M3D Printer

[PrintPunk]

This issue sounds like the ceramic heating element is not making good contact with the hot end of the extruder shaft. As a result the hot end is actually colder than is being reported. It has either slid up the shaft or is loose. On the m3d it is only held in place by a silicone cover. I'd recommend opening up the extruder and using a small piece of aluminum foil to wrap the end of the hot end and provide a more snug fit for the heating element.
This problem is not uncommon on the m3d.

+1 for the alum foil mod. Great tip.

[chaotic1]

I have just started using my m3D and had some of the same problems. Different colors seem to work differently. Black onyx seemed to work best for me but I had been printing on lowest res just for trial prints. Some prints came unstuck and after I used some glue craft stick it worked well. I also found out I needed to be sure the head was heated properly before I start and the filament needs to be coming out of the nozzle before starting a run. I wanted to see how well it would do on something extremely complex (took 10 hours to print a lacy bracelet) That print had some very fragile areas that broke when I tried cleaning it up but I believe I can use pieces for some jewelry. The best print I have gotten so far was a solid miniature chair. I tried some more delicate chairs at 1/2 size (1:48" scale) and they are extremely fragile Thinking I might be able to strengthen them using CA glue. Will experiment with that. I have been feeding the spools externally and thinking of printing a spool holder. The inexpensive machine has limitations which I can live with because I want to print very small items and obviously there will be a lot of experimentation, trial and error. Keeping it simple is the best advice until you learn with it (I didn't quite take that myself) but I am having fun with it and so far am pretty happy with it. Good luck, be persistent. I have only printed using the program that sets the temperature automatically for each filament spool. As long as it feeds well before I start it seems to work okay.