What's the best bed surface to print PA6-CF?

Axlaser

Title speaks for itself. Just wondering what you guys think and was wondering which bed surface would be best for spicy PA6-CF printing.

hoffmantactical

I use the satin powder coated beds from Prusa. But any surface should work as long as you use glue stick or another good adhesive.

PA6-CF tends to have poor stiffness after being exposed to water, so it might not be the best filament unless low stiffness and high impact resistance is something you specifically need.

Axlaser

hoffmantactical I see I see. I actually just looked over your mechanical test results document that you released not to long ago and see that you say Bambu PET-CF and Polymaker PA612-CF are the better options for this kind of printing and will probably buy the Polymaker PA612-CF soon.

Also, do you have any annealing advice? Doesn't have to be too specific, as I understand its different for everyone. I've heard a variety of different ways such as just leaving it out in an open area if you live in a humid environment, or putting the part in a pot of boiling water for a minute or two.

hoffmantactical

Axlaser Water is bad for Nylons stiffness, so I don't recommend exposing it to water if you don't have to. Dry 185 F air is how I do it. Important part is to do some tests to understand shrinkage in each axis with your print settings.

Axlaser

hoffmantactical alright thanks! also just realized I included examples of part rehydration, not annealing lol, my bad. I read some where that you could use the x1c's filament drying setting to anneal, so I may do a few test prints with that and see how well that goes.

Yukon

Regarding the effects of moisture on PA6 (to give you a perspective), I had small electronic enclosures printed and left outside in the rain. Afterward, it could be flexed with my fingers. The same goes for a lot of old PA6 CF prints in storage. Its loss in stiffness is quite dramatic, and I didn't know it was really that bad until I experienced it myself.

Axlaser

Yukon Huh, that's really cool and interesting. I didn't know it could do that. I'm maybe guessing a filament dryer may help with drying the part back up, or an oven, but another thing that I'm interested in now is if the part will retain the same strength or if its completely done for.

hoffmantactical

Axlaser The strength / stiffness will return with drying. However, that's not practical with a lot of parts, as a drier may not be handy.