Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Thanks for the info...guess I'll be waiting on Nylon then. Also, looks like SeeMeCNC says 240C is the max operating temperature of their PEEK hotend.

http://seemecnc.com/collections/parts-a ... nc-hot-end

Thanks for the info!
Gonna try it.

cope413 wrote:NO!!

Nylon needs to print at 260-265 to get good layer adhesion.

Gotta have an all-metal end to print with nylon.

Can you point us at metal hot end(s) you use or recommend?

What temperature do you print the line trimmer material?

Most people on this forum - myself included - use the E3D hot end. http://e3d-online.com/

It's fantastic. There's a US distributor now, but they don't have their act together yet, and don't have the bowden version available yet.

I print at 265 with the trimmer line with excellent results

cope413 wrote:Most people on this forum - myself included - use the E3D hot end. http://e3d-online.com/

thanks very much for your patient answers.

The web site seems to have 2 E3D hot tips, the "direct" and "bowden".

By context, I guess bowden means the filament is fed thru a ptfe tube,
and so is the one I should get for compatibility with the Rostock Max.

Please correct me I'f I'm guessing wrong.

The metal hot tips all seem to have a different style mount.
Did you just fabricate your own mounting adapter?

mrbi11 wrote:

cope413 wrote:Most people on this forum - myself included - use the E3D hot end. http://e3d-online.com/

thanks very much for your patient answers.

The web site seems to have 2 E3D hot tips, the "direct" and "bowden".

By context, I guess bowden means the filament is fed thru a ptfe tube,
and so is the one I should get for compatibility with the Rostock Max.

Please correct me I'f I'm guessing wrong.

The metal hot tips all seem to have a different style mount.
Did you just fabricate your own mounting adapter?

Either type will work with the Rostock Max. They would just use different types of mounts.
The non-bowden type would use a mount similar to this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:60539

The bowden mount version would use a mount similar to this one: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:137140

Mounts can also be purchased from SeeMeCNC or Trick Laser.
I prefer the bowden type E3D because it has some nice bowden tube connectors and I feel the difference in
cost is worth it. If you are going to order one you may want to get a different size nozzle also just to experiment
with and it is a lot less if you buy one with the E3D rather than later because of the shipping which is expensive.

Cope, any updates??

DavidF wrote:Cope, any updates??

A "How to" for printing with Nylon would be helpful, like the one you did for ABS.
If you are in the mood to teach.

Any ideas to fine tune this? It seems like the diameter of the trimmer line is keeping the print from better results.

thenewguy wrote:Any ideas to fine tune this? It seems like the diameter of the trimmer line is keeping the print from better results.

image.jpg

basically I'm the other new guy so take this with a grain of salt.

I believe the diameter of the filament does not matter.
The diameter of your nozzle might be a factor. I understand smaller nozzles get finer results.
You can also look at print speed,
and insure no carriages or mechanical connections are loose.

I don't know anything specific to nylon...

The filament diameter is one of the most important factors. Without that, the slicing tool won't know if it's extruding the correct amount of material for a given operation.

g.

I am working on a post for it, but there just aren't enough hours in the day right now.

I have an E3D, and when I print with it, my retraction is at 12mm @80mm/s

For that print, I would try printing a little cooler... 250-255C

If your filament isn't totally dry, stringing is unavoidable.

Filament diameter is critical for good prints - with all filaments.

My line is 1.63-1.65mm

Full disclosure - I haven't attempted the cal pyramid with the trimmer line yet, but I will and I'll post my results.

I have, however, printed over 30lbs of the stuff in the past 5-6 months, so take that for what it's worth.

cope413 wrote:Full disclosure - I haven't attempted the cal pyramid with the trimmer line yet, but I will and I'll post my results.

I have, however, printed over 30lbs of the stuff in the past 5-6 months, so take that for what it's worth.

Worth ~30lbs of slightly used nylon. I always sucked at riddles.

cope413 wrote:I am working on a post for it, but there just aren't enough hours in the day right now.

I have an E3D, and when I print with it, my retraction is at 12mm @80mm/s

For that print, I would try printing a little cooler... 250-255C

If your filament isn't totally dry, stringing is unavoidable.

