Got 0.065" trimmer line. This is about 1.6kg material for about $22.
Dried a couple of meters in the oven at around 150C for about 2h to get the water out.
Extrusion settings with filament diameter 1.67mm and 245C temperature. No heated bed, just painters’ tape (it does not seem to stick properly on glass or on glue-stick). There is a hardly noticeable plastic smell while printing. Good enough to sit right next to the printer without being annoyed.
First results look promising, but shells always work well anyway. It seems material swells a bit, need to play with that.
Will test more solid parts on the weekend as this really will expose trouble with shrinking.
Yes, @Mark_Rehorst ; some spot-checking showed that the filament varied between 1.665mm and 1.670mm, so pretty close, but have to do some more thorough checking with more measuring points at different places some meters apart.
Can you provide the source for the trimmer-line please? I’d really like to try to print nylon myself, but i’m discouraged by the high prices of nylon filament for 3D printing.
How do you find the strength and definition of the plastic on a finished product? Do you know much about the thermal properties of it? Could the printed product be used in high temperature environments (like, say an engine bay in a car)?
The definition is good on the part I printed so far, but need to get more experience. I print it at 245C, so pretty high temp. At 150C in the oven, it was still solid. So higher temp resilience than PLA. Good for parts on sunny summer car dashboard. Not sure what the temperature is in an engine bay though.
Taulman Bridge is definitely the way to go to have predictable results known to work for 3D printing @Richard_Mitchell . I was just curious what I can do with off-the-shelf material which is not meant for 3D printing, and it looks like it could work.
(Though I’d prefer if it was just white or black, not some random blue color).
The extruder should be all metal, @Tom_Nardi . If you have an extruder that has a Teflon (PTFE) sleve inside, it is probably not a good idea to heat it up that high, because that will disintegrate and ruin your extruder.
(My extruder is the @Type_A_Machines kind, which is made of metal throughout).
I have printed about 100lbs of this exact trimmer line. It’s pure nylon 6. The manufacturer is Desert Extrusion out of Arizona.
It’s truly fantastic filament, but it must be dry when printed. It can re-saturate in <24 hours too, so keeping it dry is a chore. It can hold >10% of its weight in water. Ideal extrusion moisture content is <2% and >0.4%
I’ve found it to be very consistent throughout the spools (+/- .03mm)
I typically print at 255C on a 65C bed (with kapton) with PVA glue stick. It can warp similarly to ABS, though I find it easier to achieve good first layer adhesion on most parts.
When dried properly, it prints buttery smooth and has a nice glossy finish.
Printing with a .6mm or .8mm nozzle gives incredible strength and interlayer adhesion.
Oh and RE: the color, the reason it’s blue is that most mfg typically color code their diameter. IE, .065" trimmer line is blue, .095" line is orange, etc.
Black and white would definitely be nice, but the blue is a good color, and it takes dye well if desired.
