I have acquired a Slice Engineering bi - metal heat break with the intention of printing PETG. I have been seeing posts and Utube videos saying that printing PLA through them is a problem with the hotend jamming. Apparently the Teflon tubing lubricates the PLA so it slides through the end and with it no longer present there is a tendency to jam. One video suggesting putting a few drops of mineral oil in the hot end and then it will replace the missing lube. I have also seen printed lubrication box clamped onto the filament, farther back, that also lubricates the filament. While I do want to print PETG I don’t want to have to change the heat break out when I switch back and forth between PETG and PLA. Will these actually work or is there a different approach I can use?
I have used a slice bi metal throat for ages. No issues with PLA, PETg, ASA, ABS, PC, PCL and Nylon. In my experience jams in the throat are heat creep and that is specifically what the BI metal is designed to reduce. Oil could affect the adhesion.
I second what @kitedemon said.
Have you actually been having problems with this or has the internet just struck fear into you?
If you haven’t tried the new heat break yet then definitely give it a go before you start complicating you’re life for no reason.
No I haven’t used it yet. There seems to be a lot of people on the web complaining about jams with PLA and all metal heat breaks so I thought I would ask.
I’m only about 3 weeks in on mine but I have an all metal hot end too have have used 5 different colours of the standard PLA with prints ranging from 1 hour to 36 hours and haven’t had any issues with jamming. I have not been using any kind of lube.
On my Prusa I have likely 40 kg through it with no issues at all. My X1 the extruder is fairly reliable jams are rarely an issue it has 18-20 kg through it.