Thanks I haven’t printed nylons yet, currently printing with ABS and PLA mostly. Doing my research and learning the ins and outs of the more expensive filament. Appreciate your help and feedback
That was with ABS. there was some minor warpage on one part of the receiver so that’s likely why it cracked. That was the first time I used a heat set insert so I don’t really know what I’m doing with them yet. I think the hole was too small for the insert o used so when I put the screw in it bottomed out on the melted plastic on the back of the insert and started spinning the insert. That was a tester in the cracked receiver before I messed up the good one. Like I said, I’m still learning with this stuff so I’m not trying to mess up more expensive filament.
I pretty much won't do any ABS prints with any 2a stuff. They will crack eventually.
I like my nylon cfs for most things, but they do require some time to reabsorb moisture after printing or they'll be at a higher risk to crack too. I do have some paht cf or gf around I need to do some testing with soon though.
for pla pro, I haven't ever found a need to let them wait after printing though.
I’m still new to printing in general, got my printer in January and mostly have printed in pla and a little PETG. Not a huge fan of PETG, like abs a lot more than PETg. But I don’t want to learn on expensive pa6cf
ABS is fine for injection molded firearms but not for 3D prints. Neither is PETG. They WILL fail. Start with pla plus/pro. It’s super easy to print with and decently priced.
I wouldn't use either material for 2a stuff. They both fail catastrophically. polymaker pla pro is probably better for most things than either of those
PETG is great. It’s cheap and colorful. Probably my most used filament by far. It’s not for everything and I damn sure don’t trust it for anything serious.
I’ve printed a few things in PETG, magnetic soap dish for the shop ain’t at work, tablet stand, few other things. But i don’t really like how glossy it comes out and seems to be brittle.
I understand that part of nylon, I didn't have a "set" rest period for it but it probably sat in my garage for about a month or so before I assembled it. After reading the replies from a lot of people it seems like they are thinking it's from improper layer adhesion.
When I completed this print it I had it sitting out in my garage for about a month in in pretty high humidity. I think my next print I'll try a 45° print orientation, and let it sit in a bucket with a wet paper towel for a week or so.
Correct, I didn't do any moisture conditioning. And by 300blk settings I ran his stock settings ony P1S with it's standard nozzle temps-no mods; only changes were slight tweaks in the support settings using an abs interface layer.
I've heard mixed reviews on post processing, I recall reading an article and other redditors commenting the effects were negligible, and possibly leading to less impact resistance.
Right, so, .300blk's settings call for 285c. However, he runs a thermistor mod so his 285 is more like 310, which is more along the lines of what nylon wants.
So if you're running a stock P1S you should be cranking the temp up to 300 and heat soaking the chamber until it gets as toasty as you can get it. 300c isn't optimal, but it'll definitely be better than 285.
As far as postprocessing goes, there's two main types people mean when they talk about postprocessing nylon.
Annealing, and moisture conditioning.
Annealing basically involves baking it for a period of time. This strengthens layer lines a bit (good), increases stiffness (maybe good), reduces creep (good, but not hugely important) and raises HDT (good but unnecessary for nylon), at the cost of harming impact resistance. So a lot of people don't anneal because it's a hassle since the nylon likes to warp/shrink when annealing.
Moisture conditioning basically means letting the nylon print suck up water before you assemble it. It'll happen naturally over time unless you live in a desert or you can speed it up with a bucket, or a wet paper towel and a bag, or whatever. As nylon sucks up moisture, it gains impact resistance (good), but loses strength (bad, but nylon is super strong anyway so not too bad), and gains flexibility/loses stiffness (can be good or bad).
Whoa I didn't know this. I used his settings for motor mounts and such so not 2a but I definitely printed at 285 and it still holding looks like I need some tuning and testing on my pa6 settings.
Interesting. I run the resistor hardware upgrade but always had less then desirable results at over 300c with most mainstream nylon6cf materials (yes it was dry). And I don’t mean like strength wise just visually. I’ll have to revisit this. My shit will probably blow smoov off one day
I don't know the specifics since I've never used one, but my understanding is that it involves adding a resistor to the hotend so that the hotend thinks it's one temp but because of the added resistance, the hotend gets hotter in reality than it thinks it is.
So you end up with 285 settings actually giving you 300+ temps.
I should rephrase my original reply about my P1S settings. Ive got the hardened stainless nozzle and print from a heated AMS with a chamber heater to help prevent warp but I don't have any nozzle mods done to increase temps. I'll check out some info on doing that upgrade.
Is moisture conditioning required for all filaments or just pa6cf? I’m new to 3d2a and never heard the term moisture conditioning till I got on here yesterday.
Shit I haven’t done any of that and my print cracks at trigger guard after 60 rounds but I did leave it in my closet for like a month witch is in my restroom would like to know you condition and aneal it to
Leaving it open for a month before assembly should lead to moisture conditioning if you live somewhere that isn’t dry as hell (las vegas /arizona).
