laybrick review - an awesome addition

[fablab013 0]

This morning formfutura (our filament provider) was so kind to ship us a test spool of laybrick filament to test with. Below you can read our findings, but if you can't wait to read the whole story, simply remember this : WOW !!! .........

New filaments open up new .......

 

[edit]

Well ... since forum restrictions apparently all of a sudden prevent me from pasting wordpress posts (including pictures) I guess you'll have to read the review on our own site ... sorry : http://fablab013.nl/blog/laybrick-3d-printing-filament-test-review/

 

[codemaven 0]

I just received my Laybrick yesterday and ran one small print with it. I'm impressed. My infill speed was too high so it didn't do the infill correctly, but I think with a simple adjustment that will be an easy fix. It's a strange material because it doesn't feel like plastic, but I don't really think it feels like stone either... it's just too light to convince anyone that it's stone... I can't wait to try some more prints.

Cheers,

Troy.

 

[Daid 306]

How does it retract? That's one of the major problems with the LayWood.

 

[codemaven 0]

My first test was with a Maple Leaf (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3461) so there was no retraction... My next attempt will be a Yoda bust which has a little bit of retraction for the ears. I'll let you know then.

Cheers,

Troy.

 

[thingster 0]

Interesting review. Have you also experimented with different temperature ranges? Laybrick should have a very smooth appearance when printed with lower temps, and a rough sandstone-like look and feel when printed with higher temps.

 

[codemaven 0]

Well I printed another maple leaf yesterday... Very nice smooth print. But I did it at 220 and it was just that... smooth. I did not get the expected rough texture. It still felt very strange to the touch... basically it feels the same as laywood does I think. It's not cold and hard like stone and was very smooth.

I will up the temp a little bit tonight, but according to what I've read 220 should be the top end. I also tried 205 and saw no difference.

Cheers,

Troy.

 

[codemaven 0]

Actually... I wonder if I'm printing it too slowly.. I started out basically with the NetFabb ultra setting defaults. That's 0.08mm layers and fairly slow outer contours. I think the outer contours were running at 40mm/s with the inner contours running at 60mm/s or something like that. Originally my in-fill was at 75mm/s, but that was giving my 'fluffy' results so I reduced my infill to 50mm/s....

However, looking at Fablab013's results (which are way 'rougher' than mine) I think maybe to get the rough texture I need to push the head a bit so that it doesn't lay such a nice smooth bead.... so it's toward's the fluffy side of things only on the outer contour.

Cheers,

Troy.

 

[codemaven 0]

Hard to say... I haven't done any destructive testing... but I would say in the hand the printed object feels somewhat more flexible and less brittle than PLA... In fact, my printed maple leaf to me feels more like real wood than my LAYWOO-D3 printed maple leaf.

 

[fablab013 0]

Dont mind doing some destructive tests on various materials but looking for an objective repeatable / measurable strenght test.

Assuming some form of leverage / weight structure ??. but then how to deal with 'grain' of material as some have grains/layering and others don't. / temperature & speed settings etc. Seems we have too many variables to conduct proper tests.

Who has a solid way to perform a batter of material tests ?

cheers,

Pete

 

[codemaven 0]

Some good well defined tests would be great.... but I think subjective tests will do... i.e. what happens when hit with a hanner...

I've tweaked my settings and I'm blown away now... I slowed down my infill (and increased the line thickness and density) and sped up the outer contours.. Now it looks and feels like clay. I showed it to someone who thought it was clay. My Laybrick Yoda does not look printed at all... and it was so easy to print. I think Laybrick is my new favorite material. I can't wait to print some busts with it and some HV insulators for my tesla coils.

Pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102544598518008997408/3dPrints?authuser=0&feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0jNeW9Rn2t68l3wZojT9LNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Cheers,

Troy.

 

[Daid 306]

Some good well defined tests would be great.... but I think subjective tests will do... i.e. what happens when hit with a hanner...

 

Hitting PLA with a hammer shatters it. ABS can break if you hit it hard enough, but does not shatter. Nylon laughs at your hammer and stays in shape.

An other easy test is putting it a bench vice, Nylon compresses and slightly deforms. PLA stays in shape but gets some tooth marks (I couldn't break it this way). I did not test ABS.

All this was tested with Ultimaker robots printed with 12.5% infill on KISSlicer.

 

[fablab013 0]

Agreed ... laybrick is in our top-3 favorite filaments too. Although not sanitary, printing 'stone' cups with laybrick at the correct settings really makes them almost indistinguishable from their 'real' counterpart.

