I'm currently printing Taulman Nylon 618.

I’m currently printing Taulman Nylon 618. While first tests using PEI and other print surfaces did not really work out i now got a Whale brand Tufnol sheet and the filament sticks like hell :slight_smile:
Instead of a nightmare it has become fun to print nylon.
I got it from http://www.bayplastics.co.uk
Delivery costs outside of UK are steep though.
Other than Tufnol i heard about Garolite, but that is even harder to source in europe than Tufnol. In germany i found neither.

How about bigger prints? How thick is the sheet?

I got some 3mm tufnol recently, but the first few nylon prints I tried on it were still peeling up at the corners. The rest of the print stuck down really well.

Was going to try a sheet of nylon next.

618 nylon produces some fantastic results when it works.

@Reprapdiscount_Elvir The sheet is 3mm, but thinner should work fine since i currently don’t use any heating for the bed.
@Stephen_Cropp I only got lifting a few times when using a raft, unfortunately using a raft is practically mandatory since the nylon stick so well that you sometimes destroy the part when trying to pray it loose. I will have to experiment if raising the bed temperature might make this easier.

Aha, I have not got any heat on the bed. What temp do you have it set to?

@Bjorn_Marl I’ve got some thin garolite sheet on the way from the states via Amazon. It’s only 0.5mm thick so I’m going to glue it to a piece of aluminium I think.

@Stephen_Cropp only Environment temp, 22c. Nozzle temp is 245c.

Tufnol only works for me (but really well) after have sanded it strongly. Be also careful with humidity and Nylon 618, you may want to put it into an oven at 40ºC for 30 min if it hasn’t been used for a while and/or you live on a humid town.

@Samuel_Ureta did you sand it to make it rougher or smoother. The whale tufnol i have is very smooth.

Will definitely try sanding the surface, that sounds like a great idea.

That worked a treat. I scuffed up the surface of the tufnol with some course sandpaper and then cleaned it with acetone. The print stuck perfectly and I was able to prize it off with a knife at the end without damaging it ( the print is quite solid anyway. thankyou @Samuel_Ureta for the suggestion.

WRT. keeping the nylon dry I had loads of trouble when it was new as it was steaming and there were massive air bubbles in my prints.

I gave up on it as a bad idea, but since then I have stored it in a moisture free container with regularly refreshed dehumidifier packs and it now behaves really well.

@Bjorn_Marl Rougher, a bit.

I will also try it :slight_smile: Thanks to Bjoern and Samuel for your imput

Sadly it’s not all fun and joy. Having the heatbed @50C° does help with small objects, the bigger the contact surface the more difficult it becomes to pray the print loose, up to the point where the layers delaminate before i can get the first layer loose with a chisel!

@Bjorn_Marl have you tried rafts? Might also be worth asking @Tom_Martz what he recommends.

I think any phenol formaldehyde surface would work just as well, anyone know any more?

@Bracken_Dawson The phenol sheets i know and can source in germany are smoother than the Tufnol i now have. It’s worth a try though.
@Tim_Rastall I tried rafts, it doesn’t make much of a difference, except that you can’t clean it of the printed part nearly as nicley as with ABS. Also retract isn’t working as good since even after retract the nylon will leak and leave a tough spider web. As much as i like the physical properties of the printed nylon parts, currently i’m not sure if it is worth the hassle.

The tufnol does work, but it is realy no fun. I haven’t found a safe way to print something and get it from the printbed without warp or damage. Over all it works, but i’m limited to stuff where i can live with the odd damage. It’s a shame since the Nylon itself has proven it’s worth to me.