1

I see there are a lot of printers out there that can do nylon, but is there one that is actually designed to print nylon right out of the box? Which printer in your oppinion is the best at printing nylon?

Obviously this all depends on price. I’d like something less than $3000 but will spend more if that is what it takes to get some consistent results.

Thanks,

Sam

4 Likes
2

Have you checked the 3D Hubs printer guide? There must be something in there to help! Good luck

3

I have, but a lot of printers are supposed to be able to print nylon, but you check the support forums and it is clearly very finicky. I’m looking for a printer that is intended to print nylon.

Thanks,

Sam

4

Sorry mate wish I could help.

5

I’ll have a go at a detailed and extensive explanation regarding your thread, so get ready to read quite a bit of text :wink:

First of all Nylon is “just” a printing material, so the only things, that matter are:

-extruder

-build platform

-hotend

This list also resembles the importance of the three aspects.

The extruder

The extruder is the part of the printer, that makes the filament move, it consists of a motor, which has a gear attached. The filament is pushed against the gear and by moving the gear the motor can move the filament very precisely. You should look for a spring loaded extruder that uses 1,75mm filament.

3mm or 2,85mm filament works too, but 1,75mm is generally speaking better for higher resolution prints.

Aside from this there’s not that much special about the extruder, the gear size doesn’t matter alot for Nylon, as long as the teeth are big enough the extruder should work fine. I’d recommend printers that use gears similar to the e3d hobbed goblins.

As Nylon isn’t very flexible it would be fine to use a bowden extruder. Direct drive extruders or geared direct drive extruders both work fine too, but to get the maximum speed a bowden extruder would be the way to go.

The build platform

Nylon doesn’t necessarily need a heated bed, but it’s recommended. There are a few printbed surfaces (adhesives) that are recommended for Nylon, but you’ll have to test out the different adhesives as all of them work differently on each printer and setup.

The hotend

Whether you should use an all-metal hotend or one with a PTFE liner is up to you, I would contact the e3d-online.com support to ask them about this. e3d produces both all-metal and non-all-metal hotends so they should know, which one works better.

The hotend should reach 240-250C safely, to ensure, that all Nylon versions can be printed.

I would always go with e3d hotends, i’ve heard many great things about them and got a dual extrusion hotend by e3d, which works perfect (not tested with Nylon yet).

You have to dry most Nylons before printing, check out taulman3d.com and google seach to find out informations about this.

Most printers have no problem printing Nylon, so it mostly depends on your price range. I would recommend the Lulzbot, Ultimaker, Leapfrog or BigBox 3d printers.

As soon as you can limit your search to a few printers it would be easier to tell, which one is better or worse for Nylon printing, but there are too less general rules to select “the best” Nylon printer.

Cheers,

Marius Breuer

2 Likes
6

Thanks Marius, very helpful!

So, if I understand correctly, if you take a good printer and put an e3d hotend on it, you should be in good shape. Do you know of any printers that come with an e3d hotend? Besides the BigBox that is because I need something soon.

I have already been considering the LulzBot Taz 5 for many reason including the large print volume. Perhaps Their BoodaShnozzle will be OK for slow printing nylon and then eventually I could upgrade it after getting some more experience.

Another possibility I was thinking of is the MarkForge Mark One, seeing as its main print material is in fact nylon. What concerns me is that it is new and I haven’t found much in the way of user reviews.

Then there is the MakerGear M2 which has some great reviews. But they don’t say anything about nylon, but perhaps I could put an e3d hotend on it.

Any more thoughts for me in regard to these three printers (or any others) in the context of printing nylon?

Thanks,

Sam

7

I have a Lulzbot Taz 5 on the way at work and will be trying nylon on it. They do advertise that it handles nylon and the forum posts only say to use lower bed and nozzle temperatures than the suggested ones.

Once I get the opportunity, I will let you know (if you can wait a couple of months).

8

Hi Sam,
I print mostly functional/engineering grade materials (variety of nylons, polycarbonate, PEEK, iglide, etc…) for prototyping and I build my own printers for that purpose. The advice from Marius is all correct (I use modified e3d hot ends on most of my printers) however I think you might be looking for a unicorn.

There is no FDM printer made for trouble free nylon printing because there no FDM printer made for trouble free ANYTHING. Having the right hardware is crucial but is just the beginning. If you haven’t already, I would log in some hours of frustration with the basic hobby materials like PLA or ABS and then tackle nylon. No matter how much money you spend there will be frustration and a lot to learn. I can guarantee you that if you start with nylon, you will sell whatever printer you get and never want to look at another one.

Optimal Extrusion Temp, speed, bed, retraction, etc are going to be different for every material/manufacture and each have their limitations and challenges. I currently stock 4 nylons that are my favorite for different reasons. They all require completely different print settings. Some print better on wood, some better on glass with glue stick, painters tape, etc.

If you want to print more than “ready to print” trinkets in PLA, what is important is knowing your printer inside and out. Knowing that problem “x” means I have to adjust “y,z”. There are currently no printers I’m aware of that can do this for you, but if you have the time and patience there are a lot of resources here and on other forums that can help you overcome each challenge you encounter along the way.

Good luck!

-Jesse

1 Like
9

Thanks for all the great info Jesse

Have you ever heard of printing polyethelene (PE, not PET)?

Sam

10

maybe?

3D printer

1.75mm nylon

265 C temp. min

40m/s min.

0,1mm/ 0.2 setting

done!

bed: disappearing purple glue stick

print accuracy 100 /200 micr

11

Hi, thank you for your post, it’s very interesting. I also print nylon, actually with Makerbot but I want to buy a second 3D printer. What printer do you have? Thank you

12

I design and build my own equipment.

13

Did you ever get any feed back on this?

14

Mankati E180 , FDM printer for Nylon12, Nylon 66, elastomer nylon.

3D print nylon gear for RC car.

https://youtu.be/PDU09B59YFQ

1 Like