Try taulman bridge - the easiest nylon I think maybe? Actually Taulman might have one even easier - I forget.
They claim that the new Alloy 910 is stronger and easier to print than Bridge. But I haven't heard of anyone who actually tried it, so no idea, how it is different.
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krys 206
Hi there,
I am no materials expert or structural engineer, but from what I have read and played with here are some thoughts that might help:
Nylon is super strong (tensile), but has some flex (like ABS), is super slipy, can be hard to get to stick to the bed and warps. But if you have solved ABS, then maybe it would work for you. Check our the Taulman stuff. They are several kinds, all for industrial use. I've used Bridge to good effect.
Polycarbonate is also insanely strong, but warps, is crazy difficult to get to stick to the bed and requires higher temperatures. 260C is a *minimum*! Also watch out for weak layer adhesion. I am still experimenting with this stuff myself, and it is driving me a bit batty. But YMMV.
Lastly, if you want rigid and strong, you can get excellent results with PLA or even better PLA/PHA (Colorfabb). This stuff is easy to print. Just use thicker walls (more shells), higher infill (but not 100%, it does not buy you anything) and print slower for better layer adhesion (I think). I saw @gr5 recently comment about PLA being plenty strong. He seems to know his stuff!
I do not know if this is a good example or not, but I have built a standing height electronics workbench from some cheap wood (it was a closet shoe shelf), ABS pipe for legs (PVC would have been better, wood or aluminum would have been even better) and 3D printed connectors for all of it. Flat plates to hold the wood slats together, fasteners to mount the wood to the top of the legs and t-junctions to hold the cross-braces. All in PLA/PHA and they are all holding just fine even after months of use of the desk and weight on it. ... I did make sure, however, when printing that all the stress points would not be along layer boundaries, as that is the weakness of all FDM printing.
So for your prototyping tests, why not just see how far you can go with PLA. Then get fancy later?
Oh, and I have seen videos of people doing various break tests of filament materials. Maybe check those out too.
Anyway, I am no expert, and YMMV, but I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck!
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gr5 2,295
I really need a diagram but if you are making say a geodesic dome then I would go for Nylon but as Krys says - it takes a while to learn how to do it right. For example you will need to enclose your printer, lower fan speed and do some weird stuff to get it to stick! Also you'll want to bake it before printing. Try taulman bridge - the easiest nylon I think maybe? Actually Taulman might have one even easier - I forget.
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rlemay 1
Fantastic info. Thanks so much. I've read a decent amount about carbon fiber reinforced nylon and some say it can be as strong as steel. I read about Markforged products and they were actually printing weight bearing auto parts. But your'e right, I should probably push the limits on PLA and see if I need to upgrade. I was really just hoping to not have to CNC metal parts because that can get expensive. Thanks again for the info!
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