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ColorFabb PLA/PHA clogging

Discussion in 'Filament' started by sgomes, Jul 25, 2017.

  1. sgomes

    sgomes Active Member

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    Hey folks!

    I've been having a lot of trouble with ColorFabb PLA/PHA, which is supposedly easy to print with, and should use the same settings as PLA. I'm getting clogs all the time while using it, whereas that never happened while the Robo PLA spool lasted :-/

    Here are my settings:
    • Extruder temp: Tried 190, 200, 210 and they all clogged. 220 didn't seem to, but I'm starting to get warping on the roof of my Benchy test print even with the fan at 100%, so I think that's too far.
    • Bed temp: 55.
    • Extrusion multiplier: 0.9. Tried 1.0 and 0.8 too, not a lot of difference where clogging is concerned.
    • Retraction: 1mm at 40mm/s.
    I measured the filament with my calipers, and it reads a perfect 1.75mm, so that's not the issue.

    Does anyone have any working settings they can share?

    Thanks!
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Seasoning. Anything PLA related that is always my first thing...
     
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  3. sgomes

    sgomes Active Member

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    After a bunch of testing, it looks like the filament is slightly soft/elastic, and the R2 ends up grinding it until it either clogs or stops extruding. So far I've only been able to print it reliably by disabling retraction altogether; that gets me stringing, but it's better than not being able to use the filament at all :-/
     
  4. sgomes

    sgomes Active Member

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    After another round of debugging, turns out the problem was some form of heat creep. The partially enclosed environment combined with the heated bed and the material's properties made the PLA/PHA clog.

    At ColorFabb's suggestion, I'm now printing with the heated bed off and the door open, and it's working great! So if you're seeing clogs halfway through prints with PLA-like materials, you may want to give that a try too.
     
  5. supercazzola

    supercazzola Active Member

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    I’m gonna try this with PETG which is giving me issues like you describe.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
     
  6. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Do you have a larger fan than the small one for the cold end? Would love to see someone pop a bigger fan in there and see how it does. My Ultimaker has an enclosure and doesn't suffer the same fate of having to turn off the heatbed and open the door which leads me to believe that fan just doesn't do its job :D
     
  7. sgomes

    sgomes Active Member

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    Yeah, leaving the door open is definitely just a hack to get around the real problem, which is that the cold part of the hotend isn't getting enough cooling, I believe. Haven't tried a larger fan yet, as this is my only printer, and so I don't want to mess around with it too much. Perhaps if I found a high-quality fan with the same size and voltage/current specs...

    Cooling is generally an issue with this printer, though; the part cooling is not great either.
     
  8. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    FIX IT :D
    I'd love to see a member put out a bolt on fan shroud upgrade for both stock and any upgraded hotend they do. Robo put out one and I'm hearing lacking results. I dont have a R2 so who is gonna step up! :D
     
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  9. sgomes

    sgomes Active Member

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    Give me a few months to move, learn more about 3D printer assembly, and get better at 3D modelling, and I'll get back to you ;) In the meantime, I'll just leave the door open, haha :D
     
  10. Koka Rao

    Koka Rao New Member

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    I have a similar problem. I brought yesterday and my filament does not advance. Some mechanical issue. The spring is so hard to pushdown, Very disappointed. Called support twice. He pointed me to a bunch of documents and ask me to book a level 2 support which is not available until 2weeks. We are stuck bad choice.
     
  11. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    If you fire up a trouble shooting thread with pictures or video and a good explanation of whats going on, someone here may be able to help you out as well.
     
  12. supercazzola

    supercazzola Active Member

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    Does your problem look like this:

    [​IMG]

    Good at base, but as the print progresses, the thing has under-extrusion?



    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
     

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