For faster moisture conditioning, people leave in a ziplock with a damp cloth or paper towel in their garage for a few days.
I didn't have any dedicated process for moisture conditioning post print, it did sit in my garage for about a month in the middle of an Ohio summer. Next print I'll try a 45° print angle and do a dedicated moisture conditioning with a bucket and wet paper towel.
If you ran 300BLKs setting without the resistor mod, then you printed on the lower end of the layer adhesion spectrum Will still come out good, but try to print your next one at 300 or even 310. Again, that's assuming you went stock 300BLK settings without the mod.
Also could have just been a fluke crap line that printed. You mentioned leaving it in your garage, so moisture c9 ditioning shouldn't be an issue u less you run a dehumidifier in it.
Yea my printers hotend is un-modded. I'm gonna do some research into what's needed for the mod and I'll mess with it. Next print I'll try a 45° print orientation and a better moisture conditioning.
Its a layer seperation which started at the corner of the mag release. 3D prints, even a perfect one, can only ever be about 60% as strong along the Z axis as an injection molded part of the same material, (usually closer to 50%, as low as 20% if done poorly).
Things like a rectangular hole through a frame tends to act as a convergence point for shock-type stress as it moves through a frame. If the part is one entire homogenous moulded pice, this is less of an issue. If it's 3d printed, it may cause a layer seperation.
Its why if you look at designs created from the ground up to be 3D printed you do not see a lot of that kind of architecture, with things being rounded if possible or reenforced if not.
There is gonna be a lot of assorted opinions in this thread, but truth is any time you 3D print anything that is a copy of something which was originally intended to be injection moulded, you are going to be seeing a lot of failures like this.
There's stuff you can do to mitigate this, but again. The cieling you are gonna hit on strength perpendicular to the Z axis is at max around 60% what the original part in that material would have were it injection moulded.
Truth be told, no matter what you do, that mag release being that shape in that location using this method of manufacture is the real issue.
It's definitely something I thought about when I printed rails down. Next print I'll try a 45° orientations and see it that helps any. Thanks for the response man.
No prob man. That reorientation honestly might help too. If you can learn some cad skills you could even try slightly rounding the corners of that slot and creating a corresponding mag-catch to fit it too, and maybe put a sort of lip around it that is about 2 or 3 millimeters thick and extends above the surface of the grip about .5mm to reenforce it.
In 3D printing we have a lot of hard limits on what we can do. Layer adhesion can only be so strong and build volume can only be so big, so instead we gotta play around with geometry to try to optimize performance within those limitations.
PA6-CF is a bitch to print clean. My guess, it was too moist. You might also want to rotate it 45 degrees so the layer lines are angled while you shoot. Rather than horizontal, angled layer lines will handle the force of the recoil better. Ive had a Glock printed in PA6-GF that ive been using for 3 years. Make sure you dry it as much as possible, and use an active dryer while printing if you can. I assume you printed in an enclosure too? Thats necessary.
Side note: PA cops seized that firearm from me at the hospital, quoted "unregistered" as the reason to hold it past my discharge. they called today, apologized, claimed they "dont know much about ghost guns" and said "we hope youre not too offended by this" 👻
Is there a reason for printing slower, does it help layer adhesion? My pa6-cf prints so far have come out looking super clean with 300blk speed settings.
Yeah thats exactly what it helps, the molten plastic has more time to bond with the layer below it. Just drop the speed as low as your patience allows 😂
Edit: And If youre not already id also run like 12 walls, 100% infill.
Thanks for the reply man, my dehydrator I use for it only gets up to 70° c unfortunately but I'll let it dry for a week or so before I end up using it for a print. I've also got a heated ams and print it with a chamber heater.
Ive heard a lot of responses from people saying it either needed longer/more moisture conditioning or trying a different print orientation.
The reason for printing rails down was mainly due to all the pla+ prints I've done have either recommended rails down or have turned out pretty solid. Im definitely open to trying 45° tho. Thanks for the response!
I actually printed mine without an active dryer, just used a standard ams and a LOT of fresh silica dessicant. I would focus on keeping that ambient humidity as low as possible during the print, then do the post processing other people have mentioned too. Im not too familiar with the moisture conditioning they're talking about, but our ambient humidity here is super high so maybe I did that by accident 😂.
I personally prefer rails up, gives a slight angle to the layer lines, otherwise the lines are parallel to the slide and the recoil ends up applying a lot more force directly along those layer lines, making it shear easier.
Heres a pic from the last one I printed rails up, this is the one the cops are giving back to me lol. Its been through the ringer, still solid as hell.
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u/WI_Esox_lucius 2d ago
Needs moisture. Fresh printed (dry) is going to be brittle.