Printing with MOLDLAY

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Tinker_Dan
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Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by Tinker_Dan » Wed Mar 09, 2016 4:48 pm

Hi Everyone!
I thought we could use a thread specific to printing with MOLDLAY filament. My results are.... OK, but not as nice as I think they could be. I'll be tweaking a bit. My goal is to use the prints for investment casting.

I'm using a MakerGear M2, 1.75mm filament, setting 180° hot end & 40°bed as found at the MatterHackers FAQ. I''ve got 2 layers all around, but will change top & bottom to 3. Infill is set at 25%, I want to leave plenty of room for material expansion/melt/flow after mold dipping. My caster said more dense pack pieces will actually break the mold during burnout as the material heats & expands with no place to go.

Please post any settings you find useful here & I will do the same, as I learn more about this filament. I've done well with PLA & ABS, so I know the M2 can do it.

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Jules
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by Jules » Thu Mar 10, 2016 4:44 am

Might want to move this to the Filaments forum. (Won't find it otherwise.) ;)

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pyronaught
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by pyronaught » Fri May 20, 2016 3:00 am

So does cured epoxy remove from a moldlay part without having to use any kind of mold release? Its low melting point would prevent it from being used with any kind of thermoset epoxy that goes in a curing oven. That's some pretty expensive filament there at $80 a Kg, you'd definitely want to dial in the part with something else as much as you could.
Last edited by pyronaught on Fri May 20, 2016 3:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

jsc
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by jsc » Fri May 20, 2016 3:03 am

I think it's intended for use in investment casting, as Tinker Dan said. You don't make negatives out of it, you print the positive, then pack it in sand and burn it out.

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pyronaught
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by pyronaught » Fri May 20, 2016 3:06 am

jsc wrote:I think it's intended for use in investment casting, as Tinker Dan said. You don't make negatives out of it, you print the positive, then pack it in sand and burn it out.
Their online info is showing that you can use it for both types of casting, and they have a picture of an object being cast from a clam shell negative filled with some kind of resin.

I think the trick would be how to get the negative to have a smooth enough surface to keep epoxy from gripping it. The usual layer lines would have to be smoothed out, and acetone can't be used to do it with this material. I think sanding is the only thing that would work. Normally you can get a sanded surface pretty smooth by heat flashing it afterwards, but this stuff has such a super low melting point that you would risk warping the part with even short bursts of heat.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

Mach
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by Mach » Fri May 20, 2016 4:29 am

pyronaught wrote: Their online info is showing that you can use it for both types of casting, and they have a picture of an object being cast from a clam shell negative filled with some kind of resin.
The video on their site is painful to watch - the mold leaking was jaw dropping.

It sands easier than PLA but not as easy as abs. I'd have to double check but I think limonene may affect it. I've printed and cast with it. It has a weird burnout. From the videos, you'd think it pours out of the investment but it doesn't seem to vaporize like PLA. One thing to watch out for, if you're vacuuming your investment, do not vacuum your part unless your doing 100% infill. After using PLA and Moldlay, I'm now using ABS, making a mother mold in silicone, then casting in wax to get my positive. ABS allows me to vapor smooth instead of sanding.

Image

There is also a wax filament available from http://www.machinablewax.com/product.php?product=52. I've tried printing with it but can't keep it from curling.

DavidF over at alloyavenue has several great videos where he's doing lost PLA casting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20iYekoQUUA

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pyronaught
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by pyronaught » Fri May 20, 2016 12:44 pm

yeah, that demo video showed pretty horrible results. If PLA already works better for this type of thing, why spend four times as much money on moldlay? There doesn't seem to be any advantage.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

Mach
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by Mach » Fri May 20, 2016 5:47 pm

pyronaught wrote:yeah, that demo video showed pretty horrible results. If PLA already works better for this type of thing, why spend four times as much money on moldlay? There doesn't seem to be any advantage.
Agreed, it's not that much easier for post processing than PLA, not at that price point. I am interested in trying Adam Beane's CX5 For post processing. Pricey but allows easy, direct manipulation after printing.

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pyronaught
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by pyronaught » Fri May 20, 2016 11:45 pm

I have a project coming up where I'm going to need to do compression molding on a carbon fiber layup using an aluminum mold set. I'm hoping I can use lost PLA to cast the aluminum mold and get something usable. I need to get the cast surface as pit-free as possible though and hopefully I can find a way to smooth the whole thing down since I'm guessing the initial cast surface is going to be pretty rough.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

Mach
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Re: Printing with MOLDLAY

Post by Mach » Sat May 21, 2016 1:36 am

if the pieces are relatively small (fits within a 5-6" flask) look at vacuum casting using investment.

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