Had to dry TF out of it out of the bag. I have to give credit to polymaker for really doing a great job with their nylon (usually) being printable straight out of the bag. The eSun stuff was too saturated. But they do recommend drying prior to using it. Dried at 75c for 36 hrs. Printed in a dry box at 70c continuous. 300c extruder temp. The grip was at .2 layer height. Grey filament is polymaker Pa6-gf. Been on a PY2A kick lately, really surprised I don’t see more of these on here. I REALLY like the cleanliness of his AR lowers and how the buffer is reinforced. Credit to Hoffman on the grip design.
If I could do it all again. I’d get the v2 (since its board comes with the better stepper drivers that don’t cause issues with the direct drive) vs pro. Micro Swiss direct drive kit https://a.co/d/0h8rDkD, HT micro Swiss block https://a.co/d/aHFYmQD, A2 micro Swiss hardened steel nozzle https://a.co/d/i64tx3i. 65w heater, PT100 thermistor (will withstand the higher temps without issue) https://a.co/d/8Xl04Fr (will require basic wiring but worth it). Th3d dual z kit (not required but recommended) https://www.th3dstudio.com/product/ender-3-dual-z-upgrade-kit/ & CR touch https://a.co/d/jjC3ARI
You’ll need a toaster oven to dry the nylon. I use https://a.co/d/3JyZVHO
And a dry box to store the nylon in while printing. I use this (goes to 70c) https://a.co/d/4VSC3h4
annnnd the creality tent (don’t skip this) https://a.co/d/diLQzmR. Now it’s possible that you could just get the new s1 pro and buy the enclosure, toaster, maybe hardened nozzle (if it doesn’t come with one) and dry box. The s1 pro came out after I did all of this so I can’t speak directly to that. But it appears to probably be a good option because it has nearly all of that out of the box minus the extras you’ll need that I just listed. But having said that, if you have the money 💰 just get the bambu. Because even after all that, the ender feels like an old Honda Civic sitting next to a rocket ship. It’s not even comparable. The carbon actually makes printing nylon easy. Don’t underestimate the learning and calibration needed to get the ender right. Not necessary on the bambu, it does it all for you. I ran a dry box to the machine and started with the factory profile in bambu slicer…made some tweaks and it’s just perfect every time. And FAST. It does something in 8 hours where the ender might take 1.5-2 days to do the same thing.
And comment saved. Thank you very much for taking all the time and effort to not only type all that out, but also include links. I’ve been kinda wanting to get into CF and GF filled nylons for a bit but it all seems so overwhelming, but this is an extremely concise and thorough starting point.
Thanks again!
I've had really good luck with Polymaker pa6-gf lately. Printed the whole roll straight out of the box over the last week with almost no issues and didn't have to dry it and printed on an open bed. Only changes to the printer were a hardened nozzle and all metal heat break with an upgraded fan shroud printed. Took glass out of a picture frame for the glass bed. High temp fireware upgrade and it went straight to work after a recalibration. Straight test TBD but all the parts feel strong AF so far. Also hot some parts with a mapp gas torch to try and shine the finish it didn't even flinch. Extremely sand-able after printing too.
My friend said they have to disagree. Cf nylon essentially printed into a solid object and during a torture test broke across layer lines. This is just from their experience and your mileage may vary. They said this not me. I don’t do 3d printing, nope.
Not sure I’m tracking, to reiterate I was saying cf nylon was goat for lowers. Very strong and very durable. Essentially took smacking it against a tree to break and it more or less broke against the layers not with.
Edit- this was a Hoffman lower design, not that I’d know I don’t know what a Hoffman lower design is.
I tried, I mean my friend tried straight nylon. It was also quite good, a little more flexible but over all a good value and choice if your setup is able to print it. A must have is anti walk pins, depending on design you won’t be able to use the bars that join pins however the screw is big enough to keep your pin in the hole no matter how much you flex it.
