thanks!
]]>I will give that/those a shot when I have some time to tinker! I have some new PLA/ABS coming in today I'll see if that makes a difference too.
Thank you for the input!
]]>If you're going to stick PTFE in the heatbreak (thus limiting your maximum temperatures), you might as well save $40 and buy a Lite6:
http://www.filastruder.com/products/lite6
Hundreds of kilograms of PLA can definitely be printed through a E3Dv6 hotend without problem. Every single time someone has come to me with problems printing PLA, the issue has always been in cooling, in the setup of the hotend (this includes the extruder, hobbed hub/bolt, etc) or in the configuration of the printer (temperature, retracts, steps/mm, etc).
tonycstech, I'm not sure how you can say all E3Ds are going to suck for PLA after a year, the E3Dv6 hasn't been out for a year yet! Here's a quote from someone that's had a E3Dv6 for almost a year now:
The results of the tests. Approximately 240+ hours of PLA were printed and over 125 hours of ABS were put through the V6 HotEnd. Try as a might, the HotEnd would not clog or malfunction in any manner. Knowing the E3D HotEnds have a reputation for clogging with PLA I was totally shocked that not once did this V6 HotEnd clog or show any problems of any sort. I have used the V4 and V5 and have experienced the PLA clogging but this one would not misbehave no matter what filament was in it. I do not know what they did to fix it, but it just works. I do know that they have spent more time polishing the inside of the heatbreak but I do not know if they made any changes to the bore length.
brwhitesell:
- check that the PTFE tube is bottomed out in the heatbreak. It helps to bevel it slightly to match the internal geometry of the heatbreak.
- check that the fan is blowing air towards the heatsink
- change retracts to 0 for testing
- if you have thermal paste, put some on the heatbreak threads that are in contact with the heatsink. do check that the heatbreak is snugly tightened into the heatsink.
- try up to 230C, some formulations of PLA need higher printing temperatures
- did you assemble correctly? put in nozzle, back out 1/2 turn, put in heatbreak, heat to 280C, tighten nozzle
Any of the above being wrong will definitely cause PLA issues. ABS is more forgiving.
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Would make layer separation issue go worse.Just buy that $10 piece and forget about you ever had this problem.
With that said, $15 chinese all metal version of E3D extruder (including V6 for $25) will perform the same.
Sop if you could afford $65 E3D extruder, you should be able to afford fixing it for $10 as it was not PLA friendly to begin with.
brwhitesell wrote:I am not yet convinced it's a printer/extruder/hotend issue, and maybe a filament issue at this point. I've tried two brand new rolls (of the same stuff, Makergeeks own brand) with the same results. Debating ordering a higher end filament just to try it out...not super keen on putting more money into it at this point...I want the damn thing to work though!
Did you pull it apart to see if it was clogged? It only matters if the clog is on the cooled end. I had my first blockage a few days ago when I was trying to retract my PET+ filament. I had to disassemble it and removed the plug easy but I noticed some in the hot end side. I got the plug out and left the stuff that was in the hot end side and it worked.
I have taken the whole assembly apart probably... 6 times now... I am actually starting to think that it has to do with the tension on the filament between the extruder gnurled thingie and the idler bearing. The filament does not seem to go exactly straight into the top of the E3D because the gnurled gear pushes it to the right. I think that is creating tension on the filament itself, and then I have to tighten the idler gear so it has enough torque on the filament to pull it through, but because there's so much tension, the teeth on the extruder gear dig into the filament, create little flakes, which eventually screw everything up...
I have adjusted things as best I can to have a straight path for the filament, and not too much tension on the idler/gnurled extruder "gear". I can get ABS to print it seems...because I'm thinking it's a harder material, it's not shaving away little bits like with PLA....
]]>All E3D's are gonna suck for PLA after about year or so. (or less if you print allot)
Problem will be with retractions. PLA filament retracts back into the nozzle, hot filament touches cooler surface (heat breaker area) and freezes expanded and get stuck.
Solution is simple.
Buy one of these:
Works like a charm.Will also work for ABS but going too high temperatures will melt PTFE tube (cheap to replace but is the limiting factor to consider)
Another solution is to print your cooling fan designed to cool the model and the E3D heat breaker area at the same time.
Apparently it does not get cool enough.
I am not yet convinced it's a printer/extruder/hotend issue, and maybe a filament issue at this point. I've tried two brand new rolls (of the same stuff, Makergeeks own brand) with the same results. Debating ordering a higher end filament just to try it out...not super keen on putting more money into it at this point...I want the damn thing to work though!
Did you pull it apart to see if it was clogged? It only matters if the clog is on the cooled end. I had my first blockage a few days ago when I was trying to retract my PET+ filament. I had to disassemble it and removed the plug easy but I noticed some in the hot end side. I got the plug out and left the stuff that was in the hot end side and it worked.
]]>
Will also work for ABS but going too high temperatures will melt PTFE tube (cheap to replace but is the limiting factor to consider)
Another solution is to print your cooling fan designed to cool the model and the E3D heat breaker area at the same time.
Apparently it does not get cool enough.
He probably means SSR and my question is why are you doing that? are you using a board which won't support the load? using an SSR for the heater cartridge adds another serious point of failure that you will have to watch closely--the heater can get hot enough to catch fire if the SSR fails "always on." I'm not saying it's more likely to fail than an on-board MOSFET, but I'm not sure why you'd add the complexity.
Yeah, SSR.
I'm using a 40amp. That seems to be the point made, since you need a new power supply.
Although I could easily be doing it wrong
]]>Also I doubt you mean SSD, that stands for "solid state drive", which is used for storing data.
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