Filament diameter is critical for good prints - with all filaments.

My line is 1.63-1.65mm

With abs, a quick way of smoothing the surface is a Acetone on a paper towel.
Does that or anything similar work with Nylon?
(I have a nylon spool, but have not printed with it yet.)

On diameter question, I'm not really clear what that can possibly have to do with anything.
Does 1.75mm abs work better or worse than 3mm abs?

Of course, your slicer has to have the matching diameter to compute goo volume, but I tend to assume
people have read the instructions.

So, what does filament diameter have to do with anything?
(other than telling the slicer the right diameter.)

1.75mm isn't always 1.75mm. In the case of trimmer line, it is actually .065" Which is 1.65mm. In order to get good print results, you need to measure every spool of filament and enter your measured value your slicer program. Otherwise, you're going to over or under extrude

cope413 wrote:1.75mm isn't always 1.75mm. In the case of trimmer line, it is actually .065" Which is 1.65mm. In order to get good print results, you need to measure every spool of filament and enter your measured value your slicer program. Otherwise, you're going to over or under extrude

I concur. You guys are extremely proficient and experienced. Telling one of us novices that diameter is important may get heard as "you need to buy a different diameter".
Which for nylon is possible but means custom expensive hardware for larger cheap nylon or expensive rolls of 3d nylon.
So "Its important to set your diameter precisely in your slicer program" is what a novice needs to know.
Having been on a few goose chases myself.... It can be hard to teach beginners when you know too much about a subject. Thanks for taking the time to answer.
And BTW, without your posts I'd be months behind where I am now. So I really mean thank you.

Hi,
I posted a reply about generic stuff with line trimmer, and it made me finally try it myself.

What your picture looks like, is what my first print looked like, and that is your nylon needs to be dried out.
My first print went snap crackle and smoked.

Search the forum about drying nylon.
I put my spool in the oven overnight at about 180, now it prints smooth like glass.

Trouble with being one of the new guys is you dont know what it is you dont know.
Sorry about my first post, it was way off mark.

Just ordered my E3D hotend this morning. Anyone have a link to the actual trimmer line that you are using with your printer?

0110-m-p wrote:Just ordered my E3D hotend this morning. Anyone have a link to the actual trimmer line that you are using with your printer?

http://www.amazon.com/Maxpower-333665-R ... immer+line

dpmacri wrote:

0110-m-p wrote:Just ordered my E3D hotend this morning. Anyone have a link to the actual trimmer line that you are using with your printer?

http://www.amazon.com/Maxpower-333665-R ... immer+line

Thanks, I just ordered some and should be printing with nylon sometime this weekend. Is everyone still using glue sticks (cope seems to like Scotch Permanent at 75C from reading this thread)?

I would follow Cope's ideas, he has printed more of the line trimmer filament than anyone else on this forum.

So I got my E3D installed and made a couple of parts. I didn't dry the material, but I definitely need to before my next try because it was very stringy and had pretty poor surface quality in general. Also, I had a bit of corner lifting using 75C bed temp and Scotch Permanent glue stick. I may lower the bed temp a bit so the glue is more solid and try a thinner layer of glue (the scotch goes on quite a bit thicker than the elmers stick I used before).

I used my ABS calibration cube Slic3r settings with the exception of changing the hotend temp to 265C, bed temp to 75C, retraction to 12mm at 80mm/sec, layer thickness of 0.15mm, and redoing my nozzle size (0.4mm), measured material diameter (1.67mm), and measured extrusion diameter (0.58mm) for the nylon. Came out pretty well for the first try. Still got tweaking to do, but thanks cope413 for the recommended settings that I started with.

[img]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5456/136 ... 8a4f_c.jpg[/img]

[img]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2889/136 ... d652_c.jpg[/img]

And here is a quick video of the first few layers going down smooth.

http://instagram.com/p/mLgRFnEFQK/

It doesn't look bad at all for your first print with the string trimmer nylon.
You are correct though when you say that you need to dry the material.
I keep mine in a cooler chest with lots of desiccant and it helps to keep it dry.
After using it to print what I need, back in the cooler chest it goes. Seems to
work well for me. I prefer to use the AquaNet extra super hold hairspray and it
works really well.