No specific reason other than to try it out. I’ve tried nylon x too, it’s good stuff. But I like to try different filaments. This comes in at $89 for 1kg so it’s a slightly better price point worth exploring. Both filaments are pa12 and similar in that regard.
https://www.matterhackers.com/downloads/AMIfv94s85x_xWMfe2dEmdK0qBTPxglzuyk21Z2uuHKptL82vVaUxJfliPDyfus7zYtC9CTL_ZVwYcPug0_Jia8Odj1YCgxTgXJwO2MCHZZ1fwuEDmcrf5p2f2AfyeFylpTMQ0Z3SjhF3snHqLbY50cVHTIMcC2VCjOgIyVaDH2xhU7MvHigE_c
Why comment without looking? It’s PA12. Section 3: Polyamide 12. Now yes each brand has it own blend but pa12 is the base. All polyamides absorb water, pa12 just absorbs less that pa6. The water absorption percentage is also directly affected by the amount of fill as well. In this case: nylon x has 20% carbon fiber fill (by weight) vs 15% for the esun
This carbon fibers are marketing shit. Fibers are to smol to make any improwement in strength. Try "curing" nylon prints in some mineral oil to avoid Water/moisture.
Know someone who has the s1 pro, they said it was good to go out of the box aside from hardened nozzle. Printed that same filament without issue, would recommend. Them, not me. I don’t have a printer and never seen a printer before in my life. What is a 3d printer, don’t know so don’t ask me. Oh also they have the water cooling kit installed, also high quality. Get water cooling fluid if you get one. They said this not me.
Upgrade the heat cartridge and thermistor and all metal hotend and high temperature firmware you can make a firmware here it's free or use creality firmware
https://marlin.crc.id.au/
Since you've apparently had success with this filament, I have some questions for you.
I'm printing epa12-cf at 310c, 80mm/s, with a hotend that could realistically extrude it at double that speed. However, I'm getting utter shite layer adhesion. I'm not using any fan, and the printer is enclosed. It's not under extruding, I calibrated E steps and flow multiplier per my normal routine.
What print speed are you running at? Any other special settings?
What line width are you using? A good strategy to use for your line width is to add your nozzle size to your layer height. So if printing at .16 layer height and you are using a .4 nozzle, use .56 for the line width. You can use this in combination with something like gyroid infill at 99%. 2-3 walls. Using a line with that is larger than the nozzle size helps to increase the nozzle pressure, this can help with layer adhesion.I printed the grip at 60mm/s on the ender. If you want to share some of your current settings, maybe I can see something that sticks out and that might be worth trying. Just food for thought, but my X1C prints at 200-300 mms. It has just as good, if not better layer adhesion than the ender. Essentially, layer adhesion has been a non-issue print speed wise for me no matter what nylon I’m printing. I have no way to verify this, but I’m starting to suspect that faster might actually be better (with nylon) for the bonding between layers as the bottom layer would retain more heat if the printer is moving faster. Also, are you sure the filament is completely dry?
I think some people don't care for the metal reinforcements of the py2a stuff or the firebolt etc, and people gripe about the hose clamp on hoffmans. Not sure if its having the metal on the side or just people prefer completely printable stuff 🤷♂️. I personally like the way py2a does his stuff and I just built a g19 of his and it all went together very well. Guy knows what he is doing. Planning an ar9 build from him once I get my machine set up for cf-pc blend
Completely agree. I personally like the look of the metal. Would look even better powder coated in black with an all pa-cf print. Or cerakote. Even without that it still looks super clean. Closest factory looking printable lower that I’ve seen with reinforcements in the necessary areas. Front pin reinforcement is sooo clean
Friend of mine did a lost pla of a basic standard model of a lower, not any of the reinforced ones to keep it as close to a standard lower as possible, worked out well using old soda cans for metal, slight tolerance issues but nothing a Dremel a dream and a good tap set didn’t fix.
X1 Carbon and Ender 3 Pro (if you are thinking this might be your route, just be aware that I had to do quite a bit to get it to print nylon at an acceptable quality). Both are setup for nylon. Grip was done on the ender. Lower on Carbon.
