1 Topic by Krythis (edited by Krythis 2013-03-05 16:27:19)

  • Krythis
  • Krythis
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  • From: Depew, NY
  • Registered: 2013-02-27
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Topic: Polycarbonate

I just ordered a Solidoodle v3 and was hoping to use polycarbonate filament at some point. It's my understanding the max temperature for the SD is somewhere around 200º C and would need a new hotend to handle the 265º C polycarbonate. Has anyone used this material or have any suggestions on what hotend would be appropriate?

ultimachine.com/content/polycarbonate-175mm-clear-1kg-spool

E3D-v4 Hotend, MK5 carriage with round plastic wire conduit , 3/16" tempered glass,  Well nut, SureStepr SD8825 1/32 Extruder Driver, PowerEdge 2650 500W PS, QU-BD heated bed, circuit board fan, hinged plexiglass enclosure with plastic tray top. Other than that mostly stock SD3

2 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Polycarbonate

You would want an all metal hotend.  The black plastic insulator that holds the nozzle will fail at 250C.  The Arcol v4 is supposed to be pretty good, however you will need to design a mount for it.  http://shop.arcol.hu/

3 Reply by fredhag

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  • Registered: 2012-08-31
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Re: Polycarbonate

You are probably aware that the reason for the temp cutoff is due to the plastic liner inside the hotend assembly that will melt and fuse with the filament if too hot (I did it once even knowing of the danger). This is a weak point in the design and something Makerbot stopped doing after their MK6 extruder.  The only hotends I am aware that can go that hot would be Makerbot's and their derivatives like qu-bd.com .  While searching for hotends, stay clear of anything that requires a PEEK or PTFE liner in the hotend, e.g., hotends dot com (and a bunch of knockoff eBay products) has a nice J Head hot end, but it uses PEEK so it would fail.

Taulman prints and sells nylon that requires high temp, and he uses his own design hot end - it's on instructables somewhere.

I seem to recall someone here had modded their SD with a more Makerbot style hot end but I can't find it so hopefully, they'll chime in.

Cheers,
Fred
Fredrick C. Hagemeister
http://blog.richmond.edu/ti3d

fredhag's Website