Amber Material from PLA  

RE: Amber Material from PLA

Hi Brian, 

have you by any chance changed your nozzle? 

one of the most common causes of unexpected beads of discoloured filament is an incorrectly fitted nozzle. this often occurs after a nozzle change, although I have also seen reports of this happening with newly assembled printers. 

Could you have a look between the top of the heat block, and the under side of the heatsink which is mostly inside your extruder housing. 

is there any evidence of molten filament in that area? 

the image Below may help.
 I wish I knew who I could attribute this picture to
On the left side you can see an incorrectly fitted nozzle where the nozzle has been tightened against the heatblock  and there is a gap between the nozzle and the heat breal, allowing molten filament to leak out, and up the threads in the heatbreak, this will eventually overflow of the top of the heater block, and onto the printed model at the most inopportune moment. often causing collisions or spoiling the appearance of the model.

the image on the right shows the nozzle and heatbreak in intimate contact inside the heat block and no leakage. 

Prusa have a knowledge base article on this matter 
https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/changing-or-replacing-the-nozzle-mk2-5s-mk3s-mk3s_2069

E3D also have an article on the subject 
https://e3d-online.dozuki.com/Guide/Changing+Nozzles/45

here is a youtube video (based on a Mk2 Printer, but the process is similar... )
https://www.google.com/search?q=e3dv6+nozzle+xhange&oq=e3dv6+nozzle+xhange&aqs=chrome..69i57.8763j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_Yj-TYI7YMdiT1fAPvY2ggAo15

Waste filament can also cause problems, for example after a Blob of DOOM! if the waste filament is not completely removed, it can melt and fall off the heatblock in a similar manner. 

regards Joan

RE: Amber Material from PLA

@joantabb

You are being a tremendous help tonight. 😊 

I am going to say, that is exactly the cause. I was trying to set up a profile for the textured sheet and could not get the petg to stick to save my life. In the process of trying, I changed to another nozzle. I then switched to a larger Z calibration print......  I had to take my hot end out after unburrying it from all the filament that melted around it.  My dumb butt walked off while it was preheating and forgot....

So, long story short, when I put the nozzle back in it didn't get as close as I remembering it looking.  Then, when I dug the nozzle into the smooth board, I couldn't figure out why my Z was off so much. I just thought I had messed it up doing the sheet profile thing. 

I am 30 minutes into a 4-hour print, trying a different PLA+.  I'll dismantle it all tomorrow and check it out.

Again, thanks much for all the help!  I went from MKS3, printed a couple of things, added on the MMU, and now printing a new buffer for it through Octopi in a month.  I had to find something in common with my son-in-law. 🤣