I am taking a bit of time off this holiday season, and have spent the past few days on a project I have been planning on doing for months.
Back in March I got a large 3d printer (Ender 5 plus, build volume 350mm x 350mm x 400mm (13.8″ x 13.8″ x 15.7″)) – I have mostly used it to print PPE related stuff for medical workers- many face shields and 1000′s of ear-savers that I donate to nursing homes, hospitals and doctor offices… ear savers cost me pennies per piece to make and I can print ~25 at a time on this large printer…

The printer is made to primarily print PLA and PETG plastics- to print the really sturdy high temperature plastics like Nylon, ABS and the holy grail for my applications- carbon fiber Polycarbonate – you really need a heated enclosure capable of reaching an air temperature of up to 80C- attempting to print these materials without a high temperature enclosure (especially in my freezing garage) will fail in a very ugly way…

I put together an insulated enclosure (ugly as hell) added heaters and changed out the stock hot-end for one suitable for high temperature printing and tried it out with a ‘polycarbonate’ blend that prints at 260C (pure polycarbonate will require nozzle temperatures of 300C) and the resulting test prints came out extremely nice… and incredibly strong…

I should be able to use this to print large scale rigid optical assemblies for work out of carbon-fiber polycarbonate, and I have already started printing stuff for around the house…

If I am satisfied with the performance of the polycarbonate blends I can print I will call it done- if not I may look at modifying the printer’s firmware to allow it to print at 310C – unfortunately modifying the firmware and temperature limits on this printer is not trivial…

I have a 3d printer at my office at work that prints ultra-high performance high temperature plastics like PEEK and PEI, It is so useful to be able to design parts you need, start them printing and have them later the same day or the next for a few dollars of materials when the alternative would be sending them out to a machine shop and waiting weeks and spending 100′s of dollars.

You can get a good 3d printer for under $200, I highly recommend it as a hobby that has a lot of practical applications… you can download items to print from many places like https://www.thingiverse.com/
Or you can use a free program like blender to design your own…