Nylon 3D Printing Guide: Settings, Enclosures, and Moisture Control

Nylon (Polyamide) is the most moisture-sensitive and warp-prone common FDM material, and also one of the most mechanically useful — offering high impact resistance, flexibility under sustained load, and good fatigue strength for functional parts. Successfully printing Nylon requires three things simultaneously: a completely dry spool, an enclosed print volume, and correct slicer settings. This guide covers all three in detail for PA6, PA12, and common co-polyamide blends.

Nylon Variants and When to Use Each

Type	Common Brands	Print Difficulty	Best Use
PA12 (Nylon 12)	Overture Easy Nylon, Polymaker PolyMide PA12	Moderate	Functional parts needing flexibility
PA6 (Nylon 6)	Taulman 645, MatterHackers NylonX	High	High-strength structural parts
CoPA blend	Polymaker PolyMide CoPA	Moderate	Balanced strength and printability
Glass-filled Nylon	Polymaker PolyMide PA6-GF	Very High	Stiff, heat-resistant structural parts

Print Settings by Nylon Type

Parameter	PA12	PA6	CoPA
Nozzle Temp	240–260°C	250–270°C	240–260°C
Bed Temp	70–90°C	80–110°C	70–90°C
Enclosure	Strongly recommended	Required	Strongly recommended
Cooling Fan	0–20%	0%	0–15%
Print Speed	30–50 mm/s	20–40 mm/s	30–50 mm/s
Drying	80°C / 8 hr	90°C / 12 hr	80°C / 8 hr

Moisture: The Critical Constraint

PA6 Nylon absorbs up to 9% of its weight in water at saturation. PA12 absorbs less (~3%), which is why it is the recommended starting point. Wet Nylon foams during extrusion — steam creates continuous voids inside the strand that look like under-extrusion but are not fixable with flow rate adjustments. A wet Nylon spool must be dried before every print session, because PA6 re-saturates in under 2 hours in a 60% RH environment once removed from the dryer.

The only reliable workflow for Nylon is dry-while-printing. Use a filament dryer box with a pass-through hole (Sunlu S2, Creality Space Pi) and feed directly into the extruder. This is not optional for PA6 in environments above 40% relative humidity.

Enclosure Requirements

Nylon warps severely when outer perimeters cool faster than the interior. An enclosure traps heat and reduces the thermal gradient across the part. For PA12 and CoPA, a basic enclosure (cardboard box, acrylic panels) with the chamber above 40°C is usually sufficient. PA6 benefits from active chamber heating to 50–60°C.

Your hotend cooling fan must still run at full speed to prevent heat creep regardless of enclosure temperature. Only the part cooling fan is reduced.

Bed Adhesion for Nylon

Nylon does not adhere well to PEI. The best surfaces are Garolite (G10) sheets or PVA glue stick on glass. Apply two coats of PVA, allow to dry fully, then pre-heat the bed to print temperature for at least 10 minutes before starting. The glue-glass bond releases cleanly when cooled to room temperature.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Overture Easy Nylon a good first Nylon filament?

Yes. Overture Easy Nylon (PA12-based) is formulated to be more forgiving than standard PA6 — lower print temperatures, reduced warping tendency, and better bed adhesion on PEI with a glue stick. It is the recommended starting point before moving to PA6 or glass-filled variants.

Do I need an all-metal hotend for Nylon?

For PA6 at 260–270°C, yes. PTFE-lined hotends are rated to approximately 240°C before the liner begins to degrade. PA12 and CoPA at 240–255°C sits at the edge of that limit; use an all-metal hotend for anything above 240°C to be safe and to avoid clogging from PTFE degradation at high temperatures.

Why does my Nylon print delaminate even at the correct temperature?

Delamination in Nylon almost always indicates one of three issues: moisture in the filament creating void layers, insufficient enclosure temperature causing rapid outer-layer cooling, or part cooling fan speed too high. Confirm dryness first, verify your enclosure maintains at least 35°C, and reduce part cooling to 0% for the first 20 layers.