1 Topic by HestonKent

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Topic: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

This is my first time using PLA in my solidoodle 2, and since I've had a bit of problems with it I thought i'd post here.

Almost every long print (long meaning more than 2-3 hours) has had a PEEK clog with this filament. I assume it is because the filament is expanding in the peek and has to be melted to come back out with a soldering iron. Has anyone else used the Fry's PLA filament and had the same issue? Or is this just an issue with PLA in general? This has effectively ruined one of my peek barrel's threads already and is destined to ruin another if I don't find a solution to this.

2 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Every clog I have had was whilst printing PLA.
Switch to an E3D hotend from Filastruder.com ....you pretty much have to intentionally try to clog one of those. I only had one clog in the last 5 months and I run 30-40 hours per week.

I have experienced more clogs on some PLA filaments over others. Never had one with Makerbot filament, JustPLA clogged me up what seemed like once a week.

Printit Mason and Printit Horizon printers
Multiple SD2s- Bulldog XL, E3D v5/v6/Lite6, Volcano, Hobb Goblin, Titan, .9 motor, Lawsy carriages, direct Y drive, fishing line...the list goes on
Filawinder and Filastruder #1870.....worth every penny!

3 Reply by HestonKent

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

I've seen the e3d extruder, looks freaking cool. Although the fact that it's entirely metal raises some concern. Wouldn't that mean that the heat would travel up the "PEEK" barrel in that case as well and melt the lawsy mk5 extruder?

Also, I have little experience with electronic assembly like soldering, so I'm a little nervous about buying one of those if I have to modify the power on the board in order to suit the extruder.

I have a feeling I might've just gotten bad filament. It was 25 bucks anyways, probably cheap for a reason. I might try the SainSmart PLA that everyone raves about all the time.

4 Reply by grob

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

The E3D barrel is a heatsink, and a fan blows air across to take the heat away - so instead of just insulating like PEEK, the barrel is actually actively cooled, which positively prevents the filament from melting in the barrel (usual cause of a clog).

Installing the thing is a fair bit of fiddling: new extruder parts (printed), wiring and a firmware update (to increase the temp ceiling), but it's well documented here and on the wiki and is of course a good opportunity for practice. wink

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5 Reply by HestonKent

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Very true. I might give that second consideration.

By the way, does anyone know if a fan helps with the expansion of PLA in the PEEK? I ordered a 40mm fan recently and it has yet to come in.

6 Reply by AZERATE

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

A fan will not help your clogs. PLA actually takes longer to cool than ABS so even if air circulation inside your PEEK were possible, it wouldn't necessarily help. A fan will help extruded PLA to cool sooner before the next layer, so a fan for your hotend IS recommended.

Assembly isn't as hard as it may seem. Read http://www.soliwiki.com/E3D_extruder until it makes sense.
I have absolutely zero skills with electronics, but my E3D is running like a champ! And your extruder will never melt as long as it is ABS. There is a high temp PLA made by Proto Pasta (have, but haven't tested yet) which "could" stand as well as ABS if you preferred to print in PLA.

Printit Mason and Printit Horizon printers
Multiple SD2s- Bulldog XL, E3D v5/v6/Lite6, Volcano, Hobb Goblin, Titan, .9 motor, Lawsy carriages, direct Y drive, fishing line...the list goes on
Filawinder and Filastruder #1870.....worth every penny!

7 Reply by HestonKent

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Do you think maybe speeding up the flow/speed rate would help? You'd think if it were given enough time in the PEEK to expand and make a clog then the proper solution would be to make it spend less time in the PEEK.

8 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Print a little faster, and make sure the retraction distance is short.  One cause of jamming is that a long retraction can pull melted PLA up into the cold zone where the filament needs to be solid.

9 Reply by HestonKent

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Ian,

Tried the lower retraction. It was set at 1mm so i set it to .25mm. So far so good right now! Also sped up the speed multiplier to 179%, and it seems to be working much better. Will come back with results if it clogs again.

10 Reply by HestonKent

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Just to update anyone looking for the solution, lowering the retraction rate and speeding up the speed/flow rates have been the solution to this problem. Printed out multiple long prints since I changed the settings that have ran fine without jamming. Thanks Ian!

11 Reply by Felixusaprinters

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Re: Fry's Electronics Shaxon PLA - Anyone use it?

Stay away from this Fry's Filament. its one of the worst I have seen in quality. Although I am able to print something, the quality-jump when printing with a normal filament is huge. I had one specific color roll (Blue) which just wouldn't print good enough. The diameter variations were way more than 0.05mm (although I am not sure exactly anymore what they were)