Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
I've tried almost everything and I'm pretty bummed, I got 5 or so rolls of polyalchemy elixir and have yet to have a complex print succeed. I don't know what it is but the filament doesnt seem to want to stick to itself, and it will fail to print small, more intricate parts. Leading to a stringy mess. Large blocky objects are fine, but smaller things just dont work out.
Some of my settings:
Extruder temp: 210C
Bed temp: 60C (bed adhesion and first layers are fine)
Extrusion multiplier: 1.09 (I saw this suggested elsewhere, seems to help a bit)
Movespeed: 50mm/s all around (travel 100mm), about 50% of what I was using on my other profiles.
Infill: 20%
Perimeters: 2
Layerheight: 0.15 (unable to change using multi material wipe tower)
First layer height: 0.2
I can print anything with hatchbox and other really crappy cheap PLA and PETG no problem (the same models too), not sure why I'm having so many issues. I've been troubleshooting this for over a month now and could really use some pointers.
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
I don't know that filament, but I have problems with everything that
- is smooth, hard & glossy or
- is a tiny bit more springy/flexible than pure ABS or PLA or
- doesn't like retractions or
- droops
Generally, the sweet spots for slicer settings seem to be really small. For example, I am for some reasons completely unable to print tube-like models with XT even though all other things print fine. I have one kind of filament that only works with vase prints, another that works on anything but vase prints. My advice is set yourself a time limit for experiments and if you cannot get it to work just wait for the v2 MMU.
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
I'm not sure if I understand you correctly but I think you are saying that the layers are not sticking to each other? If all other filaments are working fine it seems to me that you need to dial in the specifics for that filament. If the profile you are using is based off PLA, I would assume that the print cooling fan is on 100%. I recently had the same issue with CCTREE PLA-CF (layers would seperate with a light touch only) and it works much better with the print cooling fan speed below 30%, except when bridging. I'm not able to separate any layers on those prints now.
I would suggest you start by doing a temperature tower in the recommended temp ranges with +- 5 degrees below and above. I really like the one by Zolee Gaa here - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2729076 . It has fine details, overhang and bridging so you are basically testing everything important.
Looking at Polyalchemy's site start from 195 - 225. When you find the temperature where your print looks the best then I would do single tower block at 50% max fan speed. If the layers stick better then you can test by going lower in small increments until you are happy with the max speed where the layer adhesion in acceptable. If the 50% is already good then I would still test to find the maximum speed where you are satisfied.
That is how I got to figure out where my problem was.
Hope this helps. Let us know what you find.
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
I'll test that out tonight and post again when its done, thanks for the tips! Been struggling for a while.
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
I think the nozzle is clogging after the first 3 layers or so. Here's two pictures (Polyalchemy and Hatchbox) for comparison. The polyalchemy print was with a freshly cleaned nozzle.
Sorry the pics are sideways lol.
This was 200C and 30% fan speed. Its clearly underextruding, cause im pretty sure the nozzle is clogging.
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
Did it look like that through the whole temp range?
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
Yes it does, I think I've narrowed it down to increasing the retraction distance (by a lot 1.5mm) and it seemed to print ok. I'll test a bit more though to be sure. I dont know why this filament likes to get stuck in the nozzle, especially the larger nozzle with the MM. I also absolutely HAVE to unload the filament immediately after a print or it will jam in the hotend/nozzle.
Re: Problems Printing Polyalchemy Elixir
Some types of filament bake in if they stay in the nozzle too long. Maybe your temperature is still too high.