1 Topic by heartless

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Topic: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

I bought this spool of CF ABS a while back and am just now getting around to testing it out. (finally got #2 up and running with the E3D v6 & hardened steel nozzle, just for this)

Diameter: very consistent over a couple of yards with only 0.02mm of variance - average of my spool is 1.7222
Roundness: Quite round in the couple of places I tested. Virtually no variance
Straight off the spool, it is brittle and will snap fairly easily. It does not have the give that regular ABS has

Print testing:
Standard calibration cube, single wall - looks very nice and smooth.
RC plane motor mount at 90% infill - came out quite well. This was printed in multiple materials with the same print settings to test weight...

Temperatures
Hotend temp: I did need to adjust temp a little (i think the hardened steel nozzle may play a factor in this) my "normal" temp for ABS on #1 with the standard brass nozzle is 235-237C - I had to bump temp up to 245C on #2 for this to get good flow and layer adhesion.
Website claims 220-235C

Bed temp - my usual 100C with hairspray. Stuck down well with no lifting on the smaller parts that I ran.

The cooled plane part is quite rigid - more so than a regular ABS part would be. This would be particularly useful if you are into printing RC copter parts and such.

First impressions: So far, I like it. Still need to tweak my settings a little to get optimum prints with it, but so far, it is printing well and looks good as well. Has a nice dark charcoal color to it - not a black black.

It definitely has a slight texture to it - not silky smooth like a regular ABS print but a little coarser, like very fine sandpaper. (i can understand how a brass nozzle would be eaten up by this)

http://soliforum.com/i/?AW0bNfa.jpg

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

2 Reply by mdrVB6

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Re: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

I just went over to the 3DXtech website and was pretty impressed with how many different types of carbon fiber mix filaments they offer.  Pretty much every major plastic mixed with CF.  Personally, I have only tried the Colorfabb XT CF-20 and it is pretty good but you still have the cooling challenges associated with XT.  Its hard for me to justify the expense because realistically, plain plastic is strong enough for everything I use my printer for, so the CF blends are basically just for vanity and cool factor.

SD4 w/ RUMBA, E3D Volcano, all bearings, glass bed

3 Reply by elmoret

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Re: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

It is worth noting that a part printed in CF is no stronger, in fact it is often weaker. This is because the CF fibers don't cross the printed layers, so the inter-layer adhesion is actually reduced since some of the surface area is used on fibers that don't link with each other. CF parts are definitely stiffer though.

With all that said, 3DXTech is a bunch of great guys, and they make nice filament.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend

4 Reply by Heartlander

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Re: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

Robox is considering hardened nozzles for their dual extruder. You can't just screw in E3d nozzles since Robox has needle valves that shut off the filament instead of using Retraction. If that comes to pass, and I think it will eventually, perhaps you could print underlayers of ABS and an outer shell of ABS-CF. I think such laminated constructs may be a benefit to FDM that you couldn't get with injection molding. In fact, with the right G-Code you could do that with any Dual Extruder machine (top x layers: Extruder = 0 or 1?)

It would be interesting if the guys at 3DXTech would do a torture test of the various rugged filaments to see how they really stack up under compression, extension, freeze/thaw, UV, flex and vibration (paint shaker?) tests?

I love this forum. I've only been at this for more or less three years but I learn something everyday here.  Great bunch of guys here.

Robox printer, HICTOP (Prusa i3 variant) Model 3DP17 printer, ELEK 2.5W laser engraver, AutoDesk 123D Design, Windows 10

Heartlander's Website

5 Reply by heartless

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Re: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

I am fully aware of the limitations of the CF filaments - and yeah, there is the "cool" factor.

For printing quad copter parts, i think it would be ideal - light & rigid - keeping in mind if you crash, you will most likely be printing new parts, LOL

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

6 Reply by Heartlander

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Re: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

Tim, did you get my email about Form Futura?

Robox printer, HICTOP (Prusa i3 variant) Model 3DP17 printer, ELEK 2.5W laser engraver, AutoDesk 123D Design, Windows 10

Heartlander's Website

7 Reply by elmoret

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Re: 3DXTech Carbon Fiber ABS

Yes - I'll look into it, thank you.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend