Anyone have any idea why when I’m printing PPA-CF the extruder stops being able to grab the filament partially way through a print? I’m using the default settings, .6 nozzle, high temp plate w/ vision miner glue. Spool is on the back of the machine. Yes it’s dry (12+ hours).
I’ve taken apart the extruder. There is nothing jammed. The extruder just fails to keep grabbing the filament at some point during the print. I WONDER if it has to do with how stiff the filament is. I am under the impression it’s getting pulled out of the extruder a bit as the print head is moving around. So when it’s at a weird angle, the extruder is fighting pulling the filament, but only at weird angles.
I didn’t notice any abnormal wear on the extruder gears. But maybe it’s time to replace it? 827 hours on it.
No idea if it’s in any way related to your problem with the extruder but your statement of 12+ hours isn’t enough information to actually know if filament is dry.
The temperature you dried at and the ending humidity are also important in deciding just how dry your filament became.
Ambient humidity sets a limit/floor to how much water you can remove from filament in standard filament dryers. If your ambient humidity is high, your filament may not be as dry as you think. Of course, if ambient humidity is low, maybe your filament is fine.
Extruders not being able to pull filament can be a sign of heat creep from a hot print chamber. Might be other things too, though.
I knew i should have been more specific. 100C for about 14 hours, is what I think it came out to. I didn’t weigh before/after. Not sure if you’re bringing that up because that could be related or not?
On the topic of heat creep: Definitely could be a thing! Let me try it without running my chamber heater I made and see what happens… I’ll report back.
Nah, not bringing it up because I thought it was related. In this case I’d be tempted more by heat creep where soft filament can mushroom a bit as it gets pushed into the extruder and then can’t fit.
The reason I mentioned the dryness thing is new (and experienced too) users frequently shut the door on help requests by asserting their filament is dry but not providing information that supports it.
A whole bunch of problems are indeed filament moisture and unfortunately there is a lot of incomplete and misleading information on drying that is messing people up and short-circuiting troubleshooting.
Funny you mention the dryness thing, I just noticed a trend where people ask if it’s dry, so I was just trying to get that out of the way. haha
Anyways, it was definitely heat creep. Thanks for the suggestion - I’m just surprised by it because it’s the first time I’ve had issues like this and I’ve run my chamber heater with ASA,ASA-GF, PA12-CF, PA6-CF and never had issues. Chamber temp about 55C.
I know this is a relatively old thread at this point, but how did you confirm it was heat creep? Did you just lower the temperature of [something] or adjust the fan in the settings to keep the chamber cooler? Any additional details would be greatly appreciated. Running into the same thing, although I’ve been printing with the same settings, same filament, and roughly all similar objects for the past few weeks with no problems until the last few days.
I am having the same problem with PPA-CF. X1C, Panda Revo with ObXidian 0.4 HF nozzle and Panda Jet. Sometimes prints complete, most times not. Quality of completed prints varies. I have a 0.6mm nozzle, but am printing parts with fine thread or thin walls so want to stick to the 0.4.
Yes, I dried the filament for 10 hours at 240F (5 grams of water removed) and the filament has been kept in a Cereal box with desiccant and PTFE tube feed to the printer. “Drycard” indicates the humidly is less than 10% (all dots deep blue).
On the “heat creep” theory, I’ve tried printing with the top propped open at the back and the door open, but no change.
I don’t think it’s a clog or a jam because if I restart the print the first few layers come out normal.
Next attempt will be to lower the nozzle temp 10 degrees.
I just had a similar problem with PPA-CF and X1-C.
I oven dried the filament for 12h in an oven, store it in a sealed box with desiccant and print out of the Sunlu dryer set to 70C.
3 failed prints where the filament just stops coming out of the nozzle and the printer keeps on printing “in the air”.
Here’s what I think the problem is:
That filament is so stiff that sometimes it doesn’t unspool smoothly. After a few prints, the cardboard spool is getting too light to keep on spinning and gets jammed against the top of the box. The last 2 times the spool “dropped” back in the box when I opened the lid.
For the last print, I tried adding some weights in the center of the spool but it’s still the same problem.
I will try to find a better setup/box where the spool is kept centered at all times. Also, the inside of the plastic tubing gets scratched each time I load the filament and I think that also brings additional friction.