hi everyone thanks for coming out
there's a lot of you I'm kind of
surprised by this but awesome that's
great my name is Matt Stoltz I run a
group called 3d printing Providence
which is a meetup group for people
interested in 3d printing in Providence
Rhode Island I'm a next hacker space
founder from Pittsburgh so I found it
hacker space and was was president there
for three years moved to Rhode Island
after going to work for MakerBot and
left them because I wanted to do more
with you guys and have a lot more fun
with community than I could have so one
of the things I'm really interested in
for 3d printing is materials you're
going to go over and walk through the 3d
printing village and you're going to see
dozens of different designs of machines
you're gonna see 8090 hundred machines
around this entire fair and we're
getting really good we as a collective
group are getting really good at making
3d printers we're getting this figured
out especially FDM machines like you
know they're all starting to kind of
even out in their functionality and what
they can do and you know that they're
getting really nice so how do we take it
to a next level how do we make our
prints better how do we make our prints
more useful how do we we make prints
that we couldn't make even before on our
standard printers we can do this with
materials we can change the plastics
that we're using and they're in be able
to make better prints so we have been
making plastics you know and using some
kind of plastics for you know millennia
so 1600 BC you know they started taking
natural plant resins and and mixing them
together to make you know make rubbers
but back in the the late 1800s Early
1900s real synthetic plastics really
started to come come into play and then
after World War one and into World War
two is when we really started
understanding the chemistry of plastics
and really taking over plastics in in
today too
world try spending a day not with
plastics you you you can't do it we're
all covered in plastic you know our
phones are filled with plastic our homes
are filled with plastic you know there's
just plastics everywhere and there's
there's hundreds of different types of
plastics but in the 3d printing world
we've basically been kind of sticking to
two different types of plastics we
started looking at there's gonna be more
coming there's more thermal PLAs you
know more plastics that you can heat up
shove through a nozzle and make them
come out that that are coming forward
end of last year I think after Maker
Faire shortly after my good friend Tony
Boozer over here in the corner he and I
were having a discussion we said you
know what what's going to be the big
2013 thing for for 3d printing and we
said you know plastics they're gonna
start to see more and the market really
didn't surprise us within the the past
year there have been a large growth in
the number of plastics that have come to
the market but for the most part
everyone's still printing an ABS and POA
so let's let's fix that let's change
that and I'm gonna gonna explain a
little bit more why we should so yeah
common 3d printing materials abs and PLA
if you have a MakerBot replicator 2
you're pretty much printing in PLA they
don't have a heated build platform you
need you need to build platform but you
know if you've been in the the RepRap
world of the MakerBot world or you know
a lot of these other printers for a long
time you've probably run into abs you've
probably run into PLA that's what you're
burning in real quick who all here has a
printer awesome
so now we're getting a lot more coming
out we've got abs we've got PLA we've
got nylon varieties pet hips
polypropylene PVA all these different
plastics are now starting to come to the
market and they all give us different
functionalities based on their own
physical and chemical properties that
they have and being able to leverage
these properties really makes it so we
can start pushing forward and doing a
lot more with our printers beyond you
know the the kind of applications that
we've already seen over and over again
so I've got three different varieties of
ABS on the stage here we've got you know
our kind of traditional standard ABS you
need a heated bill platform to be able
to print this - I forgot something oh
well you need a heated bill platform to
be able to print this you're typically
gonna plan to print it on to Kapton tape
that gold tape that you see the covers
of 3d printers coated in or the bill
plates of 3d printers coated in that
that will make it adhere to the plate
and keep it from warping or changing so
you know each of these different types
of plastic are gonna have different
print characteristics that you're gonna
have to work through this is a thermo
chromatic plastic so it actually has an
added event in it I don't know how well
you guys will be able to see it but it
reacts to heat and
yeah like yeah so and it changes color
as as it starts to print now you know
that's that's kind of silly it's kind of
interesting you know it makes fun little
things but you know we can start making
things like coffee mugs we can start
making things that react to you know
temperatures I've heard that there is
someone else here I need to go hunt them
