Carbon Fiber Filament

I'm keen to print with this: [www.imakr.com] does anyone have experience with carbon fiber filament?

They mention possible issues with bowden type machines such as the ormerod.

I've no experience of this particular filament, but really enjoy trying unusual types, and have not done any lasting damage to my Ormerod yet I am definitely going to try this one out (have ordered it already) and will report back. I've also pre-ordered their amazing looking (but horribly expensive) bronze filament and will let you know how that goes too...thanks for the pointer

Thanks for that. I'll be really interested to hear how it goes. I will be trying the filament too but not for a while. I wanted to use it to try and print David Perry's superb F-F-Fiddle [www.thingiverse.com] He recommends this filament for improved tone and aesthetics. However, I'll need to extend my Y-axis/bedplate to 300mm first since the neck section is 280mm long. I'm thinking about how to do that in the meantime.

i would recommend to change the filament feeder before you try out the new filament because of this
MasonStonehenges Springloader seems to be the anwsere.
i think that carbonfiber filament wlll cut deep into the stock feeder because of the carbon in it.

for your bigger bedplate - check out how far the bed can move if you redesign the lower part of your
print you might be able to print on the bed at first. but the larger part as an overhang hanging over the
edges of the bed.

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Red Ormerod No. 281

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Quote
JDNicolson
Thanks for that. I'll be really interested to hear how it goes. I will be trying the filament too but not for a while. I wanted to use it to try and print David Perry's superb F-F-Fiddle [www.thingiverse.com] He recommends this filament for improved tone and aesthetics. However, I'll need to extend my Y-axis/bedplate to 300mm first since the neck section is 280mm long. I'm thinking about how to do that in the meantime.

The diagonal of the bed is about 295mm, so you may just have enough room to print it diagonally.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
redblunt
i would recommend to change the filament feeder before you try out the new filament because of this
MasonStonehenges Springloader seems to be the anwsere.
i think that carbonfiber filament wlll cut deep into the stock feeder because of the carbon in it.

Good catch @Redblunt - I will indeed be using the spring loaded feeder; I am also anticipating a significant problem to be brittleness as it goes around all the turns of the feeder and Bowden tube, but worth a try I think...

Many thanks all for the helpful comment. It turns out the neck part is longer than I thought, over 290mm. I tried it on slic3r plater, and needed about 200 x 250mm to comfortably accommodate the print due to width at nut and neck joint. I see 200 x 300mm beds available so will have a go with one of these.

Hmmmmm £100/kg......

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Redblunt is referring to this item on Thingiverse.. [www.thingiverse.com]

I have not tried that carbon fibre filament, but I did try some conductive filament once, which I assume has carbon granules added to it. Like the description of the fibre filament, it is more brittle than the normal filaments. I found that it also has a problem with low layer adhesion. I still have almost all of the reel because I found that the prints ended up too weak and brittle. I originally thought it would make good enclosures for electronics PCBs by providing a measure of static protection.

The new iOn High-Performance ABS/PA Alloys here [microfabricator.com] also look very promising.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2014 09:36AM by JDNicolson.

Quote
dmould
I have not tried that carbon fibre filament, but I did try some conductive filament once, which I assume has carbon granules added to it. Like the description of the fibre filament, it is more brittle than the normal filaments. I found that it also has a problem with low layer adhesion. I still have almost all of the reel because I found that the prints ended up too weak and brittle. I originally thought it would make good enclosures for electronics PCBs by providing a measure of static protection.

Perhaps as technology improves, an answer to this would be to design and print using 2 or more materials, one with good compressive strength ( e.g a material with carbon additive) and one with good tensile strength, e.g nylon. Result might turn out quite anthropomorphic in fact!

regards
Andy

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Ormerod #318
www.zoomworks.org - Free and Open Source Stuff

Voila...my carbon fibre filament arrived today and I've just finished my first couple of prints, so results attached as promised


Actually it proved to be very easy although the brittleness of the filament was immediately evident - it arrived unspooled and as soon as I tried to spool it by hand onto an empty 100m spool is snapped within a few meters as it just couldn't cope with that degree of bending so I abandoned that and just left it loose coiled on the table so it could uncoil itself straight into the PTFE tube and into the feeder.

I just used my standard temps (195/185 and 65/60) and my standard Slic3r settings - didn't even switch to the spring loaded feeder as it seemed to be fine diameter and abrasion-wise. It printed as easily as any other PLA I've used, with good layer adhesion and flow. I printed two of my favourite "fun" objects - the personalised retro font pen and the goblet as I've printed these many times before in many different filaments so I can easily compare results. The density of the filament appears to be somewhat lower than standard (I can measure it if anyone is interested) and I really like the finish - a dark graphite grey with a satin sheen and I think you could print anything you like with it basically without worry (other than the cost!). If anyone has good ideas for some test pieces that I could use to measure whether this filament acutally has any different tensile properties to standard PLA I'm up for giving it a go...just let me know

That's great news! Looks like I'll be able to print the violin in carbon fibre filament after all. Parts are on order for extending the bed I'll report on how it goes. Many thanks for trying out the fillament and for sharing.