1 Topic by sassypants

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Topic: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

Hey everyone,

I've been looking online for solutions and I'm coming up with very few things I haven't tried. I'm having trouble getting the Filastruder to give me useful filament because it keeps curling back to the nozzle for some reason after a few feet of extruding just fine.

My desk is 2.75 feet off of the ground and I set up the nozzle with the PTFE tube as shown in photos. I pull the filament out by hand for about 2-3 feet then let the filament drop on its own. After that it will print maybe 5-7 feet of filament before it curls up and reattaches to the nozzle. It appears that this is happening because the extruded filament, when resting on the ground and starting to curl, is no longer heavy enough to force the filament downwards. At this point I started looking up other filament guide options to reduce the friction so it required less force downwards to maintain tension on the line. In the end I made this filament feeder (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1414397) but I'm still having the same issues.

I then rose my Filastruder to the back hutch of my desk, raising it now 5.0 Feet off of the ground. This gives it more play, printing out 10-15 feet of filament, but after that it starts to curl to the nozzle again. I also noted that I'm consistently getting 1.2-1.4 mm in diameter intead of the 1.6-1.8 I was getting at the lower height. One last thing I'm trying now (it's preheating) is I'm putting back the old filament guide at the higher height and seeing what happens... but... I'm getting ready to mount this thing to a wall at this point and face the nozzle downwards, but before I disassemble everything and re-wire it on a piece of plywood... has anyone found the magic fix for this problem that has worked out well for them?

Note: I'm extruding virgin pla-pellets-4043d pellets at 160 C.

2 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

You are supposed to be using a winder as well and feeding the filament on to a spool that winds at the same speed as the feed.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
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3 Reply by sassypants

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

Not certain what you mean by "you are supposed to be using a winder"

Most of the videos and posts about it have people extruding it on the ground in large coils and wrapping it up after.

4 Reply by carl_m1968 (edited by carl_m1968 2019-05-19 12:07:58)

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

Look up filawinder. Why would you let it extrude to the floor where it could pick up dust or debris that could clog a printer nozzle?

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

5 Reply by os3dp

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

sassypants,
How long did you dry your PLA?

-os3dp

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6 Reply by Kronikabuse

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

Ive always had better luck extruding with the filastruder vertcal attached to a wall

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7 Reply by sassypants

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

I used pla straight from the bag after buying it for that initial "6-8 hour purge" I dried some recycled filament to use later but I wasn't expecting to use these first few batches. I didn't think moisture would cause curling and it only seems to do it once the filament rests on the ground. I can try drying some of the pellets tonight.

8 Reply by crazyhamsales (edited by crazyhamsales 2019-05-22 02:17:38)

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

Letting it extrude to the floor, if its nice and clean is "ok" at best, i found i got a lot more consistent filament by spooling it as it extrudes.  I've also seen some with the extruder mounted on the wall and a plastic barrel on the floor catching the filament as it extrudes, but then they have to spool it up to use it anyway or it tangles.  A winder is just the easier way to go in the long run.

I've had PLA curl due to moisture, i think what your probably seeing is it hitting the floor where its cooler and it cooling quick and curling up due to the voids in the filament from the moisture.  I battled with moisture for a while on PLA and ABS pellets, i resorted to baking them in an old oven, then i got a food dehydrator that i mounted a second blower fan to the side to help circulate the air and shift the pellets around, that worked ok but took a long time to be conistently dry.  Finally i invested in a hopper dryer and now i do 10kg batches in two hours and store them in buckets with airtight lids and desiccant packs to keep it dry.  Sometimes i just run a batch through the hopper dryer and pull off a kg at a time and pour it into the extruder, the pellets are dry and preheated that way, extrudes really nice.

I'm going to start trying some Nylon and PETG next now that i can get the pellets dry and keep them there.

9 Reply by sassypants

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

I set up a filawinder and am extruding down to that. Gonna see how it goes.

Found out a lot more about PLA than I knew previously though nothing earth-shattering. The weight of the filament is enough to stretch PLA so the temp needs to be lower than expected. I'm doing 145-150 and it's coming out consistent, but thin still (1.5-1.6)

10 Reply by tonycstech (edited by tonycstech 2019-05-30 02:45:56)

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

Most of the people extrude few feet on the floor just for demonstration purposes.
You cant use it without filawinder or any other automatic winding machine PERIOD !
With PLA is even more critical because the length of filament has its weight and that weight is pulling on the filament as it exit the nozzle.
Longer string, more weight, less diameter. (and the other way around)
You change string length by moving filawinder sensor and PTFE tube loop closer or further to the extruder.

You have to keep the string of filament at consistent length one way or another in order to keep stable diameter.

Ill give you advice on a winder.
What ever you like to buy or make your self, winding has to be controlled by a sensor and not just by constant motor speed.
Reason is because extruders do not constantly extrude exact same amount of material. It changes by multiple factors.
Automatic winder will pull the string only when it sag too far. Constant speed winder will constantly pull the string regardless of how much material was actually extruded. That will result diameter problems.

Do not buy WellZoom winder. Its not automatic.
Filawinder is the best choice so far.
Its not too expensive. Its half the price of Chinese WellZoom garbage that has no sensors at all.
It has ton of upgrades on thingiverse.
Its made simple and made well. All components work for years without a single failure.

my thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/tonycstech/designs
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11 Reply by coolio986

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Re: Filment sticks to the nozzle- not enough weight

If your PLA is curling back up on the nozzle that means there is a restriction in the nozzle body causing turbulence or "die stress".

Another reason for curling is not fully melted resin. I doubt that's the case, but it's always possible.

There should be no reason that a winder is necessary to make the filament come out straight. Even if you were to do so, your diameter would be all over the place since there is something causing stress on exit.

But I agree, the best way to extrude with the filastruder is vertical.