I found out about this AMAZING Superpolymer from Z-Polymers. Tullomer. Can be a filament for 3D print or fibers for making crazy-strong meshes, etc.
Unlike the other Superplastics like PEEK/PAEK/etc…the usual suspects, Tullomer will print, with some provisos, on consumer level 3D printers- and the manufacturer has thoughtfully provided Bambu Labsa profiles for the Carbon series of printers.
Well, then, that leaves me with a S&G project… Especially when the salesperson at Dyamism (The current exclusive reseller for Z-Polymers) told me that I could buy it but the temps, etc are not such that my little 3D printer that could, my heavily tricked out Ender3 v2 wouldn’t work for the stuff. Bad idea telling me it can’t be done… X-D)
Sooo…
One bed heater upgrade and a high-temp/high flow hotend upgrade later (I’ve that Revo CR upgrade…sooo…it’s a simple upgrade or so I thought.)
In prep for trying to print this amazing stuff, waiting for it to arrive (1kg, I was committed to this endeavor…$500 plus tax and S&H via UPS Ground….) I tried to print a LARGE item, namely my 3D model of my experimental replacement front fork for Lisa’s Fold-N-Go powered wheelchair that they used die-cast on leaving it a planned obsolescence item on. In the end, i want to render this crap moot. A, “This Will Not Do…” type story. I have issues with the entirety of the DME industry on at least this particular subject. So, as a learning experience, I’m trying to see what it will take to make things for the space on the cheap and CUSTOM ORDERED without the costs to do that sort of thing.
I digress…as I was saying, I was printing the part in Polycarbonate, the minimum level; at 65-75% Cubic, Gyroid, or Honeycomb infill and be a part I could basically trust to woirk in it’s itended role as a load bearing powered wheelchair part. It won’t last for more than about a year or so in use- not stiff, not strong enough, even as PC- but it will work for a couple of weeks for Tullomer…as I figured…
One should check specs. For any and all Mad Science projects. Even this one. The max power the Ender3 v2 power supply will source is 350W per the specs on the Meanwll supply in the printer. The bed heater is 220W and is inadequate to get to Tullomer minimum bed temps for a Consumer profile print (120 deg C) so I got a, “High temp 200w 24v bed heater and proceeded to do the mod there. $35, no biggie. Do it almost in my sleep. So it was sort of printing right but I need to print at a minimum of 400 mm/s, to print Tullomer right in a non-Industrial (Intamsys, etc…) printer, so I put in the Revo HF kit and proceeded to use the nice ObXidian 0.6 HF nozzle from the kit to actually go for the speed while doing PC. $160. Anoter little walj in the part…after I re-rigged my Ender CR mod to use the stock Revo core connectors spliced properly into the V2 instead of the E3d provided and suggested mod there of cutting heater and thermistor wires from the stock HW and splicing the kit into the wiring harness.
The problem? Bed heater plus heater core exceeds the power supply rating. IF you have the bed heater engaged at any time, we have a brown-out or hanging at tolerances for the supply when the hotend is heating. If you have the bed heating for any reason at the moment you try to make a stepper move, you risk a chance of a batch of skipped steps…basically a stepper stroke/heart attack and you get an X/Y (Sometimes BOTH) layer shift. Several of them.
Well…that sucks. Need to back out of the 24v bed heater and get a more specialty one that is designed to be powered off a parasitic tap on the 110v on the Meanwell and is SSR switched from the 24v bed heater drive signal. 500W. We should be able to really print crazy-assed stuff once it’s in. That will have to wait- because I”m trying to fit it in for this Holiday if I could. So, buy a new bed heater to back it away from that precipice that the 300W one was. On order. Pulled the cover off the mainboard. Smelling burnt. Looking for something on the mainboard I cooked with this attempt. Found it. Power feed from the Meanwell. Apparently, while they had the PSU rated for 350W, the controller just couldn’t keep up. Carbonized the terminal block (Damn… Hence my remarks about ALWAYS checking ratings before Mad Science. Not because you care about the stuff you’re breaking, per se, it’s your experiments will fail on you… X-D) So, place an order for THAT as well. Sigh.
Got them in two days later. Still enough time for the window there. One day before the Tullomer in. Won’t be able to print it, but I can still cut a prototype PC one and a spare for the part, right? This is Mad Science. It’s going to screw up. X-D
I must’ve had the X and Y steppers on their way out. I’ve ripped up two Y steppers so far, pushing the envelope and workloads well past what Creality ever imagined for their Enders. I’m using the silly thing as a industrial class printer with the workloads I present to the poort hing. As it stands, I had enclosure temps around an estimated 60 deg C, which is a sweet spot for PC and the minimum for Tullomer. I have failures of both now. It will skip badly as it warms up and a gentle push CAN (but doesn’t always) cause it to skip and let the carriages in question move. (Again…ouch…) This was after having problems with the Ender3v2s1 Professional Firmware working right for calibration- and one swap out to Klipper and Mainsail. (Why the HELL was a putting that one off for so long? It gives even stock operation cleaner and better workflows than Octoprint and the Marlin derived configuration)
Sooo…one longwinded explanation/story later, I’ll be picking up steppers and figuring out if 60 deg C enclosures are too much and following that up with the AC powered bed heater. If I can’t operate in that domain, I might look at putting some watercooling blocks on the steppers to chill them out and semi-protect them from the abuse. Once there, I’ll be back into the space of printing PC and MAYBE Tullomer. If I can cheat a bit and run without that, I’ll do that to claim the wins there.
Keep tuned. I’ll definitely post the win/lose here- and do a detailed description of the mods so anyone crazy/stupid enough to try will be able to do it too.