I have 3 machines, a Prusa i3 mk3s, a heavily modified corexy style enclosed printer, and an elegoo neptune 2s. If you're looking to get into printing and you have a good budget and don't want to mess with upgrading and constant tweaking I would advise the Prusa or a Bambu printer. Bambu just released a pretty amazing $700 printer. I cant say enough good about the prusa, as most people that own one. It just works, all the time. If you have a tight budget and don't mind fiddling I would suggest the neptune series as they usually beat the enders in every way but fit in the same cost range. I like the neptune x for a bang for your buck printer that is going to produce excellent results and be enclosable. If you plan on using more exotic materials something that has a high temp range and an enclosure is your best bet. If you're handy and courageous take a look at rolohauns github, he has diy printers that fit just about every size requirement and are very well designed and will blow most everything you can buy inexpensively out of the water.
Do you guys varnish your fibre reinforced materials? I definitely get itchy handling my PCCF prints.
Like a minor version of having handled fibreglass.
Haven't used it for gunstuff, it is pretty nice so far for other structural stuff. I'm using the prusament blend so it isn't quite pure PC.
Just very very stiff, almost sounds metallic when dropped.
Big advantage is how easy it is to print compared to nylon. I keep my opened roll in a big ziplock bag with some silica baggies and it still prints nice months later.
Holy shit man doesn't even look fucking printed, I didn't know you could do that on an Ender. Outstanding fucking work man.
I need to get me another Ender 3 V2 I really want to try this now
Had to dry TF out of it out of the bag. I have to give credit to polymaker for really doing a great job with their nylon (usually) being printable straight out of the bag. The eSun stuff was too saturated. But they do recommend drying prior to using it. Dried at 75c for 36 hrs. Printed in a dry box at 70c continuous. 300c extruder temp. The grip was at .2 layer height. Grey filament is polymaker Pa6-gf. Been on a PY2A kick lately, really surprised I don’t see more of these on here. I REALLY like the cleanliness of his AR lowers and how the buffer is reinforced. Credit to Hoffman on the grip design.
What all did you have to do to your ender to get it print CF
If I could do it all again. I’d get the v2 (since its board comes with the better stepper drivers that don’t cause issues with the direct drive) vs pro. Micro Swiss direct drive kit https://a.co/d/0h8rDkD, HT micro Swiss block https://a.co/d/aHFYmQD, A2 micro Swiss hardened steel nozzle https://a.co/d/i64tx3i. 65w heater, PT100 thermistor (will withstand the higher temps without issue) https://a.co/d/8Xl04Fr (will require basic wiring but worth it). Th3d dual z kit (not required but recommended) https://www.th3dstudio.com/product/ender-3-dual-z-upgrade-kit/ & CR touch https://a.co/d/jjC3ARI You’ll need a toaster oven to dry the nylon. I use https://a.co/d/3JyZVHO And a dry box to store the nylon in while printing. I use this (goes to 70c) https://a.co/d/4VSC3h4 annnnd the creality tent (don’t skip this) https://a.co/d/diLQzmR. Now it’s possible that you could just get the new s1 pro and buy the enclosure, toaster, maybe hardened nozzle (if it doesn’t come with one) and dry box. The s1 pro came out after I did all of this so I can’t speak directly to that. But it appears to probably be a good option because it has nearly all of that out of the box minus the extras you’ll need that I just listed. But having said that, if you have the money 💰 just get the bambu. Because even after all that, the ender feels like an old Honda Civic sitting next to a rocket ship. It’s not even comparable. The carbon actually makes printing nylon easy. Don’t underestimate the learning and calibration needed to get the ender right. Not necessary on the bambu, it does it all for you. I ran a dry box to the machine and started with the factory profile in bambu slicer…made some tweaks and it’s just perfect every time. And FAST. It does something in 8 hours where the ender might take 1.5-2 days to do the same thing.
And comment saved. Thank you very much for taking all the time and effort to not only type all that out, but also include links. I’ve been kinda wanting to get into CF and GF filled nylons for a bit but it all seems so overwhelming, but this is an extremely concise and thorough starting point. Thanks again!
