Carbon Fiber 3D Printer Filaments: What Are They Good For?

Thanks for watching this video! Sorry I couldn't print out more examples to show you guys... not easy with the situation in Israel right now... but I appreciate you guys watching, commenting, liking, and subscribing!

I bought a 3D printer and haven't even used it yet. But I keep watching your videos. No need to apologize for the content you can or can't create. Just keep doing the best you can.

Listening to your kid speaking made me cry. I don’t know why, I guess they reminded me of my kids when they were little. Loved the video, very well researched and written. Thanks from a big softy.

I am the main Engineer that 3D Prints for an organization in a big Aerospace Company and could attest to the robust characteristics of Polycarbonate. We print prototypes, structural placement of brackets for flight parts, Drilling Fixtures, Mold for flight RTV parts, and Shop Aids. That thing is awesome.

Polycabonate was actually the second ever material i ever printed on my X1c and i was genuinly supprised at how clean and smooth it printed

It's so cool to watch a video and see my own model being displayed for a second or two. Made my day. The lamp shade is my most popular model that I made from scratch after watching another YouTube video on how to make it. Great video by the way, I will have to save it as a reference.

Ive never given you the credit you deserve. Youre more professional and experienced than most. From your background experience to your industry connections. I appreciate your openness and honesty too!

Hi Jonathan! Hope you and your family are doing well. My contribution: There´s one type of filament that is VERY rarely mentioned by 3D printing channels (and some consider it as quite engineering-capable) but that is my personal favourite that I use for ALMOST everything: Tritan. It has the same thermal resistance as ABS (about 110-120C glass transition) which makes it ideal for car parts (even in the engine bay, as I did some air cleaner assemblies for my vintage VW Beetle, which I used for over a year, only taking them out because of other mods I did to the car and they didn´t fit anymore), for example. It also have chemical resistance so it can be used in environment with fuel vapors (like the top of a car carburetor). But it DOES NOT have the tendency to warp and delaminate like ABS/ASA , it´s not higroscopic as PETG, it´s quite easy to sand and prime for painting (unlike PETG) and does not require an enclosure. I´d say it´s almost perfect, the only problem is a tendency to ooze a little bit (not enough for causing stringing with retractions properly tuned though) and build up on the nozzle (which is sort of a hassle when using Revo nozzles, as it tends to build up in the heater core), and the lack of color options (only black, white and clear). It´s also a little hard to tune the first layer on an PEI sheet (brims tend to lift up), but once the actual part adheres you will have no lifting problem. It´s not as tough as Nylon, but it´s between ABS/ASA and Nylon. Also have some flex which makes it NOT to be brittle (as shown in my Beetle experiment, with all the heat and vibration from the old aircooled engine, I took them away for other mods one year later and they were still in one piece like the day they were printed - I gave them away to a friend who still runs them on his dual-carburated VW T2 Bus as of today). However, it does require an all-metal hotend (it prints between 250 and 270C depending on the batch/colour and other characteristics like the manufacturer formula) and requires a heated bed capable of at least 100C (110C is the ideal). The only problem with it is the price, usually is somewhat more expensive than ASA, at least here in Brazil, and it´s not all filament manufacturers that make them. To save I usually buy "low cost" lots in which one kilogram is made of a few smaller rolls that are made from leftover material (when the amount in the filament extruder is less than 1KG) during the manufacturing process. Gridfinity boxes I printed out of PLA/PETG and ABS a few months ago are starting to delaminate, unlike the ones printed out of Tritan. Tritan is also deemed to be "food safe" (it´s used in microwaveable tupperware-like but made from injection molding), although let´s be honest, no FDM printed part is actually food safe because of the inter-layers spacing that can build up bacteria. All 3D printer upgrades I print at home are made out of Tritan. It´s awesome for parts that stay close to the hotend, like fan shrouds and such. One of my current rebuilds have fan shrouds and ducts made of Tritan, an external electronics enclosure (GalvanicGlaze´s enclosure with some remixes for using parts I had) also fully printed on Tritan. I only don´t use it for decorative parts, to which I go with plain old PLA. I do have some rolls of PETG and ABS but I rarely use them. I did try to print Nylon and actually had some success with CF Nylon on an old enclosed Ender 3 V2 (which I don´t have anymore), but really it´s so much trouble that I personally gave up on it for now as Tritan is doing the job. Currently I´m printing a cat food stand, check it out (hoping there isn´t a power outage as here in Brazil heat these days is extreme and power outages are happening on a daily basis, the grid isn´t keeping up with all the A/Cs on countrywide, and my UPS can´t handle the Mega X very well):

