Hmm, no luck with drying the PLA. There is negligible difference between two prints - with and without drying. Not only that, but it is now happening with ABS. As I have run drills down from both ends there should be nothing to block it. I made and used a variety of nozzles to this design without this progressive blockage before so I will make up a replacement. Mikeby leadinglights - General
Ah! now we are getting places. Previously there were too many possible reasons why my nozzle is now getting clogged but didn't before. Reasons like: Stepper motor torque reducing (possible loss of magnetism with time/temperature); changes in current from the Pololu driver; Unrecorded changes in speed, temperature or other parameters in the print; new points of friction or stickage of the filamentby leadinglights - General
I know that PLA will degrade with humidity, but the question I have is will this degradation cause blocking of the nozzle? Mikeby leadinglights - General
Many and varied are the ways that money can be extracted from the gullible public, you only have to look at some of the rubbish sold in "galleries" in any major town. Sadly, neither I, nor most of you, has the stomach to profit from others unfortunate stupidity. Mikeby leadinglights - General
I have recently started having problems with printing PLA - the nozzle gets jammed. I have put this in another area of the forum but it suddenly occured to me that tall of the sympoms could be explained if my PLA filament was degrading in such a way that higher melting point crystals were forming in the PLA and these were blocking the nozzle. All of my rolls of PLA have been open for some montby leadinglights - General
Having done some extensive trials I have come to the conclusion that a setting of 210C on my hot ends is about right. However, the problems seems to be getting worse on PLA - ABS is still pretty much perfect. To rehash the problem: PLA prints with this hot end and extruder used to be acceptable to perfect. Prints started to become sparse at highter speeds but improved with cleaning the nozzle Cby leadinglights - Printing
Until somebody manufactures a PLA optimised for investment casting it is an issue. Ash content, consistant shrinkage, interaction with the investment material (Plaster of paris or whatever) and many other variables can have an effect. I do know that there are FDM/FFF printers that use wax for jewelry etc., but I don't kn ow if they use filament, granules or a cartridge, sorry. Mikeby leadinglights - General
The exact word to use for an element of any new field is usualy in flux until decided by formal or informal consensus. For myself, I prefer to think of cooling enhanced by a prime mover to be forced cooling - this was the use even back in the days of thermionic valves, if it's got a fan it is force cooled. Again for myself, I think of active cooling as being where the cooling is controlled. A siby leadinglights - General
If the nozzle is not blocked and the filament can be pushed through freely, then the problem may be in the hobbed bolt: Is the knurled bit central to the filament? Does the idler wheel carriage lift freely without sticking? Is the idler wheel bearing free to turn? try adjusting the idler wheel pressure. Another thought, is the short path from the extruder to the melt chamber free of sharp edgesby leadinglights - Printing
I have just posted about a nearly identical experiance Intermittent PLA filament problem andf have the following theory - for what it is worth: Citrushund's 220 to 250 degrees and my 210 to 220 degrees are both at the upper end of the range for PLA, but below the point at which it degrades. Nontheless, there could be crystals forming in the melt chamber which grow - not unlike a school science eby leadinglights - Mendel90
It is possible that it is too hot, but that by itself doesn't explain why the nozzle gets blocked, or why it flows very cleanly initialy. Removing the idler from the extruder and pushing the 1.75mm filament through by hand gives very little back pressure with a freshly cleaned nozzle, but a lot of back pressure a little later - when the output filament is becoming rough. With the temperature downby leadinglights - Printing
Hmm, sounds quite a bit like a problem that I have just posted about here, but with PLA. Try disconnecting the drive and pushing through a bit of filament holding it between the thumb and fingure. If the back pressure changes then it may be some foreign object in the melt chamber - I once has something that looked like a big grain of sand. Although I havent seen that since, it is still the firstby leadinglights - Printing
While my hot end and extruder produce fine prints with ABS, I have occasional problems with PLA: prints become more and more sparse. This may occur after a couple of days of printing or a couple of weeks of printing. So far, nothing unusual - clean the nozzle with a drill bit and it is good to go again - but here is where the freaky bit starts: Now it will start blocking after only a day and, witby leadinglights - Printing
Does anybody know if there will be any RepRap presence at the 3D Printshow in London in November? [3dprintshow.com] Mikeby leadinglights - General