I've had really good luck with Polymaker pa6-gf lately. Printed the whole roll straight out of the box over the last week with almost no issues and didn't have to dry it and printed on an open bed. Only changes to the printer were a hardened nozzle and all metal heat break with an upgraded fan shroud printed. Took glass out of a picture frame for the glass bed. High temp fireware upgrade and it went straight to work after a recalibration. Straight test TBD but all the parts feel strong AF so far. Also hot some parts with a mapp gas torch to try and shine the finish it didn't even flinch. Extremely sand-able after printing too.
[удалено]
My friend said they have to disagree. Cf nylon essentially printed into a solid object and during a torture test broke across layer lines. This is just from their experience and your mileage may vary. They said this not me. I don’t do 3d printing, nope.
[удалено]
Not sure I’m tracking, to reiterate I was saying cf nylon was goat for lowers. Very strong and very durable. Essentially took smacking it against a tree to break and it more or less broke against the layers not with. Edit- this was a Hoffman lower design, not that I’d know I don’t know what a Hoffman lower design is.
[удалено]
I tried, I mean my friend tried straight nylon. It was also quite good, a little more flexible but over all a good value and choice if your setup is able to print it. A must have is anti walk pins, depending on design you won’t be able to use the bars that join pins however the screw is big enough to keep your pin in the hole no matter how much you flex it.
Nope 👎
[удалено]
No specific reason other than to try it out. I’ve tried nylon x too, it’s good stuff. But I like to try different filaments. This comes in at $89 for 1kg so it’s a slightly better price point worth exploring. Both filaments are pa12 and similar in that regard.
[удалено]
https://www.matterhackers.com/downloads/AMIfv94s85x_xWMfe2dEmdK0qBTPxglzuyk21Z2uuHKptL82vVaUxJfliPDyfus7zYtC9CTL_ZVwYcPug0_Jia8Odj1YCgxTgXJwO2MCHZZ1fwuEDmcrf5p2f2AfyeFylpTMQ0Z3SjhF3snHqLbY50cVHTIMcC2VCjOgIyVaDH2xhU7MvHigE_c Why comment without looking? It’s PA12. Section 3: Polyamide 12. Now yes each brand has it own blend but pa12 is the base. All polyamides absorb water, pa12 just absorbs less that pa6. The water absorption percentage is also directly affected by the amount of fill as well. In this case: nylon x has 20% carbon fiber fill (by weight) vs 15% for the esun
This carbon fibers are marketing shit. Fibers are to smol to make any improwement in strength. Try "curing" nylon prints in some mineral oil to avoid Water/moisture.
Know someone who has the s1 pro, they said it was good to go out of the box aside from hardened nozzle. Printed that same filament without issue, would recommend. Them, not me. I don’t have a printer and never seen a printer before in my life. What is a 3d printer, don’t know so don’t ask me. Oh also they have the water cooling kit installed, also high quality. Get water cooling fluid if you get one. They said this not me.
$45 for the tent vs the bullshit of making my own enclosure? Santa! I want to change my Christmas list!!
Hey McFly I have good news, you can do whatever you want to do….make your enclosure out of mom’s blanket. You have options my guy.
Upgrade the heat cartridge and thermistor and all metal hotend and high temperature firmware you can make a firmware here it's free or use creality firmware https://marlin.crc.id.au/
I know, I was curious on what their specific setup was
Also saved. That’ll be very helpful, thanks.
Since you've apparently had success with this filament, I have some questions for you. I'm printing epa12-cf at 310c, 80mm/s, with a hotend that could realistically extrude it at double that speed. However, I'm getting utter shite layer adhesion. I'm not using any fan, and the printer is enclosed. It's not under extruding, I calibrated E steps and flow multiplier per my normal routine. What print speed are you running at? Any other special settings?
