Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend  

RE: Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend

I never use the preheat option, precisely because it doesn't provide the right choices.  Instead go to setting and manually set the nozzle temp to what is right for your material (I use some PC for which I run it up to 280).  Unload/load works fine then.  Just seems safer to me.  I also have some "cleaner" filament and if I am coming "down" from a high temp filament to a lower one (PC to PETG my most common down switch) I generally run a bit of cleaner through at the higher temp before dropping the temp and loading the lower temp filament.

RE: Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend

Posted by: @jsw

Last night I printed a small terminal strip holder using PC blend.  I usually do these in ABS since I want them to be somewhat tolerant of nearby soldering iron heat, but since I have an almost full spool of PC Blend I decided to use it.  I started the print, waited until I was confident that it was going ok, and went to bed.

Fast forward to this evening.  I wanted to do a print in Reprapper yellow PLA, so I had to change from the last filament used, which was the PC Blend.  (You can probably see where this is going.)  🙂

There's no PC Blend preheat, so I preheated to ASA, the highest nozzle temp in there, and unloaded the filament.

Then I grabbed the PLA and started to feed it in the extruder.  CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK!  Tell-tale sign of a clog!

I manually set the hot end temperature to 260 or so and let it sit for maybe 10-12 minutes to get everything good and warm and melted.

Fortunately, after this extended preheat, the PLA loaded and forced the remainder of the PC Blend out.  I ran a few cycles of 'is this the correct color' to be sure, and the PLA print is proceeding normally.

I would suggest that if you use this new PC blend, when your print(s) is/are finished that you unload it and flush it out with a lower temperature filament.  Fortunately, this time I did not have to use acupuncture needles, small drill bits, or other implements of destruction to clear the clog.

Yup.  Manually preheat to the right temp if you do not have the right button.  

RE: Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend

The newest PrusaSlicer does have all of the presets for PC Blend, and I'm assuming that either the latest or a Real Soon Now firmware will have a PCB preheat as well.  As I've mentioned in various threads here, I've been holding off on upgrading firmware, mainly due to reports here that some have had 'things go all to (expletive)' when upgrading.

RE: Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend

Two of my printers have PC Blend as a preset.  My bondtech firmware does not.  I hope they add it soon.  

RE: Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend

Out of curiosity, I just checked my version of Cura (4. something) and it does not have any PC blend profiles.  I don't use it (Cura, or, actually PC Blend) very much so it's really NBD, but it might be nice to have as I use Cura whenever PrusaSlicer does not behave as I expect.

The closest I saw was a 'PC copolymer' of some brand.  I guess I could create a profile for the Prusa PC Blend by copying what PrusaSlicer has, but right now I don't have the need.

RE: Caution/hint/suggeston when using that new PC Blend

happened exactly the same to me. used the manual preheat and loaded some cleaner filament, then petg again, back to normal.