AndersK

Thx, it's made in a UM3 Used the settings recommended in the sample box. 190° and 70 mm/s I think, will check tomorrow and correct if it was different. I didn't intend to print without support but the second extruder got clogged, but yes, did come out great. Took a shot when printing the overhangs, looks indeed impressive

I recieved some samples from Add:north and have done a test print from their Textura Flare Rocky Grey. Its basically PLA with added plant fibres which gives a matte surface and helps hiding the layer lines. https://addnorth.com/en/ I'm pleased with the outcome regarding visual appearance, ease of print and strength (drop tested from the desk 😉 ) I work alot with cast parts and compared to cast iron it looks great, last picture. First picture shows the real cast aluminum part, Ultimaker PLA and the Add:north. Both are printed without support. Layer heigth is 0,3 mm in the lower half and 0,1 mm above.

I hear you, 😉 Samples has been lying for a week, no time to test yet but I'll post the results. I'll try on a small piece with much curvature to see how well it behaves hiding the lines as they say. Will do one in PLA to compare with too.

How did it work out? I have two small samples of their Textura Flare that I intend to give a try shortly

A colleague has been struggeling a bit with some settings and over the night he ran a sucessful print making a "perfect" model. I couldnt resist throwing in a bird nest from a previous failed print. His expression at first glance, priceless😜

Yeah, small package domestic can cost as much as getting 30 kg from UK to here.... Let us know how it works out with the new tube

Some reding about PFA and PTFE: https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-ptfe-and-vs-pfa/ PTFE has superior wear and friction properties, used in sliding bearings and that is the only material a Gecko cant climb. Since you are in the UK a better option to order is directly from them in Sweden, about 4,30 GBP/meter https://www.bondtech.se/en/product-category/accessories/ptfe-tube/

I believe ptfe is better in everything but transparency over PFA. Higher heat resistance and less friction, maybe little less flexible. I still have long enough tube for printing but I'll try ptfe when its time for replacement

Bondtech sells a PTFE tube and you can order to length. Other sources usually only sell a roll, about 250€ I had to cut mine off a bit today. It's a standard UM tube, it has shrunk so much at the hot end that I can't pull out the wire. Think I'll get some PTFE Had some feeding issues I thought was clogged print head, wrong...

I wanted to try to print from a jpg to see if that could be used as a press die. Printed in abs and pressed in thin aluminium, quick shot with a rattle can and then rubbing with a 400 grit paper. Not meant to be perfect but a fair result for 15 minutes work.

It looks the same as when I did my first trials with dual extruders. I didnt really know how to set it up properly so I got this when I had two parts interfering with each others.

This is what I use, havent fiddled with this at all so it might not be optimum settings

Looks like you're dragging material over the surface. Check your retraction parameters so you get retraction between the small features (minimum travel) With the nylon Im printing I had to increase retraction a lot. Have you tried adaptive layers? Can really help when you have a model with small or sharp features to reduce print time and still give a good resolution.

I got similar results with ironing on nylon too so I switched it off. There are probably some parameters to adjust but I'll leave that to later prints.

Is the Bowden tube PTFE on the ultimakers? Shouldn't really show wear from unfilled filaments then. If it isn't that's an easy way to reduce friction even more. I have PTFE liner in one of my welders and there has been many meters of steel and aluminum wire going thru that one over the years without visible wear. The wire feeder is in principle the same as a Bowden. Well written article