Combining metal with 3d printing filament.

3D Printing Software
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1

Hello 3D printing World!

Glad to share iteration #1 of a steering wheel utilizing metal and filament which we all have access to.

Here is a brief break-down of how it was done:

Materials:

6061 Aluminum frame (Strength)

Nylon (Strong,Flexible)

ABS/PLA: support material for easy clean up.

Dimension are 300mm, 155mm, 40mm

Print time: 15 hours at 30mm/s

Steps:

-Designed the part specifically FDM printing.

-Used Simplify3D to start, pause and continue print with the appropriate settings to improve print quality.

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20150209_210047.jpg5312Ă—2988 4.2 MB

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20150209_224723.jpg5312Ă—2988 3.71 MB

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20150210_092523.jpg5312Ă—2988 3.23 MB
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20150210_092104.jpg5312Ă—2988 3.71 MB

3 Likes
2

Maan!! That’s really good! Very kewl!

I assume you cut the 6061 with a CNC router? Did you treat the 6061 to make the Nylon stick at all?

Cheers!

AndyL

Pot8oSh3D

3

Nice! Are you going to finish it with an epoxy or something similar to make sure it sticks? Have you thought about overmolding it with a 3D printed mold and some silicon?

4

Yes, we want it to stand some serious abuse for a while.

5

Thanks!

Yes the frame was cnc cut.

Resin coat on top and bottom for adhesion.

6

cool! just wondering…which kind of nylon? PA12?

7

Thanks!

No, it isn’t.

We used Taulman Nylon 618 and 645 filament since they are local (U.S based).

It’s a challenging but very useful material. Have you used nylon PA12 before?

8

no not yet ! for now i’m just doing some research about 3D technologies, but more specifically with SLS and nylon 12 makes up more than 90% of SLS current market. Then I was wondering if it could be as usefull to FDM machines.

9

As far as I know, nylon 12 hasn’t been released as filament for FDM machines. Hopefully in the future.

10

How hard is it to remove support material from your nylon parts? We’re having a tough time with removal using Taulman 910 when printing parts with overhangs that need a lot of support. We don’t have Simplify3D software and are curious if it works better than Cura/KISSlicer for making supports that are easy to remove.

11

It is hard to remove support material, We used clear or white pla as support material, not nylon.

We redesigned the steering wheel in order to reduce support material.

The only software that can handle nylon support material is “Eiger” which only works on the markforged 3d printer. Support material comes out almost flawlessly.