This is what my hardened extruder looks like. It probably printed lots of PLA-CF, some PAHT-CF and PETG-CF and a bit of PA-GF. I have several extruders, but I think this is the one that printed several kgs of PLA-CF recently.
Not only was it absolutely filthy and full of something that looks like rust (hopefully just bits of CF), but in the highlighted area where filament goes through, something has eaten part of the plastic in the filament path and there were bits and flakes hanging out of it (unfortunately I cleaned most of that out with tweezers before I took the photo). Not sure if I should file it or toss it. In any case, I’m gonna create a ticket for it, I don’t think this should happen.
Well, hardening steel is a broad term that also requires a little bit of carbon embedded into the steel before heat treatment. And if the heat traitment is done wrong, the carbon will not sit on the right place of the steel texture (for this use case).
If you have to bet on steel (hardened or not) or carbon, bet on carbon. Regardless of whether the carbon is embedded into steel or plastic. Carbon is carbon, the material that diamonds are made of. So get through everything and just a matter of time as wather goes thure stone (Maybe if the water also carries some carbon with it, then things will go faster)… You can only delay it by use something whiche will not give up straight away. Such as unhardened steel, which will gives up immediately. If the carbon is placed correctly in the steel, it is less likely to hold on to the steel and is more likely to break off of the plastic. But than you still have the perfect sandpaper that is not based on ceramic or glass - Than you have a sandpaper based on carbon.
Take photos, close-ups if possible and send it to BL - every customer service always looks at this and developers can never have enough of such photos… (then they can possibly further optimize the geometry with the roller geometry as well, were they have anyway a few decades of work to do as well…)
By the way, Normally you don’t cut steel with diamond, that’s because the steel removes the carbon from the diamond “overcarburization”… but that’s a different topic, but the diamond (pressed carbon) def. will win the game against everything we know or I would then no longer be up to date.
