1. Got a question or need help troubleshooting? Post to the troubleshooting forum or Search the forums!

Unanswered How fast are you printing? PLA slower than ABS?

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by 3d_dan, Jun 27, 2016.

  1. 3d_dan

    3d_dan New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2016
    Messages:
    16
    Likes Received:
    9
    I only recently started to print with PLA. When printing ABS (220C), I was able to print at following speeds.

    Perimeter: 70mm/s
    Infill: 60mm/s
    Solid Fill: 70mm/s

    However, when I tried printing in PLA (210C) at the same speed as ABS, my print failed. Looks like it wasn't able to extrude enough materials on thin walls. I re-calibrated with PLA and notice if issue (G1 Z100 F90), I was getting about 100mm. However, if I issue (G1 Z100 F150), I was getting about 85-95mm. To make sure it's not the feeder gears, I removed the hot end and ran the same test and I was getting consistently 120mm.

    I even added an oiler but not sure if it's helping or not. Is this normal that PLA will have significant back pressure at the hot end and need to adjust extrusion steps to compensate? So far, after compensating for PLA lesser feed and slowing down my prints to 50mm/s for everything, I was able to get a good print.
     
  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2015
    Messages:
    6,757
    Likes Received:
    2,339
    Everybodys speed differs. Im suprised your having a diffference between abs and pla. I cant comment on abs as i dont use it but if your only seeing a difference on thin walls my slicer (simplify 3d) has a setting for thin walls that allows gap fill. As far as speed...for pretty stuff pla at 50-65 for it doesnt matter mock ups i print around 75...i only see a very small difference in print time...
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,915
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    PLA can have a tendency to generate microclogs if you have not seasoned the hotend or added an oiler.
    When that happens extrusion will slow down (the physical extrusion) so you will need to run slower to compensate.

    All that aside, different materials behave differently and if you move away from PLA/ABS you will see that even more dramatically.
     
    Geof likes this.

Share This Page