Hey everyone,
I have a Zortrax M300 available to use for a project. We would like to use Z-NYLON to fabricate components (because of its ability to resist high impact and abrasion). While I realize that the printing of Nylon-based materials is not supported on this model, I would still like to try to use it as a 3rd party filament and custom settings. Does anyone have experience/know of any successful precedents of printing with Z-NYLON on machines that don’t automatically support it?
Thank you!
I’ve had some good results printing nylon on my M200. I printed Taulman Bridge, not Z-Nylon, but I based the print settings on what the M200 Plus uses for Z-Nylon.
First, I used this.
I tried it without the spacer and the filament twisted up inside the extruder gear gap. I printed the spacer (several) in ABS, then spent time carefully sanding, test-fitting, and sanding again, throwing it away when I broke it, and starting over again. Finally, when I got one right, I thru-drilled the filament alignment holes with a 2mm drill. After fitting the spacer in the back of the extruder housing, I lined it up using a bit of filament before re-installing the extruder motor.
For print settings, I use the external HIPS profile for 0.19 mm layer height, and reduce the print speed to 76%. This pretty closely matches the Z-Nylon print speeds from the M200 Plus. I then made the following changes:
Retraction Speed / Distance: 36 / 2.0
Fan Speed: OFF
First Layer Gap: 0.35
Raft Layers: 8
Raft-Platform Gap: 0.20
Z-Nylon profile on the M200 Plus uses 260 extruder temp and 85 platform temp. For Taulman Bridge I use 260 / 65. Parts can be difficult to remove from the raft. I’m not sure that I have the first layer height optimized yet. I use a full enclosure to reduce warping, and an old food dehydrator to dry the filament before printing.