Tests were limited, but I used a glass pot (ca 200mm dia by 200mm tall) from Ikea that I use for acetone vapour polishing on the same Prusa heated build platform that I use for polishing - I did these tests immediately after the acetone had boiled away, so they may be a large ammount of experimental error. I put two thermocouples in the air about 50mm and 100mm from the bottom and got the tailinby leadinglights - General
I was only able to get there on Thursday and only in the afternoon - I had to come down from Lake Windimere to get there as early as I did. I am sorry that I didn't get to meet Adrian. Next year I will get my booking early in the calendar. Mikeby leadinglights - General
An idea that I have been working on for a while, but have only done some quick checks, is to use a chamber that is open at the top, but use a gas that is is heavier than air even if it is heated - it would only be necessary to form walls and a floor around the heated area. Heat from the build stage would be enough to keep the heavy gas up to a good temperature. There are many gasses that are heaby leadinglights - General
As nobody else has reported on the TCT/Personalize show at the NEC: I visited the TCT show at the NEC yesterday and got to speak to many of the people that have done so much to make RepRap a success. Richrap and nophead were both there and I got a chance to speak to them and thank them for the many times they have helped me on this forum. Under the Slicer sign I asked about a problem that I wasby leadinglights - General
While it should work quite well given the large bearing angle, it would need a closed loop system. The expense of encoders and the need for special software makes this a big undertaking. Mikeby leadinglights - Reprappers
tleneel asked for a link to the £15 per kg on ebay:- Mikeby leadinglights - General
Unless my memory is faulty, the average price for 1kg of PLA or ABS has come down in price - from local suppliers in the U.K. at least. Some months ago I was happy if I found a kilo at £25.00 but now I am finding a kilo at less than £15 on ebay. I will admit that I know nothing about the quality of this filament; also, the highest price on ebay is still about £60 and suppliers I have purchasedby leadinglights - General
I think that the variability that you get between different ABS filaments is quite large. All of my black 1.75mm filament was purchased as ABS but the printing smell varies a lot as does appearance, best extrusion temperature, stickiness to various beds etc.. All of the black ABS that I have used vapour polishes in acetone, some getting a grey appearance, others becoming very black indeed. As tby leadinglights - Reprappers
hmm, nosecon, fins, I think we should worry if he starts printing uranium hemispheres. Mikeby leadinglights - General
DIY 3D printers, mine anyway, spend most of their time printing vases, busts of Yoda and parts for yet more 3D printers. Then, a couple of days ago, Yvan told us that he had been approached to do a full scale 3D print of an aircraft engine. After the normal ( for me anyway) dismissive hrumphs etc., I though about it and realised that this was almost perfect for the FDM type of 3D printers whichby leadinglights - General
Strangely enough, it was the thought of gluing tugether several slabs of balsa to make a tube and then turning it to make one of the water cooled cylinders of the OX5 that convinced me. compare the time and materials for a 7 inch dia by 9 inch tall (vague memory/guess) cylinder with a 4 layer thick printed vase and there is no contest. the cylinder head in 10% fill will need a left hand and a riby leadinglights - General
As they have an OX5, perhaps they could remove components such as cylinder heads for 3D scanning - this would save a lot of CAD time. Mike.by leadinglights - General
On glass with a heated stage, I found that I needed more and more agressive cleaning to get ABS to stick. What I have heard described as "smooshing" the first layer on had more effect (setting the first layer to 0.25mm but only leaving space for 0.12mm was about right), but even that faded after a while. One of the more startling things was that even after cleaning with acetone, then cellulose thby leadinglights - General
Don't listen to the nay-sayers who think that it is not the right thing for 3D printing on smaller machines. If you think in terms of theater set designing, it can look very convincing from a distance. Another reason why it would be good is that if it is being hung from the roof they will not want an 800lb monster engine on it The cylinders and cylinder heads and other small parts could be doneby leadinglights - General
Hi Marinus, How did your aluminium Y-carriage work out? I ask because I have moved on from my aluminium X carriage and am starting to put together an ultra light Y carriage for my Prusa. The X carriage with extruder and hot end weighs slightly less than the ABS version that it replaces and is about 3 times as rigid - measured with a spring balance to load in the working direction and a DTI to mby leadinglights - General
Hi vegasloki, I have to plead guilty to the incorrect use of the word "technophobia". In mitigation, most of the on-line dictionaries have a variety of definitions, some close to the way I used the word, others very similar to the definition that you used. My sole culpability is the omision of the words "the use of" in your definition. I don't think anybody on these forum would misunderstand myby leadinglights - General