Wax Printing on Midnight

So I got the wax filament and tried a print on the printerbot with limited success.

I was able to set up a default in Cura for Wax for printer head @175 bed @70 but it would not allow me to extrude under 200 degrees. Does anyone know how to set that to a differently in Cura? Seemed like it was default setting. Also need to try tonight to turn off the bed, Using glue did not work on the wax. I think it needs to be printed on a cold bed. John K purchased a smaller printerbot with a cold bed but it needed calibrated. May try the wax tonight if he is there to see if I can get some good results.

Thanks for any input.

Matt

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I think he’s planning on printing tonight, so he’ll probably be around.

Yes I sent him a text. We will see what we can do with the printer!
Thanks Nathan.

Matt

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Let me know how well it works.

Flat works well as long as the bed is clean and you use a raft. John k has the play and created the robot. The unicorn Pegasus had some fibers stray on the wings, so I may need to do some tweaking on taller projects with support. I am saving all support and rafts to melt into a candle. :slightly_smiling:

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Thanks to Ethan for helping me to figure out the GCode to turn off the Cold Extrusion Error Shut off. M302 P1 - Off M302 P0 - On I think!

Also need to play with the printing speed.

Just a note to use Alcohol on the tape to help it stick. Oil from fingers makes the edges peel up.

Still working on getting clean prints.

Will try different heads, Speed Combos.

Have yet to Burn out and cast it but getting close.

Kind of but a little off with gcode meaning. http://forum.makergear.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1052

-the purring dork

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I did some wax prints on midnight. here is what I observed, and the settings I used. I have not added the pictures yet.

Anyone interested in chipping in to buy some of this:

http://www.makergeeks.com/molowaxcawi3.html

let me know I am going to place an order next week.

Want to see how it compares to the machineable wax

Plan on casting it as well.

Thanks,

Matt

@lisa - pierce ended up helping the UTA folks tonight.

So John K and I have been working on getting the wax just right. John came across this:


obsolete part that broke. They suggest this:
http://printrbot.com/shop/gear-head-extruder/
Can I put this on a wish list for the Printerbot?
Or perhaps we can just get the gears if they sell them. I will look to see what i can find.

Thanks,

Matt

I showed John K that about the extruder :wink:

I did print the old ninjaflex filament guide and install it yesterday. it is what i have on my printrbot simple metal too. works pretty well. I am asking 3D Fab for the improved extruder design, as it handles flexible filaments better by design.

Katelyn Smith had a few successful wax prints last night.

We used stick glue on the bed. nozzle temp 150, bed 70. speed 60.

One thing I need to add to my doc, and Kate reminded me about it last night. Clearing out the old filament before, and the wax after.

Before - we set the temp to 200. extruded a little PLA to make sure. switched to wax Filament. Extruded the wax at 200 until it was coming out (as a blob) .

After the prints, we switched for PLA, and ran that thru at 200c.

Kate found with a light pass from a heat gun, the spider strings disappeared.

@Matthew_Hoinkes & @talkers ~ thank you both for letting me know about that new extruder… Please open a request ticket including links to some reviews (on the ticket - as well as here for others to review), so I can make an informed decision. Thanks! :slight_smile:

One issue I realized with printing in wax is that the usually wax gram to x metal conversion tables assume a solid piece of wax.

3D print have infill, so are less dense than traditional molds. You will need to factor this in when calculating metal pours. A table based on volume would be best.

@LisaSelk @themitch22 will do. thank you

@Katelyn_Smith

Perhaps one could perform a volumetric comparison using water and a graduated cylinder to measure the volume of the flask and then the flask + the model. The difference would be the minimum cc’s of metal needed.

We use a 90lb crucible and do multiple pours in bronze at the Grapevine foundry. I have just suggested this to the foundry owner and we are going to start calculating the wax to be more precise. Up to this point we have been eye balling and pouring excess into ingot molds. Seems to work pretty well but a bit of waste on gas the metal can always be reused.

I can see if you are limited on the size and needed to know exactly how much material to melt you would need a more accurate calculation.

The Ninja Flex guide broke that was put on midnight. I found those numbers are pretty accurate for printing with the wax, I have been trying taller items with support for accuracy, but for medallions and pendants it works great!

Perhaps with the moldlay wax i can get some “Cleaning” filament? Might be useful for the Polyprinters as well but I need to do some research first.

Thanks @talkers for the extruder suggestion! I had to remove the wheel last night and clean it of the stripped wax. A shinny new awesome extruder would be really nice! (hint hint @LisaSelk)
Thanks,

Matt

Set the infill to 100% in the slicer to get a rough estimate, then set it to your desired infill.

If your goal is casting, you probably don’t need wax filament, PLA burns out of a plaster investment well. ABS might work as well but I can see the expansion being a problem.

The advantage I can see with wax is that post printing you can sculpt and finish the parts easier than you could with a plastic.

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@themitch22 ordered a new extruder designed for flexible filaments for midnight. :beers:

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I think there were still stripping issues with the wax filament, but the new extruder does help a lot with ninjaflex.