PA-CF is also one of the more popular filaments in the printed "pewpew" community. Most parts are designed for PLA +/Pro, and filled nylons do an excellent job meeting or exceeding its physical properties while having drastically better heat resistance, albeit with a higher price tag. I've switched to using it almost exclusively.

Perfect timing on this video. My Sovol SV06 Plus just arrived yesterday. I'll get their klipper pad later. I went with the SV06 over the SV07 because of the linear rails over the V-wheels. And I don't like that huge noisy part fan. I purchased a part fan upgrade kit for my SV06 that is printed in ABS and points the air to all sides of the part. I want to use my printer to make fittings for outdoor hydroponics. The PETG-CF you talked about sounds like the perfect material for my application. I am also a 'Mr. Fixit' so adding this to my arsonal will allow me to build replacement parts or redesign better ones. Glad that you and your family remain safe and keep making this wonderful content.

I printed all the non-accent parts of my Voron 2.4 in ABS-CF on a Prusa Mini. Worked suprisingly well and it looks so good!

I must say that I love your channel. You always use technical language and accurate descriptions which I appreciate!

A few years ago I used to print replacement nylon gears with 1.5mm trimmer line. All of then still going strong!

Great videos about. I found it very informative. Would love to have this also as a cheatsheet or kind of a table with all those details! Amazing stuff!

Great attention to the details and accuracy of the information. You covered a lot of materials too. Thank you

Great job! Informative. I like the fact that you acknowledge others contribution as well!

I agree on the PLA CF as I have noticed no notalbe increase in strength but love the finish and use it often. Now Nylon CF works great for me and fixes 95% of my warping issues.

I found PETG-CF to be very usefull for large printers. I have RatRig V-Core 3 500 so I get asked to print big things sometimes. Depending on shape they can be done in many materials or also not. The worst is long straight walls. A roughly box-shaped cover 600mm long, 60 wide and 80 tall that required UV resistance was unprintable in PETG - the long walls would just buckle outward more and more as the shrinkage of hte material kept lifting the ends higher and higher off the bed. Increasing bed adhesion was useless because the part would just take the metal sheet up with it. I don't have a rigid bed to try but my guess would be something breaks or the part warps once released from the bed. Once I tried PETG-CF for this same part all the problems basically disappeared. It is way more hygroscopic than normal PETG (water creeps in deep along the fibers) so for very good surface finish you want to dry it before printing but nothing crazy is required and it does not have to be printed directly from a drybox - it can be outside for a few hours or even days. But what you get for this added trouble and for the price is basically no warping on a 600mm long straight wall. Other materials like PA-CF could probably do the same but at much higher price and difficulty level. And on a part that takes a whole 1kg spool for just one print you want the difficulty low and the price adds up quickly too. So PETG-CF is a great choice for that. I had same results with PCTG-CF too. And for a part I was asked to print white I tried PCTG-GF. The polymer has no pigment in it a the fresh-snow white color is achieved by light reflecting and refracting in all the tiny bits of glass inside. It is slightly translucent but once thick enough it becomes really white. And even with 0.6mm nozzle and 0.3mm layers this effect hides layer lines pretty much completely. It looks great and price is similar to PETG-CF.

Great video bro!!! :yougotthis: I am learning about filaments before dive into print tests. :elbowcough:

But.. Why cant you break it???