good and poor filament materail

filament problems

I have found that I can reliably print when using small reels of filament (e.g. 80m reel of 1.75mm PLA) but can't print properly with larger (e.g. 1kg reels of 1.75mm PLA).
Both of these have been ordered via e-bay. The small reel filament sticks to the printing bed all ok but the larger reel filament material just comes off creating a horrible mess.

At first I thought that the trouble may be due to the larger, and so heaver, reel not turning (not un-spooling) properly. In other words that this was putting a strain on the filament motor and so now and again distorting the print-arm making the bed-nozzle distance change etc. ... But I changed the reel layout so that the reel was at 90 degree to the feed-in (so that the filament un-winds from the reel rather than the reel having to turn) - but I still had the same trouble.

After much frustration I found I could get much better results from the larger filament reel material if I cleaned the bed with acetone each time I tried a print.
BUT I have to do this each time ...
I had noticed that although the larger reels were baged-up in ploy bags inside the delivery box, there was dust between the turns ... so perhaps they are relatively dirty?

I was thinking about immersing the large reels in washing-up water to clean them properly
... then washing with clean water and drying them out somehow ... but its a bit of a bother if there is an easier way.

So ... has anyone else had this trouble, is there an easy way around this? (e.g. bed temp. change etc.?)

thank you,
Jonathan

In my experience, it all depends on the supplier of the filament. The best filament I have found was the original 300g reel that came with the printer, and 1Kg reels of PLA from eBay UK supplier Galactic Warehouse, which sadly seems to have closed their shop at least for now. Both of those print well direct on glass. I also bought a 1kg reel of Jet PLA via Amazon, but it was delivered in very wet weather, not in a sealed bag, and I had lots of trouble getting it to stick (although I didn't try printing it on solvent cement). The most recent reel I have is from wedo3dprinting (another eBay UK supplier), and I am having to print on solvent cement because its adhesion to glass is not reliable when printing small perimeters.

When I was printing on Kapton, I found that I always needed to clean the bed between prints to be sure of good adhesion, although I used isopropanol instead of acetone.

If your filament arrived dirty, then I suggest you use a different supplier next time. Apart from Galactic Warehouse, another supplier that I have seen good reports of is 3d FilaPrint, although their range of colours is not particularly wide.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

If your PLA is dusty you will eventually have problems with a clogged nozzle. Everyone should have a filament dust remover installed.

I use dilute PVA glue to get prints to stick to the bed. Paint it on the bed prior to printing and it forms a thin layer of glue that works extremely well (dilute about 1:1 water). Cleans off with a damp paper towel. There are lots of options - glue stick, painter's (masking tape), etc. If you're lucky, the print will stick without any of these, but it seems most people have issues with prints sticking to the bed without help.

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[3DKarma.com] - suppliers of quality, affordable 3D printer kits and filament for the UK market.

for german buyers i can recommend www.pearl.de
their filament is pretty good at decent prices.

now whos really good : [www.3dprima.com]
love their filament , you can also get small amounts
to simply try out (thats expensive tough). for 1kg
rolls they charge about 25€ which would be extrem
cheap for what i know, but the quality is still good

I have been getting my filament from Ebay (Wedo3dprinting) since the beginning. Out of all the kgs I've bought from them I only have problems with one reel, which unfortunately I'm fighting with tonight.... I do ALL my printing directly on to glass, and the print sticks so well that I actualy ruined a print by trying to remove it to soon (it ripped the back out of it).

The secrets I've found is:-
1) The glass must be washed with undiluted washing up liquid, and scrubbed clean. I use a clean kitchen foam pad with a green scourer on the back (17p for 6 or more from Tesco). I keep the pad just for cleaning the glass and nothing else.
2) I use clean paper towel to dry the top of the glass.
3) When the glass is on the table and while it's heating, I use paper towel with vinager on it to give it it's final clean.
4) Nozzle height is critical. To high and it doesn't matter what you do it won't stick.
5) Bed Temp 57' (but I am lowering it with the difficult reel to stop blistering), and the first layer with a nozzle temp of 225'.
6) Remaining layers 215' makes mylayers meld togeather nicely.

I have had problems, but when I mounted my DTI and checked the bed it's always been down to the bed having moved.
My machine clocks up 1200 miles a month in a box traveling with me, and bed movement, has been an issue. The bolts holding the rear table bearings in the clamps seem to move. When I get home this next time I intend to level the sub bed, then drill and dowel the bearing clamps to try to stop it happening.
Vibration both from printing and traveling tends to slacken the bolt all over the machine off, and yesterday I found my nozzle mount had slackend off.
It's supprising how a slack nozzle mount will mess things up a treat....

I now release my print by putting the glass and print in the sink and run cold water on it. It sounds like the glass is cracking when it starts to float off, but it isn't.
I've also found that none of the glass I've tried is flat.....Some glass is like a ploughed field.... I'm back to using the original glass, with it's hump, and compensate it by shimming the X axis arm. The glass plate I use I've mark with a bit of tape in one corner to remind me which way round it goes.

Kim..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2014 10:22PM by KimBrown.

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Please send me a PM if you have suggestions, or problems with Big Blue 360.
I won't see comments in threads, as I move around to much.
Working Link to Big Blue 360 Complete

I originally had a system with bearings to allow the filament spool to turn freely, but found that the springiness of the filament would sometimes cause itself to unspool, especially when mounted vertically - a little friction is a good thing!
I now have an adapter that fits over a CD spindle (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:335944 FWIW) that the spool rests on - it has low friction, so it can turn fairly easily, but the spool doesn't spin freely and needs a little encouragement from the extruder. The extruder does not battle at all though, probably due to the gear ratio, though I had to anchor the PTFE tube that feeds the extruder otherwise it wanted to drift around until it ended up in the filament spool!

Thanks everyone for the hints-and-tips :-)

if any one is interested I am putting up science-based projects on my web site
(simple ones at the moment as I learn what i can do with the machine)

[www.creative-science.org.uk]

Thank you again
Jonathan

Quote
3dkarma
Everyone should have a filament dust remover installed.

How many in here are using a "filament dust remover"? Does anyone have one that fits well with the Ormerod? And I am thinking about using MasonStonehenge's spring-loaded extruder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:318458) so one that fits that would be on top of my list.

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Mikkel Holm Olsen
AKA Spaceman Spiff

I use this filament dust filter:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:190118
placed between the ptfe tube and the spool. It works great.