1 Topic by thormj

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Topic: Too thin... try #30

The fan came off when I was trying out my filter nozzle (over a year ago -- newborns take soo much time)...
I've tried everything from a CPU fan to a 40mm fan for chipsets, but no matter what I do (3 fans, tried setting various heights for the fan& filament guide, tried blocking off the fans, tried reducing the temperature to 160c [made the beta motor angry]), I get filament that is too thin (~1.25 mm instead of 1.75 mm).

The original fan worked, but I can't seem to find what's left...
What's the fan that was in the filastruder KS kit?

2 Reply by cor5151

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Re: Too thin... try #30

diameter of nozzle? i had to drill one at 1.9mm (5/64th's inch drill bit?) to get anything over 1.5mm with the stock nozzle on a vertical setup. i'd imagine the beta motor  helps your problem.
Try cool master cpu fans, they work great for airflow.
is this on pla? I have 3 fans setup for pla, hardly need one for abs.

3 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

Trying for ABS first, but want to do PLA as well...  I'm using the filter-mesh nozzle (though the orginal has the same problem).

I was thinking the fans I was using were too much and causing the temperature controller to overheat the nozzle due to draftiness cooling the tip with the thermistor too much...

Trying for horizontal (cuz that worked originally) first, but I like the space savings of a vertical layout.

How far away are your fans from the tip?

4 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Too thin... try #30

Even without a fan, ABS should not be extruding at anything less than 1.6mm. Are you sure the nozzle is not partially blocked?

What ABS?

What temperature?

How far from nozzle to the floor?

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5 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

OSPrinting ABS from just before the out of business experience.  Trying to get turquoise, but ended up with "booger" instead.
At 160, the BetaMotor is slightly angry, but it's making filament.  At 180, it comes out as ooze instead (it just runs down the front). 
I haven't let it hit the floor yet, but that's ~42 inches away.
My filament guide is 1.5 inches down and 1.5 inches away from the orifice on the nozzle (I lost the wooden block, so I made a block out of a usb charger; once I get it the right size, I'll redo that...)

6 Reply by cor5151

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Re: Too thin... try #30

might have too much air blow into the thermocouple slot and causing it to read lower temp.. that or cooling the nozzle too much compared to the chamber. i usually wrap the couple with kapton tape, but recently wrapped the whole tip with aluminum tape, foil could work too just to keep moving air off the thermocouple.
i use to stack boxes and stuff to adjust fall height before i got a winder.

7 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

I've put the thermocouple in with Red RTV from autozone since that worked well for my printer.  I do see a 5 degree drop when I turn the fan on but no motor..then it goes back to setpt

8 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Too thin... try #30

thormj wrote:

OSPrinting ABS from just before the out of business experience.  Trying to get turquoise, but ended up with "booger" instead.
At 160, the BetaMotor is slightly angry, but it's making filament.  At 180, it comes out as ooze instead (it just runs down the front).

This isn't good, something is very wrong. Pictures of running at 175C and 180C? 160C is way, way too low for ABS, you'll damage the motor in short order.

Run it with just ABS, no colorant.

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9 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

Ok.  The slime was because I ran out of pellets in the hopper (doh!)
At 175, it dropped to 164.2 before the heater brought it back when I turned on the fan.
At 175, I get a diameter of 1.28-1.34 ... and it keeps trying "pigtail" at the orifice (twist around so that it makes contact and sticks to the nozzle)

At 180, I get the same diameter, and it seems less likely to pigtail...

Pictures coming soon.

10 Reply by thormj (edited by thormj 2014-11-01 23:59:09)

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Re: Too thin... try #30

At 180:
http://i.imgur.com/w7bF6sh.jpg

Side View:
http://i.imgur.com/CYuhhf6.jpg

11 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

At 175:
http://i.imgur.com/BnfzbGw.jpg

12 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

The "raw" ABS from OSPrinting is much clearer than the ABS that was included with the kit (and it seems a lot more bendy/brittle while it's coming out of the nozzle...
At 180, if anything disturbs the straight drop to the floor, it droops in between the guide and the nozzle.

Is there a way to field identify the plastic... I'm wondering if the above 2 points means that I really have PLA instead of ABS in my week-long-box...

13 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Too thin... try #30

Isn't that PLA, not ABS?  Clear ABS exists, but OSP didn't sell it.  Adding masterbatch meant for ABS isn't going to help either.  Are the pellets round, like beads?

14 Reply by insta

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Re: Too thin... try #30

thormj wrote:

The "raw" ABS from OSPrinting is much clearer than the ABS that was included with the kit (and it seems a lot more bendy/brittle while it's coming out of the nozzle...
At 180, if anything disturbs the straight drop to the floor, it droops in between the guide and the nozzle.

Is there a way to field identify the plastic... I'm wondering if the above 2 points means that I really have PLA instead of ABS in my week-long-box...

Burn some of it.  ABS burns with a sooty flame and smells like ... burning plastic.  It stinks.  PLA burns with much less smoke and after you extinguish the flame it will smell sort of sweet.

15 Reply by thormj

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Re: Too thin... try #30

Round beads.  Don't smoke like ABS (doesn't like to burn as much either).  I think that's my problem...  new ABS on order, and now let's figure out how to do PLA...

16 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Too thin... try #30

That's 100% PLA, which explains your issues. I'd ask OSP to make it right.

The "pig tailing" is caused by bits of ABS coming out with the PLA.

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