I appreciate the input, and since my machine has only one nozzle, it would be printing HIPS the whole time, not sitting idle with HIPS in the hot nozzle. I don't intend to use it as a support structure, but as the structure itself.
I chose HIPS to experiment with because I have read that it gives a smoother edge and is actually pretty easy to work with, in terms of not being prone to issues like ABS, etc. Supposedly, it has strength closer to ABS but without the warping issues, and without the fragility of PLA. Since I have a spool of HIPS, I at least want to try it out.
Anyway, my question wasn't whether I should use HIPS. My question was how to set the temperatures for it at the hot end and the heated bed. Since my UM2-Extended only has factory defaults for PLA, ABS, and UPET, how do I tell the machine that I'm loading HIPS?
When I go to the "change material" menu and it heats up the nozzle to remove the PLA, then I load HIPS, the nozzle won't be hot enough to even allow it to push the material through. I do see an option for "customize", as well as an option to import a material from the SD card. But I don't know how or what file type the material settings are stored, if I wanted to create a custom material.
So basically my question is this: Should I just use the "customize" setting on the machine to set the temperatures I need for printing HIPS, or should I leave that alone and use the material settings in Cura to dictate the nozzle/bed temps? Does one override the other?
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gr5 2,224
I've never used hips but I hear it's quite difficult to work with. It wil clog your nozzle if you don't keep it moving constantly. You don't want it to stay hot for more than a small number of seconds: 10? 20? I would avoid it. Did you buy limonene to disolve it if you get a clog in the nozzle?
Hips is a great material but PLA is much nicer in most ways. HIPS is now very popular as a dissolvable support structure. But you would need dual nozzles and you would have to be very careful about not letting it stay hot for too long.
Maybe someone else on the forum has used it.
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