ARC_Hub
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Does anyone have experience printing T-Glase material?
We are having problems printing overhangs/ support with the T-Glase. If anyone has success printing overhangs with T-glase, please let me know. Thanks!
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Nope, looks cool though. @Christian_CAD, or @James_2 any idea?
Cheers!
James_2
3
@ARC_Hub any photos of what is going wrong - these high temp filaments all need slightly different treatments for each feature - I don’t use this filament but similar (xt) and sometimes it needs a fan and sometimes it hates a fan and wants slow, other times it wants fast - in s3d you can control all of these over different layers which is really useful - but show some pictures of what is not working for you and each problem normaly has a different solution.
So far I only did some small experimental prints with t-glase and did not see any big problems with small overhangs. I did not use any support, but seeing how durable and “sticky” the material is i can imagine that removing supports from t-glase is quite a challenge. If you really need supports it’s probably best to experiment with simplify3d or another one of the advanced slicers that allow more temperature control and try to print the interface between support and model at a different (lower?) temperature and slower speed to make it less sticky.
As for general overhang-printing, thats something usually boiling down to your settings for air-/fanspeed, movement speed and temperature. Getting these settings to work on your specific printer definately needs some tuning and experimentation with different settings to find something that works, but again, depening on the model it can be difficult or almost impossible to get everything tuned in for a “perfect” bridge.
BTW, i usually print t-glase at around 235°C (60°C bed) and a bit slower than ABS/PLA.
T-glass works best with thicker layer heights. I have actually had good luck with supports removing and leaving no after effects. I have printed a fair amount, a couple spools or so and found my ideal temp for printing is 228C. I typically use no layer fan, except for very small prints that would otherwise turn to a small pile of melted filament. I also run at a slower speed, on my Rostock it is 22mm/sec where ABS is typically 30.
What printer doe you use,
I have a leapfrog Creatr and the filament work fine art 230 temp
Thanks for the responses! We use the flashforge creator pro and the Up plus 2. After some experimenting we have been able to get it to print how we like and normally just try to print without supports because it is hard to take off due to the stickiness of the T-glase.
We have run into something else that would appreciate some input on if you have experience. Do you know how to make the T-glase physically water tight? We are trying to make a cup using the T-glase, but it doesn’t completely hold the water in and if you put water inside it will leak after a few minutes. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks again!
I’m using the T-Glase on 2 different printers.
On the Flashforge Creator Pro - MakerWare
Extruder - 250°c
Platform - 90°c
Speed Printing - 20mm/s
Speed Traveling - 50mm/s
Infill - 20%
Shells - 2
Layer Height -0.35
Up Plus 2 - Up Software
ABS setting in Up software
Extruder - 260°c? Platform - 70°c
Fan enclosure open.
Both of the machines print T-Glase fine with their settings. But I have found that supports and rafts are extremely difficult to take off.
Photo 1 and 2 are of the prints on both printers.
Photo 3 is my problem. Im trying to create a lid for a bottle and the threads inside the cap droop when printed out. Usually with ABS or PLA slight overhangs such as these arent a problem. But because the T-Glase is so much more like “sticky” it tends to be horrible with even slight overhangs and bridging.
Thanks for any help guys.
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James_2
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watertight with only few perimeters is tricky and sort o unpredictable.
I use filament which is at the end of it’s life (brittle) to print resin mixing cups which are then disposable.
I can print 2 wall thicknesses (.8mm) but make sure it is fairly slow, fairly hot and avoid any features that have retraction.
About 1 in 10 leak
I have it down to a science after 3 months of testing. If you please list your preferred slicer (I use Slicer for gcode and ReplicatorG to process it into X3G for SD card), your nozzle size, and preferred look. Do you want reflective transparent, matte transparent, or hazy? There are specific formulas for them, I will process the numbers for you and list them, or I can attach my slicer profile, but I have different profiles for different prints. If you get clever with scripting, you can even get different lense affects. If you have lower than a .5, note that you will be limited to around 10MM per sec, regardless of the layer height. You can increase temp but that destroys the look, its a very precise material, you can see temp changes of 1 degree in the finish if you mess with it, so get it tuned, and leave it alone. I’ll be here. If you want it quicker, send an email with the info to Kyle.Currier@TechNation.com
Woops!! It’s Kyle.Currier@TechNation.IT 
Set bridges to 6mm/s on a .4mm nozzle. Also note that speed builds pressure so keep that in mind. If 6mm/s is to slow compared to the speed of the extrusion just before it, it will over-extrude the pressure onto the gaps. 6mm/s will work on just about any infill. You will need a temp around 240, 250 is too high for that slow. I can print .1mm layer bridges and its flawless. Extrusion calibration (average diameter of filament via a caliper) is EXTREMELY important. Ive done tests and a .005mm offset is enough to mess up the bridges. With bridging, less is better as far as tglase goes, so you might try setting multiplier for bridges to 98% and test that. Thats a dirty hack though. Getting extrusion down to 3 decimal places will drastically improve prints.
