Dishwasher Safe and Filament Sample Size

The nozzle is where you tend to see the most wear. But I have seen extruders, hot ends, filament guides, and even just general damage (such as lines cut in enclosures or other items that come in accidental contact with the filament). And for most printers it’s not a big deal, if my e3 extruder & hotend are damaged after several days of heavy printing it only costs me 50 dollars to replace and get the parts the next day from amazon. Not a big deal and a lesson learned, but If you damage the hotend & extruder for a SM2 I belive its a few hundred to get a replacement and could take months before you actually get it. So I just wanted to warn the OP to be mindful of what they are printing with.

@Atom @ElloryJaye I’ve seen glow in the dark filament cut through the aluminum mounting nut on a Bowden feed inlet where it goes into the head. The user didn’t have the Bowden extruder adjusted at the right angle (or even a Bowden tube for that matter) and it was feeding in at an angle into the head and cut through it after one print, not sure how long the print was though.

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Note to self: Avoid glow-in-the-dark filament. Use glow-in-the-dark paint over objects printed from normal filament instead.

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I’m thinking glow in the dark filament will be an adequate substitute for a diamond wire saw for concrete cutting.

Also, I once saw a guy using glow in the dark filament and it cut straight through the entire machine through the floor and now his house is in 2 pieces.

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@brent113 lmfao I’m ded!

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Well look at the bright side, now he can move his house easier, or share it with a friend. Though maybe he should do it again perpendicular to the first time, I like quarters more than halves, but I guess that is just personal preference.

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@brent113 took me forever to find it again lol. Also it’s the filament runout sensor inlet and not the head inlet like I thought.

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Yup, definitely an acceptable saw blade substitute. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever have to cut through something metallic without throwing off any sparks. :sweat_smile:

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Still haven’t had any success in annealing what is basically a tube with a flange on the end. Tried boiling water, imbedding it in salt, heating it on it’s own. I’m pretty much out of ideas. Seems that the side without the flange always shrinks to a smaller diameter then the side with the flangle. In some cases almost 1/2 inch difference.

Anyone out there have any advice?

You need something to constrain the motion of the thermoplastic material while it’s annealing, otherwise it’s going to seek a minimal-surface-area shape, just like molten glass does. Which essentially means something very much like a negative mold of your part, and if you can make that, you’re well on your way to having an injection mold.

You might be able to make something work with the milling head and MDF, finished with wax to act as a release agent.

Thanks. I’ll see if I can do that.