down but that has one that reacts to
cold but yeah I need to go talk to those
guys we'll find out what filaments there
they're coming out with so because I
want to play with more I have a a
conductive ABS so it has carbon mixed
into it that gives it a conductivity
this is actually a really high
conductivity it's not really great for
you know making circuits right now but
it's being worked on there's a filament
out there called Carrboro morph that a
university project put together that
actually conducts fairly well and so
carbon morph yeah and so they've been
able to actually make flashlights that
um are you you print out a flashlight
put in a battery put in an LED press the
button you know the buttons printed
everything in it and it works so we're
you know that that question that we all
get a vote we can dye print something
useful with your printer you know we're
going to be able to print circuits here
soon standard PLA once again you know
PLA now we get we get rid of that heated
build platform we're now printing cold
on to you know blue painters tape or or
other surfaces that that it will adhere
to I like blue painters tape that's mine
my my preference for PLA but low
shrinkage so we don't need a heated
build platform it prints great so now
we're starting to see some
PLA varieties start to come in also so
this is lay wood labeled is a mixture of
PLA and wood fiber mostly therefore kind
of neat aesthetic reasons it can do some
very very cool things where you can
actually sand it and it really comes out
looking like wood you can stain it to
some degree if you vary the temperatures
or the speed that the extrusion is going
through you can actually kind of burn
the wood a little bit and give it an
effect that looks like growth rings on a
tree into the the actual print so it
really really comes out looking like
wood and it's it's it's really nice it's
kind of fun the same gentleman who
created this just just released a new
material that he refers to as lay brick
which has a sandstone feel to it so the
gentleman who designed all of these
models is a sculptor and he's very
interested in the idea of you know
making these sculptures actually look
like they're coming out of stone and the
the the lay brick really gives that that
nice effect of a Stoney effect we also
have nylon varieties two of them here
art almond 618 and Tallman 645 618 has a
lot of flex to it it's very strong but
it is it does have some some give to it
this is really nice because nylon is
really unreactive to other things this
is where we really start to get into the
materials that really expand some of our
capabilities because with nylon I can
print molds directly in this they have
flex to them but it won't interact with
urethane so I can print a mold and cast
parts directly into this and then be
able to flex them the material pop out
the parts and they won't they won't
stick to the nylon we've also had some
some people kind of playing around with
it for printing some automotive parts
because it won't interact with gasoline
it's it's safe for gas so you know
there's a lot of potential there and
it's also really
be strong so it's it's it's nice the
problem about nylon though is its non
reactivity it doesn't like to stick to
anything so where we need to print on 2d
to build platforms or blue painters tape
to get nylon to print finding the
solution to get nylon to actually stick
to something ended up being a big trick
one of the things that we discovered
that nylon sticks really well too is not
my hands is 911 sticks really well to
nylon so the thing that I forgot to
bring is I have a nylon sheet that I
adhere to my build platform that I've
just scratched up and scored up I take
really rough sandpaper and sand it I
take razor blades and and cut hatch
marks all through it to try to give it a
really rough surface and my nylon models
stick great to it I don't have curling
issues it adheres well it prints really
really well and now I have this you know
this strong material that I can I can
print with the Toman 645 is very similar
to the 618 but it doesn't really have
the Flex it's even stronger so if you're
really trying to make parts that need to
hold up to a lot of physical abuse this
is a really great material for doing
that
Tomin the same company recently released
a pet material so pet is the the same
material that you find your plastic
water bottles being made out of so
recyclable which is nice and should
technically be food safe they've added
some additives to it to make it really
strong also so they they refer to this
as tea glaze or tea glass and it's it's
really hard it's really strong but it
has really nice optical clarity to it so
just like your your plastic water
bottles are clear you can actually print
this I I did not print this in such a
way to keep it clear but you can print
this at higher filament thicknesses or
extrusion thicknesses and actually get
it to have a really nice kind of you
know crystal and clear structure to it
which is which is really great but this
is it's fairly new to the market into
something that is you know still kind of
being experimented with but it prints
really well it goes right on the blue
painters tape without a heated build
platform perfectly fine print set about
