My father in law has some UHMW strip that he will give me and suggested it could be used in place of the teflon. Does anybody know of a reason why it wouldn't work? My understanding is that UHMW is more abrasive resistant but less slippery, and more temprature sensitive.

should work just fine.

You may be able to locate more information on this website:

[www.garlandmfg.com]

PTFE is that solid white plastic stuff that is normally tougher than nails and does whatever job well. UHMW is more of a pimped out teflon (ptfe) It is just as strong, and has a lubricating agent impermiated in its chemical compound making it "self lubricating" I know UHMW will melt quite easilly but im not sure about ptfe.
If using PTFE as a bushing or some kind of abraision resisting pad. UHMW is far superior

i have to disagree, i use to use UHMW for bearing and parts for my cnc as it was cheap and easy to machine, but it gave me nothing both trouble. it is self lubricating, but thats only when it's not cold. when it gets slight hot, it starts to warp. ptfe is a lot better and delrin acetal is the best. thats what i've been using and i've never looked back.

The metalab group used PEEK for the thermal insulator and it worked great. I believe the peek was glass filled, but I'm not sure. You can see their descriptions of the insulator at:
[reprap.soup.io]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2008 01:31AM by Enrique.

Enrique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The metalab group used PEEK for the thermal
> insulator and it worked great. I believe the peek
> was glass filled, but I'm not sure. You can see
> their descriptions of the insulator at:
> [reprap.soup.io]

No in the end we decided to try normal PEEK (even withouth the glass it's already way harder than PTFE). This worked reasonably well. Now we don't need a clamp around the insulator to keep the M6 extruder barrel from popping out.

Well as it would have it for my extruder I made all the parts or of UHMW, well except for the insulation barrel. I did not think of trying in UHMW for the insulation barrel. If/when I get my Darwin back online (accidently fried a stepper driver) I can see if i can do some test. I have 6 Lbs of the stuff in 2x2x8in blocks. My major concerns are that it will either start to melt (I am printing ABS so the temp get up to 220C some times) or it will not insulate well enough and the heat will transmit to far up in to the extruder causing the filament to start to melt to soon. Hope fully i will get everything working again with in a week and I can test it out for you.

Found a great post that explains a lot about the subject. Check it out and hopefully it helps. UHMW VS Teflon Sheet