I'm having pretty good luck printing 3mm Taulman 618 Nylon on the backside of

3D Printing
, , , ,
1

I’m having pretty good luck printing 3mm Taulman 618 Nylon on the backside of lightly sanded High Pressure Laminate, like Formica or Wilsonart.
I’m printing 0.2 mm layers at 240 degC, with a bed temp of 120 degC. The Nylon sticks really well, but releases after the bed cools down.

High Pressure Laminate (HPL) can be found in the hardware store where it us used as a surface material for kitchen countertops.

Also you can order free samples online from the Formica and Wilsonart websites. I’m using an 8in x 10in sample from Wilsonart.

I’ll try to post a video shortly.

2

Thanks for sharing. I haven’t printed with my nylon, yet…

3

I’ll have to try this, it should be far easier for me to source than the other alternatives.

4

Hmmm, interesting. I love printing with Nylon and was looking for a cleaner material to work with.

5

I think I’d seen someone using wood for the same purpose. Not the best conductor of heat though. It occurred to me that wood veneer glued onto an Aluminium plate might do the job without the heat conduction problems. How thick is the HPL?

6

Scratch that question, just saw you posted the video :slight_smile:

7

+Tim Rastall I’m using Wilsonart brand, and it’s 0.78mm thick. I’m just holding it against the glass with binder clips, but it still has a little give.
It might be better if is was bonded down to the glass plate.

8

@ThantiK
I’m having better results with this than I had with Wood, or Bakelite. With both of these bed materials, I ended up removing some of the bed in order remove the part, because it stuck too well. Everything else I tried, wouldn’t stick to the nylon.
I still want to try Metamucil dusted on a light coating of Aquanet hair spray on glass at 120 degC. The Metamucil is 100% cellulose fiber. I tried a different brand (Benefiber) that we had a sample laying around, but it turned out to be a different substance altogether, and made quite a mess.

9

Might be worth using a sheet of Alu instead, cheaper and better thermal properties. No point in ruining good glass :).

10

@Tim_Rastall ,you don’t need the wood heated. I print on birch ply, no heat.

11

@ThantiK Good point and you’ve reminded who it was using wood to print nylon on :slight_smile:

12

The problem I was having with birch plywood, was that it stuck too well. When I pried the part off, it would either strip some layers off the bottom of the part, or pull up a hunk of wood with it ruining the bed surface. (I don’t remember what temperature I had the bed at, but knowing me I tried several temps) The Bakelite, lasted for several prints, but was too expensive in my opinion. So far I have 10 prints on one piece of HPL and it shows only minor wear.
I really like the chemical and mechanical properties of the nylon, but still have not found the optimum print setup.