220 great so it's a really easy material
to work with there are some outside of
Tallman there are some other vendors
that are selling straight pet also so
there's a couple people out selling hips
and hips this one that that really kind
of got me into this and really got me
excited
so hips is high impact polystyrene it's
the same kind of stuff that a lot of
food packaging come comes around but it
prints great it's really really nice
like I actually like printing in it
better than I do in in ABS or you know
PLA I just think it actually comes out
with really nice prints but it it also
interacts really well with ABS in some
some fun ways
so when we start looking at these
materials and these interactions the
real trick to this is when we start
mixing materials what happens when we
when we have a dual extrusion machine
and we start printing in more than just
one material at a time and we start
taking these different you know
abilities together I first started out
with the nylons and trying to print
nylons with other things and like I said
nylons won't stick to anything so nylons
don't really interact well with each
other
but hip sticks really well so your dual
extrusion machine no longer comes up
becomes about two colors it comes about
mixing two different types of material
so I can print abs and hips together
unfortunately I had some really good
models to show you guys if some of this
stuff that we're over at my booth and
someone stole them about 15 minutes ago
so if you see anyone walking around with
a little black and white cube and a
little haul it out cube function and
bring it back so yes so ABS is my main
material and hips the support exactly
so I print in and you can see a little
bit in this model I print in in ABS so
everything black here's is ABS and
inside of this cube it was filled with
with hips and then I can take this model
and put it into a solution of limonene
which is a natural what's the word I'm
looking for
it's a natural solvent that thank you
I'm getting tired
it's a natural solvent made from lemon
peels and orange peels and it's able to
dissolve away all of the hips leaving
behind only the ABS so this means I can
create far more complicated structures
you could not do these overhangs and
have them be clear which with a standard
FDM machine you would you need to have
support what's difference between on PVA
PVA the the PVA varieties that were
mostly seeing on the market right now
they don't they don't adhere really well
to to abs they adhere okay to PLA but
not that great so once again I looked at
my friend Tony Tony really got me kind
of down this road and he did some of the
the early experimentation with PLA and
PVA and kind of got things working but
peel these are PVA finicky so PVA is
polyvinyl alcohol yeah
polyvinyl alcohol and it it can actually
be dissolved in just plain water which
is really great but then again you also
have to keep it in basically a Pharaoh's
tomb to keep it dry before after you
open the package before it just goes
totally bad so it's expensive it goes
bad quick and it doesn't adhere well so
it's nice because it dissolves in water
but when you add all those things
together it's kind of a pain in the butt
hips I keep printing in hips I've had
the same package open for six months and
I have no problems with it
limonene yeah so which I just order off
Amazon and you know it's easy enough to
get no so nylon
yeah nylon doesn't really stick to
anything it just stays to herself yeah
yep
we're going to keep on working on it
we're going to keep on working on it so
you know this is all experimentation
this is all every time I find out that a
new material has hit the market I send
that I send them an email and like can I
get some more I just order it Europe is
getting a lot more filaments than we're
getting which is kind of a shame and so
and shipping tends to be a pain on them
so but you know we're getting to this
process so here you can see the one of
the models that that I had the hilbert
cube designed by Tony Buzan
that I printed everything white here is
hips everything black is is ABS here it
is floating around in a little jar of
limonene and that is the final print
that comes out so as you can see on
anyone who's familiar with an FTM
machine you would not be able to print
that and get that to stay on on a normal
machine and you know that's that's
really neat it's really cool you know
you can do really nice sculptural work
because you can do all this but where it
gets exciting to me is mechanics now
because I can do two materials and I can
melt a material away I can do things
like printing gearboxes or printing
other mechanical movements fully
assembled fully printed is one piece and
then dissolve away any support material
that's needed in the middle to keep them
from adhering when they're first printed
and then you have a fully working
machine in the end
somewhere I think that one I left in for
about 24 hours just to make sure it was
totally 100% clean but after probably
about you know leaving it overnight 12
hours or so you can start kind of
smearing it away and picking it away
I've heard from the people they've been
experimenting with it since I released
this I've heard different numbers from
