1 Topic by Mysterio

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Topic: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

Shortly after I got my Press I read on here where someone recommended the Sainsmart ABS (available from Amazon) because it was pretty cheap and was supposedly a really good material, although a lot of people in the reviews complain about the cardboard spool.  I bought some, but have yet to get a good print from it, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips or experience using this particular filament with the Press.  This is my first 3D printer btw, so I'm not sure if it's just a matter of tweaking some settings when using a new brand of filament or what.

If you pry the plastic "hubs" out of the cardboard spool then it will fit in the dispenser area of the Press, although not wanting my spool to fall apart I only pried off the plastic on one side, so it currently only fits halfway on and thus rides a bit high.  It seems to be feeding through just fine though.  The material will extrude ok to begin with, but when I check on it after a couple of hours I find that it's stopped extruding, it will have ground down the filament at the extruder wheel, and I'll have a difficult clog to unclog...

This is essentially what the Press was doing at the start of things with the white filament they included, which was remedied by printing with the lid up.  However leaving the lid up isn't resolving the issue with the Sainsmart filament.

Would you guys say that the problem is more likely mechanical, that it's not feeding smoothly so some resistance is preventing it from extruding?  With the lid down I presumed it was kinking but with the lid up I'm wondering if it's just not coming off the reel smoothly...   Or would this material have a "sweet spot" for the extruder temp that's different than what came with the Press?  I thought about turning the temp up so it might be more fluid and flow better, but at the same time I felt that might soften the filament too far up and cause a kink and resultant clog like people are seeing trying to use PLA?  So might dropping the temp be a better idea instead?

It did seem to come out with a bit of a thin line, so I adjusted the slic3r extrusion multiplier up from .7 to .9 or 1.0, which did seem to accomplish what I expected.

Thanks in advance!

2 Reply by Dream-Cypher

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Re: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

I have a spool, but haven't tried it yet.  What temperature are you running at?

I've had similar mixed results with Hatchbox ABS.  Most times it is printing well, but then the Press will get on a jamming spree.  The last time, I let the press cool down, took the front of the heat sink off, and used the brush and compressed air to get all the dust out.  Then when it heated up, I removed excess gunk from from bottom of the nozzle. 

I'm not using the built in spool holder, but feeding filament externally.

3 Reply by Mysterio

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Re: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

Dream-Cypher wrote:

I have a spool, but haven't tried it yet.  What temperature are you running at?.

Well, I believe I tried it once with the original default 250 degree setting for the Press (though I think I've seen that in the next version of Soliprint they dropped the default to 215 or something like that).  And I'm pretty sure I tested one at 230.  I was going to try one last night at 215 but, to be honest, I told it to warm up the printer then put the kiddo to bed then started watching TV, and it wasn't until I was almost ready for bed that I remembered that I hadn't actually started a print...

Dream-Cypher wrote:

I'm not using the built in spool holder, but feeding filament externally

That's probably my next step... since things work well for me with the filament they supplied so long as I prop the top open, I initially assumed it would do the same with the other brand of filament.  Since it "kind of fits" the holder I thought I'd give it a shot.  Now it looks like I might need to jury-rig up another solution... though space is a bit cramped where I currently have the printer set up.

4 Reply by PDX

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Re: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

I used almost a whole roll of sainsmart black abs filament from amazon. Did the same thing rip one side of plastic out and fits on press OK.  Temps from 220-250 seemed fine, but I print most at 240-250, seems smoother.
As the roll gets smaller, filament tends to get caught and pulled tight on the cardboard spool and stops extruding. My fix was to cut the spool down on top side to keep it close to the edge of the filament, seems to work so far.
I'm printing red sainsmart abs now for valentines day stuff, prints coming out great, at least on low resolution settings. If I try to print too fine seems to not extrude enough, but figure I need to tweak some settings or something.
Overall, sainsmart works for my press quite good, not 1 clog after left sitting overnight at full temp, can't say the same for the solidoodle white filament starter roll..clogville..
I wish it was the same with pla....insta jam... But that's another subject all together.

5 Reply by Mysterio

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Re: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

PDX wrote:

I used almost a whole roll of sainsmart black abs filament from amazon. Did the same thing rip one side of plastic out and fits on press OK.  Temps from 220-250 seemed fine, but I print most at 240-250, seems smoother.
As the roll gets smaller, filament tends to get caught and pulled tight on the cardboard spool and stops extruding. My fix was to cut the spool down on top side to keep it close to the edge of the filament, seems to work so far.
I'm printing red sainsmart abs now for valentines day stuff, prints coming out great, at least on low resolution settings. If I try to print too fine seems to not extrude enough, but figure I need to tweak some settings or something.
Overall, sainsmart works for my press quite good, not 1 clog after left sitting overnight at full temp, can't say the same for the solidoodle white filament starter roll..clogville..
I wish it was the same with pla....insta jam... But that's another subject all together.

Do you print with the lid up?  I have to or it won't work at all even with the white solidoodle filament it came with.  But my sainsmart roll sits so high I think the outer lid is resting on it and might be causing a bit of resistance leading to an eventual clog.

There is a shelf above where I have my setup so I'm a bit limited in what I do with the lid, but I'll try to get things propped open tonight so that nothing is causing any drag.

6 Reply by PDX

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Re: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

Mysterio wrote:
PDX wrote:

I used almost a whole roll of sainsmart black abs filament from amazon. Did the same thing rip one side of plastic out and fits on press OK.  Temps from 220-250 seemed fine, but I print most at 240-250, seems smoother.
As the roll gets smaller, filament tends to get caught and pulled tight on the cardboard spool and stops extruding. My fix was to cut the spool down on top side to keep it close to the edge of the filament, seems to work so far.
I'm printing red sainsmart abs now for valentines day stuff, prints coming out great, at least on low resolution settings. If I try to print too fine seems to not extrude enough, but figure I need to tweak some settings or something.
Overall, sainsmart works for my press quite good, not 1 clog after left sitting overnight at full temp, can't say the same for the solidoodle white filament starter roll..clogville..
I wish it was the same with pla....insta jam... But that's another subject all together.

Do you print with the lid up?  I have to or it won't work at all even with the white solidoodle filament it came with.  But my sainsmart roll sits so high I think the outer lid is resting on it and might be causing a bit of resistance leading to an eventual clog.

There is a shelf above where I have my setup so I'm a bit limited in what I do with the lid, but I'll try to get things propped open tonight so that nothing is causing any drag.

Yes for sure the lid is always up, so is the filament holder lid. I prop it up at all times with a tall screwdriver about 45°, this might be helping or not, but I do it anyways. I just keep the front door closed when printing, everything else wide open. Hope it helps, I just know it's been working for me.

7 Reply by PDX

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Re: Sainsmart ABS and the Press

I forgot to say that I flipped the fan around so it blows at the extruder, stepper, instead of away from it like stock. It seems to keep the whole cold end and filament extruder area cooler, so the filament doesn't jam at the top of hotend from getting too hot and ballooning.
I also haven't used that clear guard that is on the front of extruder area at all, it just keeps the heat in where you don't want it.