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Ive figured out a way to get some results from Nylon without a heated bed. For starters, I cover my bed (square acrylic bed of an Ultimaker, but you guys with your round glass plates should be able to figure out how to do this) with blue painters tape, wrapping a good inch or so around to the other side to try and keep the tape from lifting up. Then I try to outline the shape of the object as best as I can with 4 strips of Kapton tape, 2 running along the outer x limits of the part, and 2 running the outer y limits, though if you want you can get more angles in to create more of a octagon shape or something around your print, anything really helps. Then I take 100-150 grit sand paper and give the blue painters tape area where my print will be a good rough sanding. Lastly, I print really really close to the bed, far enough that the first layer gets laid down, but just barely (my first layer height in Slic3r is .3, but the nozzle ends up being closer to around .2-.1mm off the bed). so far it is working, though I have only been able to test it on a long skinny part. unfortunately I am unable to show any pictures at this time of my setup, but hopefully people can guess what I mean.

Good luck, happy printing

(The nylon I am using is 2.7mm ACE brand trimmer line, the Taulman 3mm is too big to use, though I would imagine that the taulman wouldn't be much different)

(The reason I am using the Kapton is I have a bit of a theory that part of the reason the blue painters tape lifts up so much is because the heat from the laid down material lowers the effectiveness of the adhesive on the tape. I have no idea if this is true, but I know Kapton is high temp tape, and its adhesive certainly performs better at high temps than blue painters tape from my experience)

Another method of getting good adhesion is to print onto wood. I lay a 5 mm sheet of plywood on my deck and have gotten very good results with that as the wood is fibrous enough to get nylon to stick and rigid enough to resist warpage.

Thanks for the post, im gonna give both those methods a shot this weekend and see if it helps me on large prints.

I'm going to get a wood bed for my ultimaker cut out now for interchangeability thanks MSU

Can't claim all the glory, that's a tip I learned from Benito Sanduchi, the guy with all the lofted vases on Thingiverse. Go 406 If you were going to use it on the UM, I would probably advise a 8 mm (or 3/8") plywood setup over the 5mm I have as it gets suspended from the four screws rather than supported by a heated bed.

Just an FYI, plywood doesn't measure exactly what it's called. Just like a 2x4 is really a 1.5x 3.5, 1/2" plywood is actually 15/32 or so. Just something to keep in mind if bowing is an issue...

The plywood I'm using on my ultimaker is 1/4 inch, and there isn't any warping or bowing in it, so I personally think it will be good enough for use. If it does become a problem I have a MarkII heated bed coming in from Lulzbot soon. Hopefully I can figure pity how to rig the heated bed so I can keep the leveling screws how they are without loosing Z travel. As it is the E3D I have mounted makes me loose some Z travel, I barely have 200mm

I picked up some cheap felt with a sticky backing on it from my local Wally World last night. I started experimenting with it tonight when I got home from work. I have yet to have a print fail. I'm getting no edge curl or separation from the bed even on large prints. The only problems i am having with the felt, is that some of the felt fibers are pulling off with the print.

Thats really cool, I might give that a try sometime with another printer

CJGerard wrote:I picked up some cheap felt with a sticky backing on it from my local Wally World last night. I started experimenting with it tonight when I got home from work. I have yet to have a print fail. I'm getting no edge curl or separation from the bed even on large prints. The only problems i am having with the felt, is that some of the felt fibers are pulling off with the print.

Thanks for the great idea, I am certainly going to try that!