I’ve had a few jam-ups today with a new PLA filament I’m trying to dial in. retractions on this printer are by default 70mm/s and 7mm which is a lot but it’s always worked with the stock hot end. I have a volcano and all-metal heatbreak on there now and I get a clog in the cool area of the hotel where the filament has squashed out a little wider and is harder to put back down after the retraction cycle resets so I wonder if the best way to deal with it is to print hotter or better tune the retractions?
Ahh damn. I was running on only one cooling fan and that one failed not a couple of days before my new ones are going to arrive. and the ones from BTT are nowhere in sight. Thats 3 of these fans now I think I need to look at how to modify the cooling to use better fans
So with the volcano I see the length of the hot part of the heatbreak is really short compared to the original heat break and the nozzle is long so with the volcano a really short but still fast retraction is in order. I can’t really test it because I don’t have cooling fans so I took the oppertunity top print ABS for the first time and it worked really well, the part I printed was a jar lid (aparently we need a non stop supply) and because of the design there is always a few points with a lot of heavy stringing. it was a lot better with the ABS and 70mm/s and 3mm retracting distance.
Hey Glenn, I am not sure this will help but my artillery has a titanium throat with a volcano hot end.
I have been using a 1.9 mm retraction at 35mm/s. It seems perfect with PLA and Petg I can’t say about ABS I only print it in the summer my ventilation is not awesome.
I decreased my retraction and it’s working ok on the ABS but I’m not printing PETG or PLA until I get new cooling fans on there, they are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I’m thinking about changing my heatsink. it’s just an aluminum block with slits on the fan facing side that’s bolted from the top, I might just make a round one, then I can put more and finer slits in it and make it clamp on the bottom where the throat goes in. the set screw won’t keep it from turning. and it’s all so sloppy I’m sure better fits would help.
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I tend to use brass heat blocks. They are slower to heat but slower to cool, I use a sock too it helps keep the cooling fan from cooling the block too. My basement is quite cool so holding temps is important.