All that's missing is a dipping-test in 'koudglazuur' (cold enamel ?) of remaille - (not implying this is FDA approved :-) )

 

[illuminarti 18]

I'm awaiting a shipment of the LayBrick Beta also, and am looking forward to testing with it. I'll have some spares available to sell (3mm and 1.75mm) if anyone in the US is interested in trying it out. Just let me know.

 

[illuminarti 18]

I tested it in detail http://www.extrudable.me/2013/08/13/printing-with-laybrick/... not sure if I ever linked that in this thread.

 

[gadgetfreak 7]

We have a lot of laybrick and the look, feel and extrusion properties are great. The main problem is that it does not come on spools and it is easy to break. Illuminarti, any advice on respooling and if you can make it less brittle?

[illuminarti 18]

I haven't tried it, but when I asked Kai about it, he suggested heating it gently with e.g., a hair dryer to aid in respooling.

 

[dannyoneill 0]

Hey all,

Couldn't find any other interesting discussions of this. I don't have an Ultimater but rather a Velleman K8200, so please forgive intrusion!! It's a printer though, stepper motors, belts, hot-end, usual bits, so hopefully you wont all hate me for not having the same kit

I have been trying Laybrick over the last few days and it really is excellent. The quality is quite particular. One person above described it as 'soft' or 'warm' or something, which gives an idea that this really isn't like plastic after printing.

It's temp related characteristics are very interesting. The post print finishing is very fun, sanding works well, maching polishing not well. Acetone works too vigorously, but isopropyl alcohol works just right, you can polish things interestingly with just a swirl in IPA, or use finger / brush with IPA to smooth bits.

It's strength isn't great, but then I'm used to freakily strong PLA / ABS in their own particular ways, but for aesthetic builds its plenty strong enough. When still soft (>2hrs post print) thin layers are incredibly flexible.

I am getting clogging occasionally though. Admittedly it seems to be more the last two days than I was getting initially, so might be that the reel is getting humid. It is happening consistently at a point in the print (same gcode that worked well for first few prints) at a layer where there are a lot of retractions, I'm not sure if that is exacerbating some moisture issue or if I was just lucky the first few times and actually the material / my retraction settings / both are not working brilliantly. Admittedly, although I had test printed at 165 - 220 for testing (all worked well with decreasing surface smoothness), my first few complex prints were at 167.5 whereas I increased that to 178 which was necessary to get the extrusion flow right when running at a higher speed. I will try dropping the temp, but if that doesn't help, swap for the other reel I have in the dehumidifier. I should swap more often really, but every filament removal carries about a 1/25 chance of snapping I find and so I tend to try to avoid if poss to avoid having to take the hot-end apart to remove bits. Oh and for the record I have a 0.5mm extruder nozzle.

Anyway, can't recommend the stuff enough. Don't let my bit of clogging put you off - I wasn't getting it to start with so hopefully a fixable issue and it is happening at a point where I am printing layers with text formed of inverted triangular cross-section with about a 4mm font size, so there must be >100 retractions just for the 20 characters I'm printing at least, and that would be a challenge for any remotely brittle material. The retractions as far as retractions go (tendency to leave strings / blobs / under-extrusions) are actually great, no less good than standard PLA.

Anyway, glad I stumbled across this forum - the review linked above of the material is genuinely one of the best online reviews of anything I have ever read!

Oh yes, I suppose I should mention the bits which I didn't have issues with as well, for completeness: I didn't bother spooling at all, just suspended on a bar and lossened the reel a bit by hand and that feeds excellently, no need to warm, but then the room is a fairly toasty 25C, so that might be helping. My bed is topped by mirror glass for levelness, but this proved far too good for adhesion with first few prints so I'm now using tape. Others use something called kapton tape I think, I'm not sure if this is a US brand or soemthing, but it looks in pictures just like what I call 'Insulating Tape' or 'Electrical Tape' and which is very cheap in the UK and works perfectly for this Laybrick. Oh yes, an I found that the first layer doesn't need any compression into the tape - most plastics for me need a very thin first layer to get a mirror like underside, but this stuff can be deposited with the head a good 0.15mm above the surface and still get a faultless first layer.

 

[dannyoneill 0]

Oh, and further to my post above, - and feel free to remove this if its against forum rules - but I bought from formfutura and tend to get most of my filament there are they are great - incredibly quick given that I am not in the same country and very helpful staff willing to give honest appraisals of their various products.

 

[illuminarti 18]

Welcome, Danny! Thanks for the feedback on the material; I wish I'd had more opportunity to play with LayBrick - it really is a great material to print.

[gr5 2,167]

Kapton tape is also called Polyimide tape. Kapton is a brand. There are other manufacturers. It is used a lot in PCB electronics because it can handle temperatures much higher than melting solder and it is a good electrical insulator. It is clear with a yellow/gold tint.