Next job with the brace was to print in something really strong.
This one was printed with carbon fibre reinforced polyethylene:
Unfortunately the print failed as Gizmo (10Kg Maine Coon) chewed through the filament mid-print
I didn't mind as I wasn't impressed with the print quality, and it provides a nice view of the stiffening honeycomb inside the print.
The next two were printed in high-temperature PLA. This is a special high quality material which can be annealed in the oven to increase strength and temperature resistance. The blue one is plain PLA, and the black one is carbon fibre filled. In theory, this material could even be used to build cooling system parts - that's going to be an interesting test!
These are shown in the print orientation with the support material for the round recess still in place. This is needed for printing overhangs in some circumstances and must be left in place for the annealing process.
The carbon filament gives a really nice surface finish
The blue is pretty nice too, but not as good as the black. The phone camera really struggled to focus on this one for some reason.
There are a few small artifacts in both prints which another hardware upgrade will solve but they're not a problem for prototypes.
They are now cooking in the oven...
2nd November 2018, 06:52 PM
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