Colorfabb XT transparent...am I the odd man out?

[spoolinup 0]

Had the UM2 for a 2 weeks now, prints like a beast with PLA. No feed issues at all.

I did some research and it seems that most are printing XT at 235 degrees (or less) at 50mm or so. At 235 the XT is worthless, at 220 it won't extrude; however, 245 is money for me.

The main issue I have is base plate adhesion. It simply will not stick to the base cold, if it does it will warp super quick. I can't print on a base under 80 degrees. Is this normal? So far I'm having luck with an 87 degree base but I feel lucky that all the prints have come out fine. If I look at the print the wrong way it will come off the baseplate. So far I've tried the glue stick that came with the UM and some watered down wood glue. Additionally I tried smoothing the gluestick glue over with a wet paper towel. Should I be trying another gluestick brand? Hairspray urks me a bit because of all the particles flying all over the machine, but I'll try that if need-be.

Did I get a bad roll or is it me?

 

[nick-foley 5]

Heated Bed + Blue Tape.

Edit: According to the later posts, they changed their formula... old stuff was good on hot blue tape. No idea with the new stuff.

 

[DidierKlein 725]

Hi SpoolinUp,

I bought XT last week. As you say at 220°c it doesn't work well. I'm not really an expert of XT but for the settings i print between 245 and 255°c it seems to be a good temp.

I've also had some trouble of adhesion under 80°c it always detached at some moment. I printed a lampshade for 6hours yesterday with XT with a bed temp of 80°c and it stayed on the plate. The print had 20 lines of brim to (because the object is very thin).

Didn't try with blue tape because i don't have any :mrgreen:

 

[cez_etc 0]

It seems that ColorFabb recently changed their XT formula, resulting in a higher printing temperature.

From the ColorFabb website (XT Tips &Tricks):

 

Adviced 3d printing temperature:

240-260C (XT filament produced before 7th februari can be printed at 220 - 240C)

 

Adviced 3d print speed:

40 - 70 mm/s

 

Advised Heated bed

60-70C (XT filament produced before 7th februari can be printed on a cold bed)

 

Build platform

For our latest release of XT (production date Februari 2014) we advice to print on a heated bed. If you’re using aluminum of glass as the build plate we advice using glue stick to make sure the first layer sticks well and keeps the part from warping. After printing, the build plate needs to cool down to about 20-30 C at which point you can remove the printed part.

[spoolinup 0]

Awesome! So I'm not crazy!

Thanks Nick, Dider and Cez!

 

It seems that ColorFabb recently changed their XT formula, resulting in a higher printing temperature.

From the ColorFabb website (XT Tips &Tricks):

 

Adviced 3d printing temperature:

240-260C (XT filament produced before 7th februari can be printed at 220 - 240C)

 

Adviced 3d print speed:

40 - 70 mm/s

 

Advised Heated bed

60-70C (XT filament produced before 7th februari can be printed on a cold bed)

 

Build platform

For our latest release of XT (production date Februari 2014) we advice to print on a heated bed. If you’re using aluminum of glass as the build plate we advice using glue stick to make sure the first layer sticks well and keeps the part from warping. After printing, the build plate needs to cool down to about 20-30 C at which point you can remove the printed part.

 

[jonnybischof 59]

Sidenote:

XT (old and new batch) doesn't seem to go well with a PEI buildplate.

It sticks to the buildplate so much, that starts tearing off the PEI surface after a few prints...

I ordered a "Tufnol - Garolite" build plate from E3D which is made especially for Nylon. XT isn't Nylon, but maybe the two will still like each other...

 

[jameshs 42]

I print with old XT on a non heated blue tape buildplate - thin sections do warp. I normally print on a glass plate with glue, but XD does not like that - so I just keep blue tape under my glass bed and can swap between the two.

I have not tried new XT as I still have a few reels of old XT

 

[spoolinup 0]

Well to report back, I have a large format vinyl printer so there is always a large roll of application tape (basically masking tape but in a wide roll) on hand. Worked incredibly on a 75 degree bed. Anything higher than the glass temperature of XT would produce a slight melted "sag" in the base layer. An added bonus of application tape is that it's super cheap, available in different levels of tackiness and doesn't need layering like blue tape.

I say the above having never used blue tape FYI.

 

[hreedijk 4]

Just saw this post, here's my advise:

For the new XT formula use, as advised on there website, a nozzle temp of 240 to 260 depending on the object and speed of printing.

Generally I use 240 up to 30mm/s, 245 from 30 to 50mm/s, 250 from 50 to 65mm/s, 255 from 65 to 75mm/s and 260 above 75mm/s.

Bed temp 56 degrees.

For adhesion to the bed I always use kapton tape, nothing else.

 

[ahoeben 1,019]

Strange, both rolls of XT I have printed with print fine without a heated bed on my UM original at 245 degrees. I just need to make sure the first layer is printed really close to the printbed (pressed into the blue tape).

 

[jonnybischof 59]

Maybe these were both "old batch" rolls (pre Feb.14)?

I have to revise on using XT with a PEI build plate:

It works perfectly well! I flipped my PEI plate over (the first side was ripped up because some prints stuck to it like crazy). Now, with a clean and new surface, XT prints pop off just as they should when the plate is fully cooled down.

When you have a ripped up PEI plate, then it doesn't work anymore.. The material grips into the PEI structure and sticks. But if it's flat as it should - it works perfectly well

By the way:

I've settled with printing at 255°C at 40mm/s. Bed temperature is 55°C (about 58°C effective on the surface) with a PEI plate.

No tape or glue, of course. It's very nice

I usually print a little cylinder (5mm diameter) next to my models in order to make the models print better (some pause time).

It's very difficult to break these cylinders in half, and I'm not a weak person!

 

[ahoeben 1,019]

Maybe these were both "old batch" rolls (pre Feb.14)?

 

No, pretty sure they are "new batch" (production dates april 5th and may 2nd 2014).

Here's a timelapse of it printing (245°C at 40mm/s, no heated bed, blue tape):

http://instagram.com/p/pQscQRRY1h/

 

[jonnybischof 59]

Well, blue tape can get you an excellent adhesion. I usually didn't get off my prints at all without ripping up the blue tape. That's why I hated blue tape

I'm now printing on a clean PEI plate and 62°C heated bed temperature. Larger parts actually lift off in the corners just very slightly, only up to about 3-4 brim lines are lifted with the parts, the rest stays on the plate. That's maybe 0.3mm lift off the platform. XT doesn't warp much so there shouldn't be much of a problem with that. When using 20 Brim lines, there's no problem at all anymore.

I don't want to raise the bed temperature any further because then it starts to show on the print (deformation in the lower 2-3mm).

Do you get strong layer bonding at 245°C?

In my experience, XT changes from very brittle to extremely strong above a certain printing temperature. I haven't looked into it very closely yet - I get excellent strength at 255°C.

5mm diameter cylinders are unbreakable by hand, that's unthinkable for PLA or ABS.