I see some of you printing at 250c which is good but if you have a stock extruder with a PEEK insulator, the PEEK will melt at 260 so be very careful, i lost 2 nozzles this way and not even a 1/4 inch of high strength JB weld will help you. Also, not that Teflon begins to release toxic fumes at 245c and will melt around 260C so be careful there too. Only do that with an E3D, the nozzle will not last long at 250C, especially on long prints, the PEEK may even warp from the pressure of this stuff at normal speeds.
I use it to make 15 stem percs for a modular concentrate rig. They hold water. Use small layers, print hot, print slow. It takes anywhere from 12-36 hours per print. But it will work every time. Turn retraction down as much as possilbe or turn it off, and dont use a Z hop, or if you must, then keep it under 0.15mm. Z hop can mess up layer height by a few microns, which shows up when you try to fill it with water. The idea here, is that the previous layer must be above its glass transition temp, if its too cold, it wont bond correctly to keep water out. Beware, this speed at the temps required (at least 235C at 15mm/s, but 10mm/s works better and you can go down to about 3 on most machines) will make the tglase ridged. That means if you drop it, it wont have any give, it will just break in half like thick glass would. And as mentioned below, you cant do it with less than 2 perimeters. The 2nd will make sure there’s a seal and smooth the layer next to it with the span of the nozzle’s outer diameter. Skeinforge’s skin module is usefull here to speed up print time. My rigs have 3 perimeters and its about 1.2-1.5 thick depending on my setting and which piece its making. (note: i increase the nozzle diameter on prints that dont have overhangs - but you must also slow down the print to do this because its pushing more than the nozzle is designed for, and it has to be hot as well. )
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Your threads are sagging because you are printing way too hot (Tglase MAX temp is 248 for reprap printing, I can also see you are under or over extruding judging from your layer lines.I don’t have any when I print, it’s solid because I set the extrusion perfectly by averaging 20 different points on the filament down to .005mm …you are also printing your perimeter too fast. The first time you calibrate it, you’ll need to re calibrate the platform height too. Too close and it will pull up the extrusion behind it as it travels, it will sort of curl upwards. Too high and it won’t stick because it doesn’t press into the platform. Remember that part. A good first layer is the key here when you have it calibrated.
One more thing i mised, max layer height on a .4 for tglase is .32, not .35… .35 is for a .5mm nozzle. It said 70-80% of the nozzle size, not the setting. You just increase the setting in addition to the layer height to widen the line
Colorfab XT is nothing like Tglase, they are 2 entirely different animals.
Perfect bridges take some tuning but ive found, once you measure your filament all over and average the numbers out, set bridges to 5-6mm/s and it works every time. If you over extrude by .005 though, it will show up slightly. Also try setting bridge flow to 98%. It doesnt seem to like gaps more than 10mm across. So scale infill accordingly. Also make sure the extrusion line just before infill starts, is slowed down (you can do this for that layer only, in your settings or use a script like “Tweak at Z height” (in cura)… If you move too fast just before bridging, (the difference in speed is too far apart) It will over extrude the pressure into the gaps. Low heat can do this too as that also increases pressure.
I’ve tried a number of settings and this is the best combo:
Print bed 70C (print will sag if you go over 78C
Extruder 240C
Speed 20mm/s
Retraction on
Watertight results at any height so choose layer height to give the optic quality you want. I’ll details here: Lessons in Nylon printing with Taulman T-Glase – Tailor3d
thanks! now its printing right and sticking …just gotta do a minor tweak and its set.