different people so if you over if you
leave it in it in too long it will
eventually start to eat away at the ABS
and leave your abs more soft but if you
kind of get it in just long enough to
get rid of the the hips as you can see
this is perfectly strong great ABS so
and it leaves all your prints at least
for a few months smelling like oranges
which has got a nice I like oranges
I haven't done it yet III bet it would
work have you done it PLA em and hips
have you tried it yet
it not as well okay so not as well it
might work
experiment with it send me an email let
me know I'd love to know I have not
really gotten on that I will say PLA is
really nice a lot of people for an PLA a
lot of people really like me like I like
ABS better and the nice thing is hips
and abs have almost the exact same print
temperatures characteristics so you need
like a 110 115 build plate for hips to
print well same thing for abs so they
just they print so similarly that that's
what I use together what machine I'm
doing most of my research on a MakerBot
replicator one Joule which stirs gonna
make a brought replicator one for the
heat bed
so the rep the rep one has a heat heat
bet on it
so it's the the wooden box before they
switch to the pretty close source block
box
the hips does need heated bed yeah so it
prints on a 115 heated bed
which materials are good for the
machines without the the heat of bed any
of the PLA varieties will go fine
Pet will go fine in nylon so all of
those will go without a heated bed the
only thing that you need with the nylon
is to put down a nylon sheet so it's
it's capable of being printed where can
you find the materials here's another
example we'll get there in a second so
here's another example of a model that I
did it has a lot of overhangs it just
there's no way to print this so I was
able to print it with hip support hips
also tears away as a tear away support
material it tears away from ABS very
well it adheres during print time and
then removes cleanly so I'm able to
manually remove most of the hips and
then just dissolve away the the last
remaining bits afterwards this model is
over at my booth in the far end over
here so if you want to see see how this
actually came out in the end I have them
over there where to get the materials
philic Oh calm that's where I go to get
hips they are a great supplier they are
the the kind of end user end of village
plastics who used to be one of the main
suppliers of just about everyone's
materials out there but they're they're
releasing some interesting stuff and the
first thing that they did was was
released hips and put it out there and
they didn't quite know how awesome it
would be and so we started playing
around with it and now I've sold a lot
of hips for them Tallman comm Tallman is
the producer all the nylons and does the
the t glaze pet he is great he is coming
out with with new filaments all the time
he has two new nylons on the way to the
market the next one will be FDA approved
so it will be totally food safe
so that's gonna be a lot of fun and
maker geeks calm I just found these guys
a little while ago but like I said
there's there's a lot of stuff missing
on the market that you know here in the
US that is pretty pretty prevalent in in
Europe and maker geeks are actually seem
to be importing a lot of stuff and
selling it so if you're looking for some
of the the exotic stuff maker geek soft
pom is a great place to get it and they
even have an exotic variety pack so you
can just get you know a couple you know
10 20 feet of yeah small samples of a
lot of these exotic filaments to just
give them a try and see what you like if
you want to see more about my research
and more about the different stuff that
we're doing 3dp PVD org is the meetup
group that i run and where i
plays
dead silence okay sorry 3d PP VD dot org
is the the meetup group that I run and
where I post all of the research that
I'm working on we're in the process of
kind of taking some of the the filament
research that we're doing and get a
little bit even more scientific method
behind it to try to really produce
something really useful for the
community to explain what all of these
materials are really good for and
hopefully push some of these vendors to
continue coming out with new and
interesting materials shoot me an email
right so yeah all of the 3d printing
companies are going to tell you to use
their filaments it's absolutely true so
this is all kind of use at your own risk
you know experiment at your own risk but
you know MakerBot wants to make sure
that you're getting you know a constant
you know level of a user experience and
so they want you to use their materials
because they also want to sell you their
materials but also so that when you call
up and say you know my boat's not
working it's not because you know you
tried to put weed whacker a line through
your which people are doing so yes
how do we find out more details that's
one of the things like I said we're
trying to do a little bit with the
community side of things just really
start documenting some of these things
and then we're gonna start pushing you
know once there's enough of us saying
hey we're using other filaments
hopefully we can get enough of us saying
hey tell us what's in your filaments I
