1 Topic by sturmth

  • sturmth
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  • From: Bavaria, Germany
  • Registered: 2014-02-14
  • Posts: 28

Topic: Bad Diameter tolerance

Hello everybody,

I have some problems with the diameter of my filament. I have the 3mm nozzle with filter and extrude Terluran GP-35 without any colorants. I use the Filawinder too. My filament has a diameter of 2,7 to 3mm. I think this is a really big tolerance. Is this normal? What could I do to lower tolerance? I discovered, that switching the heater on and off by the electronics results in different motor speed, - it sounds like this. So I separated power supply. I have now one supply for the heater and one for the motor. But this did not help anyway. Do You have any suggestion?

Regards
Thomas

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2 Reply by Revolve3D

  • Revolve3D
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  • Registered: 2014-05-08
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Re: Bad Diameter tolerance

That tolerance is not normal. Is the diameter variation random or is it happening in a sort of pattern? The number one thing that can cause diameter variation is moisture. Even though ABS doesn't absorb that much moisture its possible that drying the pellets could fix your problem.

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3 Reply by elmoret

  • elmoret
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Re: Bad Diameter tolerance

+/- 0.15mm on 3mm filament isn't horrible, but it isn't great either. For example, Utilimachine, widely regarded for their filament quality, rates their stuff at +/-0.1mm: https://ultimachine.com/content/abs-3mm … -5lb-spool

Keep in mind that:

+/-0.05mm on 1.75mm filament is 6% variation in crossectional area
+/-0.15mm on 3.0mm filament is 10% variation in crossectional area

So it's worse, but not as much as you might think.

The motor speed thing does not significantly impact diameter, as you learned. The biggest thing with 3mm is that the extruder needs to be much higher off the floor since 3mm filament is so much stiffer (stiffness scales with diameter^4). Generally the extruder should be 6-7 feet off the floor - or are you using a winder?

Anyway, photos of your setup would be helpful. What temperature are you running the GP35 at? How was your experience with the included MG94?

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4 Reply by tonycstech

  • tonycstech
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  • Registered: 2014-08-02
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Re: Bad Diameter tolerance

How about 1.75mm nozzle ?
I had diameter very from 1.8mm down to 1.2mm. So small it slips thru the hobbed bolt in my printer so i cant print.
Extruded at 160. Lowering down to 150 did not help, it was still getting random.
Extruder was vertical about 4-5 feet off the ground. Coil about 2-3 feet across.
Ended up throwing away 1 kilo of PLA that i dried in the over for 2 hrs.

Would be cheaper to buy a spool of PLA then drying it for 2 hrs and printing for the rest of the day and throwing it away sad

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5 Reply by musafir.kembara

  • musafir.kembara
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  • Registered: 2014-01-22
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Re: Bad Diameter tolerance

Hi guys.. Please help me..
I'm extruding nylon 12 at temp of 180 but fail to get 1.65 and above.
Mine is only 1.0 to 1.2..Any suggestion? Tried with MG94 pellets at 180 degree C, and it smoothly
extruded 1.70 to 1.80..
Do I need to do any modification to the filastruder ?

6 Reply by tonycstech

  • tonycstech
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Re: Bad Diameter tolerance

If you get good consistent diameter just not the size you want, you have 3 options.
Easiest to drop the temp down.
Harder to lower filastruder (if you dont use filawinder)
Hardest to drill the nozzle.

I like the hardest way, its easier. I have nozzle for each material.
They are cheap if you make them your self.

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