Yeah, it's expensive and pretty hard to find... and if you finally find them on some websites, then when you try to make an order, you will figure out that they are usually out of stock...
Yesterday, I found one source in USA but currently they only have 1.75mm filament... another source is in Australia but I don't want to wait too long for the delivery...
We still have some old Makerbot 3mm PVA. The main issue with it: DO NOT LET IT SIT HOT. The stuff burns up into charcoal, totally clogging up your nozzle. This is a huge issue for dual-extrusion printing.
Daid, if the experiment which I want to try works, then I would probably needs lots of PVA so I still need to find a good source of it... and I'm not dealing with dual-extrusion. I just want to print some nice object out of PVA and then dissolve it within other material which is even not a thermoplastic. I'm not sure if this will work so I have to just try it.
Anyway, how can I get this PVA which you are talking about and how much does it cost?
Most likely it would be cheaper to use PLA for that. It's hard to dissolve PLA, but it's easy to melt away. So depending on your material you might just be able to bake out the PLA.
The PVA I have is no longer for sale.
Unfortunately, I cannot melt away my PLA. I want to immerse my printed part within polyurethane/silicone and the melting temperature will damage my polymers. The printed material really has to be dissolved in water... even acetone won't work for me because it will just damage my materials.
I can easily get 1.75mm PVA filament... but will it work with Ultimaker? ...if not then maybe I can modify my printer... but any ideas how to do that?
Changing to 1.75mm is a huge deal. I believe you have to change the head, the bowden tube and the feeder. This guy did it. He has a setup where he can switch between 3mm and 1.75mm quickly and he can change nozzles quickly and he now has different size nozzles:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ultimaker/wqIuMFAVclk
I got my pva from Ultimachine in the Us.
shipping to toronto, canada was not too much.
You have to keep it really dry, i now dry my pva for 2-3 hrs in a dehydrater before printing with it (Jelle suggested this on the google group). I also only cut off the amount i need.
kwatts, I saw the PVA from the Ultimachine and I would definitely order from them... but currently everything is out of stock...
I found another supplier (also from US) but they only have 1.75 mm filament... and I ordered it... soon we will see if it's gonna work or not :-)
If I understand well Daid, print with PVA may cause clogs when the PVA stay too long in the nozzle without extrusion. So, is it not possible to add in Cura codes to automatically retract for 20cm or more after all the PVA support is print ? Durring the print too, Cura could estimate the time between two use of the second extrusion, and automatically retract 20cm when this time will be more than x minutes ?
Second reflection about PVA printing. The PVA is expensive, so, Cura could be able to print in PLA 95% of the support, and print in PVA only the gap between the parts and the support ? So it could be chepeast and quicker to dissolve.
Just for information, PVA is available in 1.75mm and 3mm at http://www.mexhibit.ch/shop (Swiss supplier)
Ultimachine (USA) has some PVA available in 3mm stock.
https://ultimachine.com/catalog/print-materials/pva/pva-3mm
Retracting the PVA back during "non support printing" wont work because you will always have a little
skin of PVA inside the nozzle, and on the end of the tip. Which will then carbonize and still clog the nozzle.
What you need is the wipe tower feature to be copied from Kisslicer, this will ensure that the PVA
is kept moving throughout the whole print cycle.
Kisslicer also has a feature called "interface", which can select a 2nd nozzle to print only the couple
of layers between support and main part.
However I have doubts that dual printing will ever work really well without machines with the extruder
motors on the printhead....but I really hope someone proves me totally wrong on that one.
As a newbie I am somewhat confused by this thread. I thought, from previous reading all over the place that PVA was de rigeur for PLA support. This thread is indicating that it is v difficlut to get and if you can get it it will screw up your extruder.
So what do people use for PLA support?
BTW bought some 3mm PVA from Plastic2Print yesterday before reading this threa!
You can use PLA for support and cut it off or file it off or sand it off. You just won't get as pretty a surface. If you are making some part that is buried in a machine you probably don't care how pretty it is. I usually try to redesign parts so no support is needed. The UM can print *almost* horizontal but not quite. Well it *can* if you are printing a bridge between two supports. Anwyay, for example if printing a human head with issues under the nose and chin just rotate the print back by 15 degrees and sink it into the print bed so there is a flat spot at the back of the neck where most people don't look.
I tried rotating the entire printer back but that makes no difference as far as I can tell. Each higher layer needs to be touching the previous layer and tilting the printer back doesn't help - you have to tilt the print itself before slicing.
Sometimes I add support in the CAD. And sometimes I use the built in support features in Cura (scary!). But those are intended to be printed in the same pla as the print itself.
Speaking of support material - check out the latest Meshmixer 2.0. It generates "smart" support struts and also lets you "paint" support material easily.
Ooh, that looks really interesting. At first glance it looks a lot more efficient than what slicers are producing currently. I'll have to give that a try when I'm able.
DAID! I hope you are listening somewhere! That's what we need for support options! Can't cura just bounce you over to that utility or something?
Ai..... that's a shame.
Until now thought that PVA was THE support material.
Hoped I had a second life for my dual extruder kit.
As you read this thread, one might conclude that printing PVA is even a bigger hassle than try working with 2 colours? :shock:
Yeah, I am stumped too...
No wonder dual extrusion is marked as experimental. I still don't understand why Ultimaker chose to offer the dual extrusion kit _before_ working on the heated bed kit that everybody seems to want/need.
I think using PVA for support is patented so I don't think anyone from UM will recommend it until the patent runs out. But just because it's tricky doesn't mean you can't get great results. ABS is tricky also but that's the ONLY material hobbyists were using for several years until PLA became popular.
Just follow instructions carefully and you'll probably be fine. Let us know.
grrrrrrr.... okeehj 5 
. I keep trying...!
working by the book, brings nothing new..
If you are having trouble with PVA, did you google your issues? (stupid question?) Ultimaker is a small portion of the people out there with 3D printers.
If you are having trouble with PVA, did you google your issues? (stupid question?) Ultimaker is a small portion of the people out there with 3D printers.
Sorry, No stupid question, here comes a stupid answer..... I was weaning too fast :(.
Ordered a roll of PVA last Friday, I let you know when I tried for real....
Have you tried yet?
I am sooo curious.
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I don't have experience with it so far as I think it's still just too expensive. A spool of 1 kg still costs about $90. On the other hand not a bad price for a material capable of getting invisible. :mrgreen:
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