pcmhacking.net

Henry Williams
1 month ago
scratch that, you need heptane/hexane solutions, temps that go well beyond a typical kiln, and that kiln needs to be held either under vacuum or pressurized with hydrogen gas...longer explanation in my non-reply comment if you want to look for it. I will say though that the filament ($500 per spool) typically comes with a "free" ticket to have your printed parts processed for you at a professional plant.

Henry Williams
1 month ago
For anyone wanting to do this at home: It looks like the debinding process requires dissolving the wax component of the filament in a solution of heptane or hexane while either simultaneously heating or heating after the removal from solution to 450c (842f). I assume you heat after removal from solution because both of those are highly flammable. The heating part is fine, most kilns can go to nearly 1093c (2000f) mine certainly can. While I don't WANT to have a tank of heptane or hexane it isn't exactly unrealistic. You can buy both on Amazon honestly.

The real problem is sintering. 316L (this filament) requires sintering to ramp from 700c to 1300c(2372f) which is well beyond the range of a typical kiln. Moreover it is usually done either in a vaccum or under 15bar pressure of hydrogen gas. Both of which would be an absolute nightmare to try to accomplish at home. I think the vacuum/pressure + gas is to fight oxidization while the matel is melting. Without it we'd just wind up with a small pile of rust instead of a nice metal part.

The makers of this filament already know how industrial a process this is though and that's why they are comfortable showing customers all that industrial equipment. The filament itself is typically sold along side a "free" ticket to ship your printed parts to a processing plant where they will do all of this for you in just a few days. They know we cant do this at home so they made the process easier. I'm 50/50 on it. This is certainly more affordable than buying a full 5 axis CNC and learning CAM, but it's still going to be nearly $500 per spool of filament (3kg == ~250m of filament). I don't think this is really meant for the tinkerers of the world like most of the 3d printing community.

Also, this filament will go through almost any filament style 3d printer. I'm not clear on why Anycubic made one advertised specifically for using 316L when you could really use whatever printer you already have. You will need a coated or hardened steel nozzle since the material is abrasive. A .6mm diameter nozzle size would be optimal. Most of us can find that for our own printers. So why do we need this? How does it differ from the regular 4Max printer? idk.

Anyway matterhacks sells this filament if anyone is interested. I love Anycubic, but this printer seems like a misstep to me. I just need to know how it differs from any other printer on the market. If you've got the use-case and you want to spend less on metal parts than you would with a CNC then this is prob a good solution for you. It's not for most of us.