Like JM said, PLA has one of the lowest, if not lowest TG temperatures of mainstream 3d printing materials (not including TPUs or other flexible materials). It does have decent tensile strength, but is also brittle. Overall I wouldn’t use it for karting. If you want to make good parts that are robust then I would say your options are primarily: PETG, ABS, nylon, PC, or filled version of those (glass or carbon). For the most part these are In order of printing difficulty and strength (easy/weak -> difficult/strong).
It also comes down to your design and your printing process. Give yourself enough material by design and when printing use more infill and wall layers. Majority of my parts will be 90+% infill because the extra material cost and print time are less of a concern compared to part strength.
If you want a good source to compare relative material properties of available 3d printing materials look here.
My go to materials are: ABS, nylon, and CF nylon. Nylon can have its challenges, but it’s not impossible. Definitely need to make sure the material is dried and your nozzle can reach 250-260˚C.
Here’s a picture of my nylon frame sliders that have almost 2 years of use. You can also see the seat spacers are 3D printed.
Yeah. Another thing I forgot to mention (but you hinted to) when printing nylon / other high temp materials is you need a special all metal hotend and high temp heatbed to print with them. Also when I was talking about the design I didn’t mean infill I meant the actual CAD design that it has the proper stress ribs, ect. But yes when printing with high strength parts you should always use 90+% infill.
Printed a sprocket chain guard out of PETG then CF-PETG. I also printed a fuel pump riser(Briggs 206) out of CF-PETG and nylon, and replaced worn our rubber washers with printed ones made from TPU. I also printed various tools specific to karting. The chain guard only lasted a few races before cracking. Let me know if you have any questions or need help with printing parts(print settings)
I don’t currently own a 3D printer, but am interested. I’m more familiar with CNC, working primarily in Fusion360, which is compatible with 3D printing processes. I know little about the particulars of the different printers/materials & the requisite processes involved with them. Unsurprisingly, the print materials with greater durability, structural strength, etc require higher end (expensive) printers.
I am interested in it, but I’d like to learn more before attempting to dive into it.
I don’t know what your budget is, but I would look into getting a prusa MK3S. Its 850$ assembled or 750$ as a kit. Since it seems like you’re mechanically inclined, I would go for the kit. I’ve been using it for about a year and a half. No issues so far. As for materials, it really depends of your application. Anything nom-structural or temperature sensitive, I would go with PLA. For structural and hi-temp applications i would use PETG or nylon. If you need Impact resistance, I would go with nylon. For gaskets or dampening parts I’d use TPU.
I would suggest a creality ender 3, it is chinese made but it has a HUGE community around it, plus with money you saved from buying a cheaper printer you can easily upgrade your printer to make it print whatever you want. If you want I can give you a list of some good upgrades that will enable you to print whatever you want (If you choose to get the ender 3). If you want something bigger I would suggest the CR-10S. I also can give you a list of good upgrades for that machine too. Prusa machines are good but overpriced. Raise3D and maker bot are good machines but overpriced aswell.
Yeah, ideally to print ABS or even nylon, I found that having an enclosure definitely helps. Most people make their own enclosures. The Raise 3D is pretty good and has a good build volume. But it is pretty expensive. The makerbot are overpriced junk. I wouldn’t even bother. Another good alternative is the Ender as mentioned by @OPmini
Another option is the Flashforge Creator Pro, $600 on amazon. It’s basically a makerbot clone. It’s enclosed and has dual extruder. You can upgrade the extruder hot end to all metal for $37 from a company called micro-swiss to enable printing nylon.
This is the printer I use, but I’m sure there are better options, I just haven’t tried them.
Yeah I have a flashforge finder, it was my first printer. The flashforges are definitely little work horses, I have clocked over 2,300 hours on mine. But they aren’t very upgradeable, outside of the hotend from teflon lined to all metal and the build space is small compared to cr10s’ build space, and a cr10s 400 is only like $550. If I were you I would wait for a sale and buy, I got my cr10s on sale on amazon for $300 brand new, and then just upgrade the crap out of it.
New set of skids hot off the press! Into the UV cure oven tonight and onto the track tomorrow. Love this UV cure resin. Parts come out looking like a homogenous part without print lines. This is a very tough hard-wearing resin so we will see how it hold up against rumblestrips.
Thanks. Having a printer has probably the best tool I’ve purchased in quite awhile. After some tweaks and testing I may offer them to members here if there is interest. Wouldn’t charge more than materials and some of my time. I just like making cool stuff and helping others.
