Most Rigid Material?

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tofu702
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2016 6:39 am

Re: Most Rigid Material?

Post by tofu702 » Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:40 am

As an update to this, here are my findings:
  • The Carbon Fiber PLA (Protopasta) was stiffest, but also was quite easy to permanently deform. Like all PLA, even modest heating caused serious warping, but I think it also just likes to deform under pressure.
  • The Polycarbonate didn't produce great results. It wasn't all that stiff and has issues with shrinkage as it cools. I'm sure this has been covered in great detail in the Filament forum.
  • The best overall tradeoff between stiffness and shape retention was Carbon Fiber PETG (CarbonX), but it was also sorta a pain to get good surface quality. It also wore out a Makergear 0.35mm nozzle after about 250 grams; I think that was because when the surface peeled up the nozzle would rub against it and wear down. My one piece of advice for this stuff is to print it really slowly.
Ultimately I ended up with a metal / plastic hybrid solution, though the pure CF PETG was borderline acceptable for this application.

Phil
Posts: 214
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:49 pm

Re: Most Rigid Material?

Post by Phil » Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:59 pm

If you are game to try more filaments, you might want to try GF-PETG. I have not used CF-PETG, but have tried several other CFs. The GF is much shinier with other differences, too.
BTW, I would recommend using a steel nozzle for any filled filament.

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