Filastruder no makey plastic come out :(

I ran the full wrap on your suggestion.  I'll grab some pictures.

100kg?  what the hell do you print?

Well, imgur is being stupid, so in the meantime:
https://plus.google.com/102081251972441 … pQ4PMwe6Kz

While, uh, while I appreciate the feedback on the printing question -- do you have any suggestions based on the pictures in the Google+ link?

Why blow torch the barrel?  I just soak mine.  A paper towel soaked in acetone and stopper the ends (I used aluminum foil) loosened up the barrel plastic.  It was so easy that I really don't want to run anything I can't clean out with acetone.

I too thought a long melt zone would be beneficial, but after seeing the machine in action, I'm more in favor of as short of melt zone as possible. I think the longer melt zone puts more strain on the motor, especially during start up.  I now just have some aluminum muffler rap, one layer on the nipple and the usual fiberglass around the heating band.  If I'm printing in a drafty area I'll wrap tin foil around the lower half just to keep airflow down to reduce variables.

If the colors being used are getting dispersed (and I've used dry pigment), is there any advantage to using a long melt zone?

I have also run into this problem, where the filastruder will run great for a while but then slow down dramatically, and doesn't work until I clean out the barrel, so I've thought a lot about what might cause it. I have a v4 kit (upgraded from v3 when my initial assembly partially destroyed itself through my own stupidity/incompetence) with 1.75mm nozzle.

I've found that the thing that seems most likely to trigger the problem is higher temperatures -- you might try extruding at 180 instead of 185 -- and that insulating the barrel (which you say you've already done) does make a huge difference. I recently re-wrapped my whole barrel and that seems to have mitigated the problem. I haven't seen the problem crop up since I did that, after seeing another post on this board.

One possibility -- the picture above shows your insulation right up to the nozzle, but the nozzle is already removed -- how much insulation have you left right over the nozzle itself when you're running the filastruder? The instructions say that the edge of the insulation should be even with the face of the nozzle. I think that's because if the nozzle, where the thermocouple is measuring temperatures, is not insulated, then the temperature being read will be significantly lower than in the melt zone, which may mean that the melt zone is over-heating causing problems.

Instead of doing all that helpful debugging and diagnostics, I instead fixed it without a blowtorch.

1) Let it cool to room temperature over several hours.
2) Disable auto-start on motor
3) Heat barrel to 175C and let it soak for an hour
4) Empty all pellets out of hopper area
5) Manually pull plastic goo out of the front with pliers
6) Run Nylon T6 pellets in the machine (175C is way too cold for these Nylon pellets!)
7) Continue to tweeze plastic goo until the dam breaks and all the Nylon pellets show up at the output
8) Attempt to extrude Nylon for shits and giggles
9) Let next batch of MG94 push out failed Nylon test

The Nylon pellets acted as a sort of abrasive to grind the plastic off the auger and walls of the pipe.  Now it extrudes fast enough to get 2RPM on my winder, which keeps up with extrusion.  I'm running 20"/min based on some crude math, and that's on an otherwise stock setup at 180C with a wrapped barrel and melt filter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgVLU80 … e=youtu.be

However, I absolutely will take you up on that offer next time it jams.  Should be in 1kg or so, based on my track record

Teflon spray maybe? Canola oil at the least is a bad idea, it will spoil esp at elevated temps.

It ran overnight with no problems so far, and has kept up the flow rate.  The winder didn't hold up its end of the bargain though and I ended up with ramen and a half-filled spool.  It filled about 50% of a 1kg Ultimachine spool in 6 hours -- so I guess I'm right where I should be.

You're supposed to be on vacation!