mean a lot of these people are going to
want to keep their their recipes a
little bit of a secret so they stay
provide a proprietary so they're the
only ones selling these things but you
know hopefully we can get them to be a
little bit more upfront with them so
that we can know you know better what's
in there and you know what that is going
to do to our machines slash our health
as we as we use them but yeah right now
everyone's being a little hotshot sure
about it for you know mostly
intellectual property reasons any other
questions
yes I don't know I I really don't know I
I've been actually trying to figure out
that that myself so the gentleman who's
been coming out with the laid the the
laid brick and now he has been lay which
is a flexible version of his filament I
believe he lives in Europe and so he's
producing him there and releasing him
there and it just seems like there's a
lot more people kind of experimenting
with with what's going with what's going
on over there I don't know I keep me we
keep discussing going over and just
buying a bunch of filament and bringing
it back so
no that's a really good idea so yeah
that would be that'd be very interesting
so in that that's something you have to
keep in mind if you're going to research
with filaments is pay attention to the
buff that you're using pay attention to
you know what what all your you're
working with um there's another material
out there that I really want to start
printing with called polycarbonate PC
but you need to bring that up to about
250 260 to be able to extrude it
most of our extruders out there have it
somewhere close to the extruder and have
some some peak insulators and those will
break down into toxic chemicals at about
250 260 so five minutes okay so you kind
of have to be be careful of what you're
experimenting with and make sure that it
will work with your machine without
causing any problems
polycarp's a little hard to find you
you'll have to do some look for it but
mo almost everything else can be found
on the others
probably yes because there are two
different systems of how it's working I
don't know necessarily enough about
ejection molding to to fully answer that
question but that would make sense yes
what one second this gentleman I've been
ignoring him for a few the few seconds
so go ahead
what was that
yes yeah I don't have a modified
extruder I'm trying to do all of my
research on on stock material on stock
machines that way as I'm passing it out
to all of you guys I'm not really
altering anything and that you know you
wouldn't be able to do if I do make any
changes I will note that in the research
that I release for sure
what was that
speak to how some of these materials
went behaved when they fail not not
really I mean different ones are
different ways one of the reasons I
don't like printing in PLA that much is
I find it really brittle and it breaks a
lot it doesn't have a lot of give to it
it snaps more readily than a lot of
other things I've actually been really
this is kind of sad I've been a little
disappointed with the the lay brick this
is my second one that his feet have
broken off it's really brittle so you
know the the PLA s to me always seemed
seem a little brittle the nylons I
haven't this is actually one of the
tests that we're about to start doing is
stress testing the nylons are so strong
I haven't been able to break one like
trying thus far yeah so we're going to
start stress testing some of the nylons
to actually figure out what we mean by
strong what would I recommend is the
best to start with it really depends on
on what you want to do do you have a
printer right now
you can start with some Tom and 6:18
right here so and anyone else who wants
to play around with some come up come
meet me but on the side after the
talking Talman was nice enough since I
was doing these talks to give me a bunch
of 618 to give out to all of you guys so
get started with Niall on it's awesome
1.75 so if you have a 1.75 extruder come
see me after
bleeding
I I have not had any experience with
that yet so one minute all right
anything with the heated bill chamber is
on my radar I haven't actually heard
about that one necessarily so that's not
directly on my radar but I heated bill
chamber will be very interesting you
know you can you you can get your
chamber fairly well heated if you just
seal you're bought up fairly well so you
know put it in a big plastic box and the
heated bed in the extruder will keep it
fairly warm in there the the drafts
cause more problems then then you know
not actually having a heated chamber for
the most part
the the best finish I really like the
finish that comes off of of hips just
plain printed a lot of people have been
pretty amazed looking at that at how how
clean it is
but as far as finishing techniques go
you can do a lot more with ABS than you
can pretty much anything else so that's
probably the end yes ask more questions
I will be at my booth at if you kind of
follow this fence the whole way down as
far as you can go I will be down there
so come check check me out ask me any
questions I'd be more than happy to
answer and I'm gonna hang out to the
side here in a second
you know if you want a filament come see
me