I was watching some videos and came across a guy with an H2 who painted something on the hot end to keep melted filament from sticking to the taper. Said it was a mold release to keep plastic from sticking to it.
Anybody ever heard of that?
Vaguely, but I dismissed it as hookum, anything that can be applied at room temperature isn’t going to remain on the surface long, especially across the temperatures hotends see, and if it was manufacturers would already be doing it.
They were probably referring to injection mould release agents. It’s painted onto steel moulds before molten plastic is pumped in, so that the plastic releases after.
They’re not cheap and you’d likely need to use a specialist supplier.
Obviously they do work for some plastics. My question is, does it work for your filament, and what is the benefit?
I donno. He had this tiny bottle kinda like a nail polish bottle and brushed it on his hot end to keep the filament from sticking on the outside of the hot end. I thought it seemed odd.
I have seen filament temporarily stick to the hot it when purging in my P2s, but as soon as it gets hot enough it drops away with the waste.
But was curious enough to want to ask. People tend to do strange things..
Slice plastic repellant paint
My biggest concern would be; what effect will it have on your print if even the smallest amount was transferred to the filament as it passed through the nozzle? That would most likely occur at the start of the print, so could conceivably affect print to plate adhesion. I may be completely wrong but I personaly wouldn’t risk it.
Well, I’m not advising it. Just questioning if anybody does use it.
And don’t you think that it would likely be dry long before the filament melts and extrudes? I did recently try cleaning my original 0.4mm tip, but decided it was probably better to use a spare instead. (I’m approaching 1000 hours on my P2S, and have no idea yet how long a tip will last. Which can have a great deal of variables.)
Hold up a minute…
Yeah, that’s gonna be a no from me. Rapid decomp may happen at above 290, but unlike cooking, we keep printer nozzles well above 200 for extremely long periods of time, and without the benefit of a range exhaust.
This stuff shouldn’t be on the market.
Oh, and water-based application of PTFE is a joke. It’s the ultimate low surface energy compound, it’s not sticking to anything it’s brushed into and will absolutely rub off on anything it touches, including prints.
My experience with mould release agents is confined to just one product that I had to work with about 40+ years ago. That one was applied as a liquid and quickly air-dried. The chemist from the company that produced it told me that at moulding temperature, which in this instance was about 340 to 380C, if again becomes a liquid and it was that which caused it to prevent the moulded material from sticking to the mould. A new application was sprayed into each mould after the pat was removed.