2015 ColorFabb XT green and transparent - could use some help

[foehnsturm 969]

I keep getting bad results.

Tried the entire temperature range from 240° to 260°. With and without fan. Bed from 65° to 75° C. Using reasonable print settings: 0.15 mm layer height, 30-50 mm/s

Below 250° there is bad layer adhesion. At 260°C I can print the shell but some corners get round (temp too high?) some show underextrusion. Sparse infill, even at the same speed as the shell, becomes a mess. I tried two different hotends - no success.

I'm perplexed. Last spring in Erfurt I got samples of what was said to be a pre-production of the new XT batch. However translucent red, a color I can't find anymore for XT. It printed like a charm. :?:

Note: I'm using a highly modified setup, Merlin hotend (tried also Prometheus), crossflow fan, direct extruder. But other filaments print perfectly.

 

[shurik 87]

Hallo foehnsturm,

Right now I'm struggling with Colorfabb XT, trying to make a transparent print, with very mixed results.

My findings so far:

 

1. Hotter = more transparent. Usually, not always. Not sure when and why.
   
2. Fan = less transparent, probably due to air microbubbles entering between the layers.
   
3. 30mm/sec is better than 50 mm/sec, but the later is also not bad.
   
4. Bed temperature should be 70C, otherwise it has a problem to stick to the bed and the first layers transparency is bad.
   
5. 0.1-0.15mm layers are OK.
   
6. 110% infill seems to produce better clarity but less precise prints.
   
7. Use as less internal non-straight lines. It is better to set the shell to something very high, like 50mm, ensuring consistent parallel lines of infill (if the infill is required).
   

With all that, there was a nasty surprise: some parts went off the glass bed WITH small pieces of the glass. So now, I have cavities on one side of the glass. How's that?

Bottom line - I wasn't very successful in obtaining good transparent prints with the Colorfabb XT. Would be happy to see an advice.

 

[tinydancer 0]

I've been printing this week with the clear XT, and no matter what temp I use it still comes out as a translucent white. It does adhere a little too well, and I let it completely cool to room temperature before I start to take it off. If it's at all stubborn, I pop it into the fridge for 15 minutes and then it comes off quite easily.

Not sure what advice I can give you foehnsturm as the clear prints really well for me if I use a bed temp from 80-83 depending on where I'm printing on the bed. I found I would get some slight warping if I printed away from the middle, but increasing it a few degrees seemed to do the trick. The best results I had as far as layer adhesion is at 255-260, but my UM2 is all stock.

 

[nick-foley 5]

Ran through a sample pack of Purple, Orange, and Clear last week and everything printed very nicely. Similar settings to what you described. Maybe the transparent green just has poor printing properties?

 

[gr5 2,172]

Those rounded corners probably have more to do with printing speed. Keep it slow - under 35mm/sec. Try 25mm/sec see if that helps the corners. Also if you have layer adhesion problems definitely reduce fan. Maybe even turn it off completely. You might need a little fan on overhangs.

I've never printed XT but I've printed ABS and some of their properties are similar due to both having much higher glass temperature.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

are you sure the translucent red is XT ?

I have a rol of it from Colorfabb, but it's PLA ... and it's not listed in there webshop anymore.

I don't think there is any translucent XT except for the original clear XT.

edit: it's back now http://colorfabb.com/red-transparent

 

[Labern 774]

I got new XT Clear. it came out milky white at 240 to 260 and noticed there was slight crackling and popping sound as it was printing. dropped the temp to 230 and it went clear. found it had tiny bubbles at the higher temp. it also became brittle.

 

[shurik 87]

Labern - it was exactly my experience yesterday. However, on other day, it printed well up to 260C. Could it be that the room temperature comes into the play? It's relatively cold here now, about 17C in the room. Last week we had about 23C. Do not know what else it might be. The humidity perhaps?

 

[Labern 774]

Have just tried a new roll of black and had same effect. had to print cooler. Not to sure why. it was cooler when i was trying out the clear and now im in Summer I should try to see if it runs any better. But i wouldn't think that room temp would have that much of an effect. Maybe moisture soaked in the filament. But my roll was newly delivered and opened so shouldn't be the case.

 

[hreedijk 4]

I got new XT Clear. it came out milky white at 240 to 260 and noticed there was slight crackling and popping sound as it was printing. dropped the temp to 230 and it went clear. found it had tiny bubbles at the higher temp. it also became brittle.

 

Tiny bubbles at the higher temp indicates the temp was too high, the co-polyester indeed becomes brittle because of the burning.

As for foehnsturm's issue, your settings seems good.

I normally print XT between 246 and 256 with an Ubis hotend with a minimum speed of 40mm/s.

Do you print with a 0.4mm nozzle?

Are the print results the same with and without the use of a fan?

Just made a quick picture of a 200mm high vase (don't look at the lightning of the photo), printed with XT transparent a couple of weeks ago.

I've put a pencil of my daughter in it to show the transparency.

 

[korneel 176]

i'm printing XT at 240 degrees, heated bed at 70 degrees and 50 mm/sec. I don't care about transparency (and it's milky white) but i care about strength. no bubbles or burned filament in my prints.. strong as an ox

 

[zxen 4]

The vase image is awesome. Images and videos make reading forums much better.

But I don't think it would hurt anyone to post a complete resource of info here in this thread to explain to everyone using colorfabb XT on an ultimaker what the EXACT instructions are instead of one question at 1a, then another question about step 13b and so on. Can someone please tell us exactly what steps to take to make this stuff work, starting with which button to press on the ultimaker when you first load the filament, all Cura settings both basic and advanced, and all Ultimaker settings.

hreedjik, according to my research, you are the only person on this planet who knows how to do it. Can you please help me and everyone else on the entire internet who is using this product on an ultimaker - this is the link they will find when conducting a search. Best if you just film it and post all the settings in a video on youtube. Thanks on behalf of everyone.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Guest