Comments on: PLA + Ignorance = Broken Extruder http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1374 Sun, 08 Dec 2024 17:19:24 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: James Adams http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1374&cpage=1#comment-27865 James Adams Mon, 30 May 2011 13:42:11 +0000 http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1374#comment-27865 With the PTFE insulator barrel it looks like you got pretty good mileage out of it all things considered; I mean I permanently expanded mine within the first week of use! There's a couple options available for hybrid barrels from makerbot or makergear. The makergear Hybrid would be a drop replacement and is PEEK external and PTFE internal. You could also have a switchable barrel for ABS and another barrel setup for PLA, and makergear sells all the stuff to do that. I was always under the impression that PLA was extruded at a lower temperature than ABS but that doesn't appear to always be the case. I looked at the mothership project for Makerbot which is Reprap and this is what they have on PLA http://www.reprap.org/wiki/PLA the temperature varies based on the type of PLA you have. Keep in mine to play with your temperatures for the heated build platform because as I recall from someplace (don't ask me where) that the temps are different to get PLA to stick. Probably on of the most successful printers with PLA arguably within the community is Hydraraptor http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2011/03/spot-on-flow-rate.html that's just one article on his observations there are many many more. Good luck, with all that being said I'm still using ABS and have yet to attempt the switch, when you do get it working I'd like to see a write up on your findings. With the PTFE insulator barrel it looks like you got pretty good mileage out of it all things considered; I mean I permanently expanded mine within the first week of use!

There’s a couple options available for hybrid barrels from makerbot or makergear. The makergear Hybrid would be a drop replacement and is PEEK external and PTFE internal. You could also have a switchable barrel for ABS and another barrel setup for PLA, and makergear sells all the stuff to do that.

I was always under the impression that PLA was extruded at a lower temperature than ABS but that doesn’t appear to always be the case. I looked at the mothership project for Makerbot which is Reprap and this is what they have on PLA http://www.reprap.org/wiki/PLA the temperature varies based on the type of PLA you have. Keep in mine to play with your temperatures for the heated build platform because as I recall from someplace (don’t ask me where) that the temps are different to get PLA to stick.

Probably on of the most successful printers with PLA arguably within the community is Hydraraptor http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2011/03/spot-on-flow-rate.html that’s just one article on his observations there are many many more.

Good luck, with all that being said I’m still using ABS and have yet to attempt the switch, when you do get it working I’d like to see a write up on your findings.

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