highest resolution printed with carbon fiber?

[lance-greene 7]

just wondering if anyone knows of anyone printing high resolution (100 - 20 microrns) with the 15% mixed carbon fiber filament.

 

[DidierKlein 729]

The only thing i know about the carbon fiber filament (protopasta i guess) is that it's a nozzle killer, it's very abbrasive so keep in mind that you'll need to change your nozzle after a couple of hours printing with this

 

[lance-greene 7]

would a bigger nozzle diameter help with that? 0.5 or 0.8?

 

[gr5 2,172]

Also it's neither stronger nor stiffer than regular PLA. But it is a fantastic color:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/7575-strength-of-different-filaments/

 

[lance-greene 7]

ya im interested to know if something like buying an extra nozzle an drilling it out a bit bigger would work.

 

[gr5 2,172]

Lance please update your profile to specify which printer you have. Also location (country).

Yes definitely you can drill out nozzle larger. I've done that with both UMO and UM2. For UMO you can get nozzles for $5 which covers shipping (again - what country are you in - I'm guessing USA even though I'm probably wrong) of all kinds of nozzle hole sizes. This is very helpful for materials like woodfill where the sawdust can clog the nozzle.

However, I printed protopasta carbon fiber with a regular .4mm nozzle with no trouble. The problem is the flat surface gets larger and larger the more you use the filament and quality of parts degrades quickly until all your parts look like crap.

Also like I said, protopasta is neither stronger nor less flexible than regular PLA. As far as I can tell it has ZERO upsides except that you can brag (I printed carbon fiber!) and it's a brag that only makes you sound stupid. Plus the fibers might be bad for you lungs.

Or maybe the color. But I bet there is a nice flat black PLA out there that looks just as good.