Solved Consistent clogging with Silk PLA filament

Hi all,

I have used my Robo 3D R1+ printer with success with over 10 different filament rolls, from different vendors etc... They are all PLA but with different colors and some with special "effects" (wood-like, transparent, etc...)

Some time ago I bought this awesome looking "Gold Silk PLA" filament, and though I have been able to get a few successful small prints out of it, I clogs a lot after 1h of printing or so making it impossible to use for larger prints. I've tried printing in the whole range of recommended temperatures, and even turning retraction off but nothing seems to work. The clogs themselves seem kinda weird to me, since they are very easily removed just by pushing the filament a little bit.

Is there anything special about PLA advertised as "Silk" that requires me to change some parameters? Is there any setting besides temperatur and retraction that may be causing this?

Thanks in advance

 

I just got my first roll of Silk PLA and have been playing with it today! I've only printed 2 things but I noticed it behaved very differently than any other filament I've used in that when I turn the wheel to advance the filament, I can see a little bit of what just came out the nozzle literally suck back up into the nozzle. So I see where this could cause clogs very easily! I did print a ~1.5 hr print successfully in vase mode (.3 layer height), but I had set the Extrusion Width to 0.6 mm trying to get a thicker wall of the vase, and also turned the temp up about ~8 degrees over what I used for the other print.

TL;DR: I have very little experience with Silk PLA so far but managed a print taking over an hour, which happened to be using a greater extrusion width than my nozzle size. So maybe try that?

Another idea: maybe you have leftover bits of filament inside the nozzle which are mucking up with the Silk PLA when it sucks back up in? Especially if you'd been using ABS which would have trouble at the lower temps you're using now. I have managed to clear clogs before by doing some cold pulls (pulling the filament back out the top at a temp of around 150C instead of normal print temps) with cleaning filament or a white PLA, or maybe trying a higher temp to do a cold pull with ABS (not sure if this works as I've never had to do that). It seems to work to get gunk out of the nozzle since you can see the end that you've just pulled out getting successively less discolored the more times you do it. But I think some people say this method isn't good for the printer so do your own research and see if you think it's worth trying.