molten wax, cool, scrape of the residual and tape it to your bed.
Maybe dry paper on a hot plate and rub it with one of your failed parts.



-Denny

I tried card stock and it warped with the first two layers of the wax. I set some 1/32 plywood on top of the warm bed as I contemplated how to clip it down. Just sitting there it warped, so I am tossing that idea. Next, I am trying to print an oversized pad of wax two layers thick on the bed at 95c. Then, I’ll drop the bed temp down to 80c and try a print on top of that.

Scott

Why not try a cold bed?

I tried that early on. It came right off. After about 4 layers, I dropped the bed temp setting from 95 to 70 and bumped up the nozzle to 140. Right now I am at 5.6mm of 16.8mm. This is getting close to my previous best. So far, no signs of lifting or layer separation, and the print continues to be clean. I also turned off the fan for this print. Before I was running it at either 50% or 75%. I’ve also learned that it doesn’t like the enclosure door closed. When it warms up too much, the printing of the support starts to degrade. That happened at around 1.5mm. I opened the door and the print got clean again.
Fingers crossed.

Well, I did notice some lifting of the some support material. I’ll have to keep a close eye. Perhaps going to a grid support…

Scott

Perhaps you should start printing a simple object that requires no support until you figure out the best adhesion settings for the material and then slowly work your way up to support structures.

I came close, but still ended up with a split. Now, I am trying a new approach while still using what has worked so far. Using Simplify3D, I am printing on top of a .2mm base layer with a bed temp of 95 and nozzle at 140. Once the bed is printed, I drop the temp down to 50 and the nozzle to 136. I am printing the first 11.6mm of the part at .2mm layer, then switch to .08mm for the rest of the print to get the good surface detail on the top side. I think the reduced printing time will help, and the thicker layers might help too. I’ll know the results later tonight.

Cheers,

Scott

I made a mistake on last nights print. On the second printing profile, the one with the .08 layer height, was the original profile I created in S3D. When I used it as the fine profile for the top of the wheel print, I had forgotten to change the bed temp from 95 to 55. I came in near the end of the print and found quite a mess as the part peeled off the board and in the enclosure, softened and really distorted the part. Tonight I corrected that issue and did a slight modification to the supports for easier cleaning. I also gave the bed a light spray of hairspray thinking ‘what the hey, I might as well throw in the kitchen sink’ in trying to solve this problem. Well, I’m at 14.6mm of the 17mm print and it’s looking good. It should be done around an hour or so.

Scott