Copperfill and Woodfill experience

[JohnInOttawa 104]

I know there have been a few question about user experience with Colorfabb Copperfill and Woodfill.  I thought I would post my experience.

 

First off, surface texture for both filament is excellent.  Copperfill density adds a nice feel to parts.

 

I started off with a 0.6 nozzle on the woodfill, that went fine, so I dialed back to 0.4, still fine, but the detail needed finer yet.  At the same time I decided to switch to Copperfill as the model (earrings) would benefit from that.  So my results on Copperfill are from a 3DSolex Hardcore, 0.25 steel nozzle. 0.05 layer height.

 

Copperfill print settings and retractions were used, I did slow the print speed down, and am now running Bondtec feeders, which for reasons that became clear later, made quite a difference, especially with the copper.

 

First, the good news.  The detail with Copperfill at 0.25 was better than even stock Ultimaker white PLA.  I had to leave an area on the underside to accommodate an earring post, so used PVA for support.  The earring on the left is straight off the printer, the one on the right has only had light sanding and a couple of mild runs with a copper scouring pad.

 

The 'other news'.  As expected, clogging is a significant issue with this fine a nozzle.  Each earring took about an hour.  The first print went as planned, clogging occured about 30% of the way through the second attempt, a significant clog that took a number of techniques to clear.  I suspect a combination of the particulates and heat creep.

 

Clearing copperfill using the standard 'hot pull' maintenance setting did not work as the temperature was not high enough.  I finally had success with some high temp PLA at between 230 and 240, working relatively quicky so I didn't soften the PLA too much. 

 

What I then decided was to do this modified hot pull after each print, and again at the end so there was nothing contaminating the nozzle for the next job.  This actually worked very nicely.

 

I've included an (obsolete) Canadian penny for reference on size and colour.  My bride is very happy, which means so am I 🙂

 

John

 

 

[Smithy 1,146]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, very interesting. Personally, I still haven't tried Woodfill or Copperfill, but I will try it soon.

[cloakfiend 996]

Nice, looks like wood before the polishing. I aim to try copperfill or bronze fill next week. I only have a small sample in a bag so im not sure which one it is. Well ill put it on copperfill settng and then....what speed would you use for a 0.6 nozzle at 0.06 layer height out of curiousity? Thanks for the post! I will do the same and do a comparison of copper plates to copper printed and i might even plate the copperfill model to see how it affects the surface quality. Ill aslo see how conductive it is....

Edited December 1, 2018 by cloakfiend

[JohnInOttawa 104]

My experience with the 0.6 was woodfill only and I didn't get finer than 0.1 with that particular run - that said, I had no problems with standard speeds. I'm still learning what I can expect from these Bondtech feeders, but I ran at 50 for everything with a print temp of 205 with no issues. 

 

In terms of clogging, this is probably the most severe case I have encountered on my equipment, and I'm still unsure if it was just down to the nozzle diameter.  I suspect dialing down the layer height might have played a role.  I was running with an 80% infill as these were extremely thin and I needed as much strength as I could get.  I would not recommend more than that,  I get the sense that having some space for any ooze to escape internally helped delay trouble.

 

I kept the print that clogged, will post that, along with a woodfill example, next time I'm at the printer.

 

Good luck, will look forward to seeing your results!

 

Cheers

John

[Maid_DeLa_Mer 0]

Could you share your Copperfill print settings? I can't seem to find any specifics on the web.