Changing Filament - Avoid problems before they begin!

[Geoff]

[RobH2]

I love these little tips. We are all plagued by intermittent anomalies and these kinds of things can help ease the frustration. Who know if it's really a 100% perfect solution but it sounds reasonable.

[Geoff]

I love these little tips. We are all plagued by intermittent anomalies and these kinds of things can help ease the frustration. Who know if it's really a 100% perfect solution but it sounds reasonable.

Who knows, we are all new at this I guess I think of this more of a habit than a solution, I use filament from all different sources, I found the really bright colourful ones tended to do this, as well as the clear ABS, and since I started practicing this a few months ago, never had a block since.

[chomiliert]

i took the habit of cutting the filament just above the plastic plate that hold the strepstruders and always feeding it down, then runing about 1m of the new fillament. I have been doing this for 4 month and never had a problem changing filament.

[Geoff]

i took the habit of cutting the filament just above the plastic plate that hold the strepstruders and always feeding it down, then runing about 1m of the new fillament. I have been doing this for 4 month and never had a problem changing filament.

This is probably more referring to dormant filament that has been left in the extruder for a while. If you are regularly changing filament then it shouldn't happen anyway.

[GamerDarling]

Thanks so much for the tip Geoff! I've been wondering about best practice for changing filament.

Are there any other concerns a first timer should have about changing filament?

[Bassna]

I'm not sure of 100% perfect, but it for sure has caused me to not have any jam's since I have had my machine.

On a side note....as said, I have not had any jam's. But I have been getting a lot of hours into the machine. Should I take apart the extruders and clean them anyway, or just leave it alone since I have not had a problem?

[RobH2]

I have a new technique that I use to clean my hot ends. It's worked perfectly for 6-months now and I've had no jams or residual filament issues.

This works best with nylon filament (because it has some lubricity) but it's still useful with any type. When I say "works best with nylon" what I mean is if you are printing with ABS, PLA or anything else and you want to clean the head, do it with a short piece of nylon filament.

Steps:

1. Extrude 10mm and then pull your ABS or whatever out at working temp (say it's 230C).
2. Insert a piece of nylon to in and extrude manually until you see it start to come out.
3. Cut the hotend temp to 130C and let it settle. Once there let it sit for a couple of minutes at that temp.
4. Very, very slowly, back the nylon out. I mean like 1mm/second or slower. If you go too fast you'll separate it inside and not get the whole tip. Once you do it a few times you'll get the feel. Once you've moved it about 10mm you are good to pull it out faster.

What comes out is a nylon plug with the shape of the inside of the hot end and a little tip where it was sticking out of the orifice. Stuck to the outside of the filament is whatever else was in there. Do the steps two or three times if necessary to get it perfectly clean inside. No dismantling or chemicals are needed. It's great for clearing jams too.

Here's a shot of one of my cleaning sessions. The left-hand one was first. The right hand one is now clean and perfect:

[LakeDuck]

I can say this "When Geoff speaks......" Listen carefully and save yourself hours and hours of aggravation! He give the most thoughtful advice and is speaking from hours and hours of experience. I have been reading many of his post on this forum and I seek them out for the "cut to the chase" no BS approach that he take in his responses to others!

[3dxyz]

Thanks for the headsup!