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  1. #1

    Heat creep or bad filament? (E3D V5 / fiberlogy Easy PLA)

    I had a 10m roll of chinese green PLA that i bought from eBay and it worked very well, up to the point where i ran out of it.
    So i ordered a 0.85kg spool of fiberlogy's Easy PLA Graphite (as in graphite color) and it's garbage.
    Literally wasted the whole day yesterday trying to get it to print but it just wouldn't print. I get filament jams every five minutes.
    I've tried all of the retraction and temp settings and cleaning out the the entire hotend multiple times. My cooling fan has enough power to suck pieces of loose plastic up so i don't think it's the issue.
    My drive gear chews pieces of filament away when it jams so i have more than enough feed pressure and pushing the filament down by hand doesn't help either.
    Retraction works well, as soon as i reverse the extruder my filament pops out without a problem.
    I'll try boring out the heatbreak to maybe fix this issue.

    I included a pic of one of the many failed prints next to a print i did with the chinese green PLA, the shape of which quite accurately represents my opinion of this "Easy" PLA stuff.
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  2. #2
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    My cooling fan has enough power to suck pieces of loose plastic up
    um, it should be BLOWING.
    Usually the fan label goes on the inside - check that.

    Have you tried printing the graphite at a higher temperature ?
    The current trend seems to have People printing pla at a very low temp.

    Even the same brand of pla will print at different temps for different colours.
    Filament actually looks goldish and definitely looks like under extrusion. What temp
    and speed are you printing at ?

  3. #3
    It IS blowing, what i'm trying to say it that it moves a ton of air, no way could there be insufficient cooling.As for the temps, 230 = one layer and jammed, 220 = one layer and jammed, 210 = jam, 200 = printed two layers and jammed, 185 = not even one layer before it jammed.That was before i rebored the heatbreak. Now the heatbreak is bored out to 2.1mm kind of like the V6 heatbreak. The result so far is that at 200 it printed 2 layers and still jammed, 185 was showing promise but it jammed also.I'm printing pretty slow at 20mm/s but that didn't seem to be an issue with the chinese PLA.While trying to unjam the the hotend i managed to wreck the threads on the heatbreak so i'll have to make a new one.I'm thinking about making it like the V6 but instead of M7 on the cold end i'll have M8 threads. The thread engagement between the cold end and the heatsink seems pretty poor so i'll get the opportunity to re-bore the heatsink and make sure the threads are tight for better thermal transfer.I can also make the heatbreak part thinner because grade 8 steel is pretty strong.

  4. #4
    Technologist TommyDee's Avatar
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    I'm just going to put it here just in case.
    Is this filament flattening significantly through the filament driver mech?

    I have this issue due to a fixed gap at the driver. All works wonders until that one print that does a lot of retractions. The filament that rides back and forth in the driver just flattens, and widens the filament.

    How much flattening will our bowden tubes tolerate? That depends on the bowden tube. I now make sure my bowden tubes are at least 2mm ID. I push a bike spoke through the tube and it get stuck, the tube is too small.
    Haven't had an issue since.

  5. #5
    Mine is a direct drive, but no the filament does not flatten under pressure.I did a quick burn test to compare the two and the Easy PLA caught fire very quickly and dripped like molten wax it was super runny, the green PLA took the flame just as quick but burned much less vigorously and even extinguished itself at one point, i reignited it and as it dripped down i noticed just how much thicker it was.

  6. #6
    Technologist TommyDee's Avatar
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    They seem to be proud of their Easy PLA. Nothing out of the ordinary that I can see except the 0.85Kg. At first I thought "package downsize" but then I wondered if this filament is formulated to be lighter per meter than more basic PLA's. Its an academic question of course, but there is no reason this filament should be behaving as though it doesn't want to flow.

    Fun fact on those short "pen pack" or "pen spool" that are not otherwise promotional, they are formulated for a about 10 degrees C less operating range. I like using the variety packs because it gives me colors galore and I know most of it becomes a no fuss print process. Sometimes I think too much tech got into our plastics.

    Anyway, I say this only in response to your flaming zotz experiment. There is something weird about that filament!

  7. #7
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    have to admit I've never set fire to filament.
    But the different chemicals that are used to make the different colours will most likely burn differently.
    Probably wouldn't read too much into that.

    Have you tried a different filament ?
    I have one that simply won't work with my deltas, it happens.
    At least that way we can rule out whether the machine has suddenyl developed an issue or whether it is definitely the filament.

    Can't think of anything else worth trying.
    Just get the cheapest white or black off ebay and see how that works.

  8. #8
    I'm done modding my E3D V5 into a V6. Found a picture of a V6 heat break cut apart and based my heatbreak on it. I took a M8 bolt and cut off the head, then bored a 2mm hole through it. After that i ground down one end to 5,9mm and formed a M6 thread to go into my heat block. Then i thinned down the heatbreak to 3mm and bored through it with a 2,5mm drill to the same spot as in the V6 heat break. Also bored and tapped the heatsink to receive the new heat break.So far the results are ok-ish, i can print but jams still happen, although much less frequently. Now it can continuously extrude, sometimes even without jamming, but some parts still jam nearly every time and in a way that leaves me without a chance to recover them.This problem is still far from solved but there's still room for improvement. I'll see if i can polish up the heat break. Also, my heatsink is a little mangled up because i kinda got it stuck in a jig i made.
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  9. #9
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    while being extremely impressed with your manufacturing skills.
    An e3d v6 clone costs about $10 - delivered from ebay/. With all tubes, fan, shroud etc

    I know for a fact I couldn't drill out a hole with any real precision.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
    An e3d v6 clone costs about $10 - delivered from ebay/. With all tubes, fan, shroud etc
    And takes about a month to ship.

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