I’m Tom and today i’m going to show you
how to print Nylon!
Now, i know many of you are perfectly happy
with printing PLA or ABS, and i’m not saying
that those two are bad plastics to use, what
i’ll try to show you in this video is what
you’re missing out on if you’ve never
printed nylon.
Because there really is nothing out there
that has has similar properties to Taulman’s
nylons.
First and foremost, nylon is # tough.
In a couple of different ways: It’s got
an excellent layer bonding strength.
It doesn’t break when you bend or stretch
it.
/ Because it’s a material that you # can
bend and stretch.
It doesn’t snap or break, but instead tears
off like a piece of cloth, which i’ve demonstrated
in the “plastic destruction” video, here.
It’s also pretty wear-resistant in things
like bushings or gears, though i’d say It’s
still a bit too tacky to directly use it as
a bushing.
Also, it # rarely has sharp or spiky edged
that might tear up your fingers when cleaning
up a print, like those sharp corners on PLA.
And it doesn’t smell nearly as bad as ABS.
Though it does have a slight smell of wet
sand to it.
Kinda.
But you know, basically, nylon is that sweet,
cuddly plastic that / just wants to be your
friend.
So, how do you print it?
Well, before you print it, you’ll have to
deal with the issue of moisture.
Because while Taulman have improved the water
absorption of their Bridge nylon compared
to the classic 618 and 645 nylons, that issue
still isn’t completely gone.
You will have to dry the filament if you’ve
left it sitting around for a few days, and
to do that, you can either throw it in a silicia-gel-filled
container and let it sit there for a very
long while, which is also a great way to store
it, or throw it in the oven and bake it at
60 to 70 / -ish degrees.
/ Celsius.
I’ve found that two hours of baking takes
out most moisture.
If the filament is still moist, you’ll hear
the tiny bubbles of steam cracking while printing
and your prints will look ugly, they won’t
stick to the build platform and come out in
an opaque white color instead of a milky clear
white-ish tone.
In fact, if you print your parts hollow, with
only one or two perimeters, they will come
out pretty translucent overall.
Next up, how do you get it to stick to the
build plate?
Which is something that is usually replied
to with “use a sheet of tufnol or garolite”.
And that works, especially for 618 and 645
nylons, but bridge works really nicely with
glue stick as well.
In fact, that is what I’m using for basically
everything i print now.
For nylon, a heated bed temperature of roughly
90°C helps adhesion, but is not strictly
neccessary.
The prints stick much better to # cold glue
stick than ABS, which is completely loose
after the bed has cooled down.
You might need to experiment with the amount
of glue stick you smear on top of your bed’s
surface, but i’ve found that less is more
here and a thin, barely visible layer is usually
perfect for getting things to stick to it.
Because nylon requires a fairly hot printing
temperature of around 245°C, depending on
your exact configuration maybe a bit more,
you are best off with using a PTFE and PEEK
free hotend.
Also called all-metal hotends.
Taulman’s nylon only starts to degrade way
past 300°C, so have you plenty of wiggle
room if, for example, you’re not getting
the layer adhesion you want.
As far as printing speeds go, it will entirely
depend on how fast your extruder can go.
As nylon is somewhat flexible, you’re going
to get best results if you treat it like a
flexible filament, so if you have the option,
add a teflon liner to your extruder and make
sure you get enough grip from your hobbed
bolt or drive gear.
Taulman recommend speeds around 25mm/s, but
faster or slower speeds will also work.
Again, keep your filament dry for best results,
as every bit of moisture in it will degrade
your results at any speed.
And that is basically it!
Nylon is relatively easy to print, but you
might need to experiment with layer thicknesses,
temperatures and speeds to get you the best
results.
Personally, i simply used my ABS profile,
slowed it down a bit and was pretty happy
with it.
Just remember to keep your nylon dry, that
is key to getting reliable prints.
If you want to try out printing Nylon, make
sure you get the genuine Taulman stuff, there
is a lot of research that went into these
filament and many other vendors simply don't
have the expertise to make nylon filament
that prints well.
I got mine from E3D, they sent me a roll to
try out, a link to them is in the video's
description.
So one more thing, i started a giveaway two
weeks ago, I should have probably made it
just one week, but anyways, I'm giving away
two AluHotends.
The newer one, the V5C which I used for the
review, is going to John Cutburth II (i hope
i pronounced that right), and the V5B is going
to Victor Elizondo.
Have fun with your new hotends, and please
check your Youtube spam folder for the message
I sent you.
So that's it for today, thank you for watching,
please do click those like, subscribe and
share button, and I'll see you next week.
