Sadly, I bought 5lb of black Botmill PLA and can't print it worth anything. This is my first use of PLA after only printing ABS, of which I got great results. Here are my issues, maybe you can help. At "normal" 4043D (I assume) temp of 180C, it doesn't extrude. Gradually tweaking the temp up until it DOES extrude smoothly gives a filament that sags and can't hold a thin wall. Non heated kapton on glass. So far, I am only printing the 0.5mm thin wall calibration STL with a 0.5mm nozzle, 0.4mm layer height, 0.6mm width, and have dropped the feed down from my normal 35mm/sec to 20mm. Still no good. I have my choice of nothing or extrusion that can't hold it's shape. So.. Anyone using 1.75mm black from Botmill with good results? Anything in my description jump out as a common symptom? Any reason to suspect something wonky with the filament, or is this just a tuning issue? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,120374#msg-120374 Tue, 13 Oct 2026 05:43:46 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,121904#msg-121904 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,121904#msg-121904 Pointedstick Printing Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:45:13 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,121454#msg-121454 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,121454#msg-121454 electronrancher Printing Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:45:14 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,121103#msg-121103 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,121103#msg-121103
My extrusion still isn't ideal - I'm getting walls that don't quite adhere and have little voids in places where the PLA seems to have bent up mid stream and not stuck to the layer below. The corner definition is also somewhat rounded, at least it's not as sharp as what ABS used to extrude like. I'm running about 170C now - do these new symptoms sound like it's too cold? I was hesitant to go higher as it seemed the last few layers were still soft and moved just barely as the new layer was put down. But I know the layer-layer adhesion is not great as my latest parts can be split by a strong twist.

That was 0.5mm height on a 0.5mm nozzle, BTW. Dropping it down will be my next experiment, but I'm certainly interested in your feedback as well.]]> electronrancher Printing Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:06:23 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,120699#msg-120699 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,120699#msg-120699 Pointedstick Printing Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:32:53 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,120374#msg-120374 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?262,120374,120374#msg-120374
At "normal" 4043D (I assume) temp of 180C, it doesn't extrude. Gradually tweaking the temp up until it DOES extrude smoothly gives a filament that sags and can't hold a thin wall. Non heated kapton on glass. So far, I am only printing the 0.5mm thin wall calibration STL with a 0.5mm nozzle, 0.4mm layer height, 0.6mm width, and have dropped the feed down from my normal 35mm/sec to 20mm. Still no good. I have my choice of nothing or extrusion that can't hold it's shape.

So.. Anyone using 1.75mm black from Botmill with good results? Anything in my description jump out as a common symptom? Any reason to suspect something wonky with the filament, or is this just a tuning issue?]]> electronrancher Printing Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:03:26 -0500