Silky PLA print problems
Hello all,
I have recently tried printing with silky pla.. But I am having problems with loading the material through the extruder and heat end. When loading the material globs out of the heat end and then sucks up back in. Its hard to explain. It will not come out in a nice even flow like regular PLA does. Is there a special profile for Silky PLA material that I should be aware of? Anybody else have such problems? I will try to upload a video of what I am talking about.
All suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
RE: Silky PLA print problems
Silks generally require hotter temps than normal PLA's. Check the manufacturers suggested print range and try using the top end of the range. I print a lot of mkoem silk silver that has a suggested print temp range of 205-235. I use 235 with a steel nozzle (so that's equivalent of using 230 with a brass nozzle). It just didn't work at the lower temps and would eventually clog and cause skips.
Make sure you have a well dialled in printer for normal pla first though. Also measure the actual filament diameter with a calliper and accurise your filament settings to match the real world measurements. For example my Mkoem filament measures 1.72mm on average so with the defaults it under extrudes as the settings assume a 1.75mm diameter. Once you start accurising your filaments you will have less problems overall and shouldn't need to tweak extrusion multipliers.
RE:
Seconding @neophyl. All the silky PLAs (SunLu and others) we print we run on the hotter end of the spectrum compared to most PLAs. More than regular PLAs we find there is more of a "point" where it is hot enough. 220 - no, bad results, jams, all kinds of problems, etc. 225 - yes, great results. Temps are illustrative.
RE: Silky PLA print problems
Thank you for the great suggestions. I will. Try them!