3D printing

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

What is involved with printing Nylon?

There are some things I want to make that would have to withstand underhood heat.

Nylon filament likes to be kept moisture free, so the printers that have the filament spool in its own enclosure with desiccant is preferred.

Unless you're going to be doing a lot of parts, I'd prototype parts with a cheap printer then get them in nylon from a printing service.

My office just go this Bambu printer and some carbon reinforced nylon filament, mainly because our engineer just wanted it. It hasn't been opened yet but it looks like even fresh out of the pack it needs to be put in an oven for hours to bake out any moisture and used in a short period, or the process needs to be repeated.

In reply to j_tso :

That looks like another viable option, if it's going to be that tricky.

One of the things I want to make is either stub manifolds for DCOE type throttle bodies, or for Kawasaki motorcycle throttle bodies, for a Ford Duratec engine.  Nobody makes a manifold that I can find for the Ti-VCT engine.  A standard Duratec manifold's O rings would fall into the ports, these runners are much larger!

I was considering steel tube but printing looks less messy and potentially better shapes.  If the material were strong enough.

Having a dedicated computer is the easy button because I would be printing in my garage, which is about a half hour drive from home. 

In reply to RacetruckRon :

Do you find glassfilled PC is easier to print than nylon ?

In reply to GB :

Marginally, it is slightly less hygroscopic than nylon and has better layer adhesion in my experience but they both are not easy materials to print. This is coming from someone that prints almost exclusively in black ABS