Hi from Germany , Im a Brit living in Germany , its the beer you know ! And I could not get parts remade for love , but a lot of money ! So I got into 3D printing in plastic PLA , for the parts it meleted out got fairly good results but ofcourse the burnt plastic leftovers spoilt the finsh a little . Then I discoverd Printable Wax filament , then the whole game changed , big time .I must admiit it was not easy at first but once you get used to it and know your settings off you go .I have just finished a cylinder head for my motorcycle , the reason I started this in the first place ,as the original head was shot , cracks dropped valve damage etc . I am learnig a lot from this site thank you for letting me in all the best Harry
I wanna see it after you pour it. Are you running ceramic shell or solid block investment? Drink a Bitburger for me will ya please? I miss the stubes. "Bitte Ein Bit" And welcome to THF. This is a good place.
Hi Jason , I use the old school method of fine sand mixed with sodium silicate mix it in apply Co2 gas to solidify the sand , the wax part is ofcourse inside the sand form with a channel cut in to let the wax out , and let the alloy in . Its as simple as that . Send me a drawing and I will send you a wax double 2% bigger for the shrinkage ok . Hear from you soon Harry
Those fins look great. Thanks for the.offer, but I'm a shell guy. I've been waiting for printable wax to become reliable before going with a printer. It will be interesting to learn what your process is.
The Moldlay 1.75 filament wax I use is trouble free , ofcourse you have to sort out tempratures and feed rate etc , but once thats done your printing. This was done on my 220x220 160 3DF printer from China cost me all of $200 ! But a lot of updates to get it working my way ! About another $200 , but worth every penny , the first real job I did with it , a cast cylinder , would have cost me over 2 grand for the casting boxes !! Cost me a lot of time , when sorted out no time as you switch it on and it prints by itself .The best investment I have ever made , I havent got to kiss ass to get things done !! I have learnbed everything from You Tube , and the guy I can listen to is Thomas Sanladerer no bullshit just good advice . Good luck have fun , all the best Harry
From google... "MOLDLAY is a new plastic filament with wax-like properties perfect for mold casting; both permanent and investment (lost wax) casting. The MOLDLAY filament is specially developed for casting and becomes completely liquid at 270°C!" 270c is very hot for a "wax" After you print it, can you work it like a wax with a hot tool?
I run it at 235 degrees , I just get to 235 and when in comes out of the nozzle , when I push down holding the filament pushing through the hotend and it out comes out the nozzle like thin spaghetti then I start to print . I check this every time to see if its like this , as sometimes , maybe due to tempature fluctuations it runs out to slow with to much pressure and the gear that drives it through the hotend digs in and it stops supplying molten wax to the print bed ,I just turn up the temprature .When it cools down and is cold its just like fairly hard plastic and you can sand it and file it ,and also smoothing and welding it together with a soldering iron etc .I havent tried it but Im told if you paint it with an undrcoat from a spray can is smoothes it out considerably to a nice smooth finish . I have tried other 3D printing waxs with no success, Moldlay , in my opinion is the best so far .Its not cheap but quality has a price . Hope this helps , have fun !!
I tried Moldlay. It seemed to burnout ok and it sands better than PLA. You can't work it like wax though which was disappointing. The sodium silicate/split mold technique has great promise for melt outs instead of burn outs. @Melterskelter did something similar here: http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/in...itate-removal-from-sodium-silicate-molds.808/ I'd rather print with PVB aka Polycast or Polysmooth, smooth and then make a wax mold. I was looking forward to Adam Beane's CX5 filament but the kickstarter went sideways when he was in a car accident. Colorfabb's LW PLA looks promising to do lost foam casting but its still too dense.
Yeah I was waiting for the CX5 filament and gave up. Fact is, we just aren't quite there yet. Maybe someday soon.
