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PLA/PHA Stringing

Discussion in 'Printing Filament' started by Savan12986, Jun 25, 2014.

  1. Savan12986

    Savan12986 Member

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    I got some sample Colorfab PLA/PHA and I'm having trouble with stringing. Never had any trouble with regular PLA or ABS, but now every print with PHA strings, I increased my retraction settings from 3mm to 6mm and its still bad. Stock head at 200*C. Any ideas?
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Try cooler printing.
    Potentially all spools vary for their best/optimum temperature, but generally spools from a given source are usually similar.
    Still, try running a test print a little bit cooler and see if that helps. For me, PLA usually starts to string when it is running hot.
     
  3. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    I haven't seen any differences with respect to stringing stringing between PLA/PHA and other PLAs I've used. So, you should be fine with just dialing in temperature. Retraction shouldn't need to change that much.

    Mark's advice is probably spot on. However, on the 3DPDP (Afinia and Up!) forums, the Australian colorfabb reseller did some interesting work with running the material much higher (like 235). Those machines have some trouble with temperature settings at lower values. He found things worked well at lower temperatures and higher temperatures, but there was a middle range that caused some trouble. I think at the lower temps, the material is viscous enough that you're minimizing oozing and at higher temps, it's liquid enough that the strings snap easily.
     
  4. Savan12986

    Savan12986 Member

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    i'll try that thanks
     

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