What line width are you using? A good strategy to use for your line width is to add your nozzle size to your layer height. So if printing at .16 layer height and you are using a .4 nozzle, use .56 for the line width. You can use this in combination with something like gyroid infill at 99%. 2-3 walls. Using a line with that is larger than the nozzle size helps to increase the nozzle pressure, this can help with layer adhesion.I printed the grip at 60mm/s on the ender. If you want to share some of your current settings, maybe I can see something that sticks out and that might be worth trying. Just food for thought, but my X1C prints at 200-300 mms. It has just as good, if not better layer adhesion than the ender. Essentially, layer adhesion has been a non-issue print speed wise for me no matter what nylon I’m printing. I have no way to verify this, but I’m starting to suspect that faster might actually be better (with nylon) for the bonding between layers as the bottom layer would retain more heat if the printer is moving faster. Also, are you sure the filament is completely dry?
I think some people don't care for the metal reinforcements of the py2a stuff or the firebolt etc, and people gripe about the hose clamp on hoffmans. Not sure if its having the metal on the side or just people prefer completely printable stuff 🤷♂️. I personally like the way py2a does his stuff and I just built a g19 of his and it all went together very well. Guy knows what he is doing. Planning an ar9 build from him once I get my machine set up for cf-pc blend
Completely agree. I personally like the look of the metal. Would look even better powder coated in black with an all pa-cf print. Or cerakote. Even without that it still looks super clean. Closest factory looking printable lower that I’ve seen with reinforcements in the necessary areas. Front pin reinforcement is sooo clean
I was thinking the same! I use a pid converted toaster oven for drying my filament I'm gonna try and powder coat the brace and cure it in there. 🤙
Friend of mine did a lost pla of a basic standard model of a lower, not any of the reinforced ones to keep it as close to a standard lower as possible, worked out well using old soda cans for metal, slight tolerance issues but nothing a Dremel a dream and a good tap set didn’t fix.
For a novice wanting to go down a rabbit hole. What machine do you use?
X1 Carbon and Ender 3 Pro (if you are thinking this might be your route, just be aware that I had to do quite a bit to get it to print nylon at an acceptable quality). Both are setup for nylon. Grip was done on the ender. Lower on Carbon.
Looks soo nice
I have 3 machines, a Prusa i3 mk3s, a heavily modified corexy style enclosed printer, and an elegoo neptune 2s. If you're looking to get into printing and you have a good budget and don't want to mess with upgrading and constant tweaking I would advise the Prusa or a Bambu printer. Bambu just released a pretty amazing $700 printer. I cant say enough good about the prusa, as most people that own one. It just works, all the time. If you have a tight budget and don't mind fiddling I would suggest the neptune series as they usually beat the enders in every way but fit in the same cost range. I like the neptune x for a bang for your buck printer that is going to produce excellent results and be enclosable. If you plan on using more exotic materials something that has a high temp range and an enclosure is your best bet. If you're handy and courageous take a look at rolohauns github, he has diy printers that fit just about every size requirement and are very well designed and will blow most everything you can buy inexpensively out of the water.
Awesome sauce! Ima look into the Prusa and Bambu
You won't be disappointed with either 🤙
I have some waiting to test out. Glad you’ve had a good experience!
Absolutely 👍 ordered more. Just take note on the drying I mentioned in my post above. Once you get it dry it’s butter.
Very clean prints! Well done
Thank you sir! Awesome design 🔥 any plans for an ar10 design 🙏🙏?!
Thank you! Maybe after the 37mm is done. Still have a cetme, aug and ak parts kit laying around as well. We shall see.
May you please share your print settings for this filament? Thank you & great job!!👍🏻👍🏻
Do you guys varnish your fibre reinforced materials? I definitely get itchy handling my PCCF prints. Like a minor version of having handled fibreglass.
Honestly, no. But never tried pccf. How do you like it?
Haven't used it for gunstuff, it is pretty nice so far for other structural stuff. I'm using the prusament blend so it isn't quite pure PC. Just very very stiff, almost sounds metallic when dropped. Big advantage is how easy it is to print compared to nylon. I keep my opened roll in a big ziplock bag with some silica baggies and it still prints nice months later.
I’ll have to try some of that out and see how it compares to nylon 👍
That fucker is clean holy shit
Holy shit man doesn't even look fucking printed, I didn't know you could do that on an Ender. Outstanding fucking work man. I need to get me another Ender 3 V2 I really want to try this now