Saturday, May 10, 2014

The Problems With Using the Wrong Filament in Your 3D Printer

Since hacking the 3D printer there have been a large percentage of prints that have been failing. I set up a webcam to investigate and got the following timelapse footage: Long story short is that the Stratasys printer uses an injection molding grade ABS plastic for it's filament, and the normal stuff that most printers use doesn't fuse with the HIPS support material like it ought to. The parts can curl up and the printer head can dislodge the part like it did in the video. While it's difficult to find the MG94 plastic in filaments, it's very common in bulk pellets, and we are looking into investing in a filament extruder and making our own filament. Until then pausing the print after a few layers and running some superglue around the edges takes care of the problem.

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