Optimize PLA filament extrusion?

Did you dry the feed material? PLA is very sensitive to moisture.

How have you granulated the PLA? How uniform is the result? Have you tried virgin PLA first? Did you clean the barrel after the initial ABS run?

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/3935/pol … -tutorial/

No, a hair dryer is not appropriate.

So just dropping in strands of filament to the hopper? This will not yield reliable results, and the feed is not uniform, resulting in variable melt pressures.

Out of all the popular printing polymers, PLA is the trickiest to extrude well. On top of that, recycled instead of virgin is another later of complexity. Try virgin PLA first.

Definitely not acetone. Read the sticky I linked, and the link under the PLA section.

But, what temperature do you think i should set the extruder?

Thanks a lot!!!!!

I think I'll try drying the PLA and running the extruder at 155C. Thanks for the quick response. I though it would take a few week but It only took 1min for a reply.

hi all
i'm extrude pla  and i 'm using 2 heaters band one in the middle of extruder  at 171°c and another on the nozzle at 176°
and it work fine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIofDpUw_yI

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/4108/my- … s-and-pla/

Anotehr angle

i had pla coming out at 180 for the first 1 foot then went to about 1.35mm so i messed around with it then noticed it was being stretched by its own weight so i tried cooling the filament down faster to stop so much stretch, now its 1.65 to 1.80mm, temp was 154/155 but extruding was taking 24 hours per roll of 1kg but its better than it was, noticing the pics of others, alot of people seem to be sheilding the end so more air is cuirculating the filament with out realising it. maybe a second fan but its worth a try for anyone  who is about to give up.

after its all spooled up i put it in the middle of the oven at about 40c for 2 hours then vacum seal it. but if you mean pre dry, i dont, i put what i am about to use in a  large jar over night with a few selica jell packs in, does the job, never had a problem, living in a warm climate might help though.
After making abs colorant i dried it before extruding, just lined a baking tray with foil and pored it in then put it in the middle of the oven for about 50c for 3 to 4 hours.

i am getting the results i want by doing it the way i'm doing, 1.70 to 1.80 and prints nice, might be that i use silica gel ,air tight and the humidity in the air here is only 20%.