Flashforge ASA issues
So I have some Flashforge burnt titanium ASA filament for a project. When I first tried to print with this filament, it gives me a strange issue that I have not seen on any other filament, or any other ASA. my printer was converted from MK4 to MK4s to now a Core 1. I think I printed this filament on the MK4 but had issues that I don't exactly remember, but it could have been this issue. It looks like a weird scaly or bubbly texture that appears on the benchy hull line the most, but if you haven't tuned your settings specifically to counter this issue, it appears all over the hull. I need an answer different from "calibrate your filament" that is like the answers seen on similar posts. I have been "calibrating" this filament for weeks now. Various settings make this issue worse or better when combined. for example, decreasing the print speed helps, but only in a specific combination with temperature and extrusion multiplier, otherwise it gets worse. the best setting I have tested is increased print speed with a lot of under extrusion (0.9, when the calibrated extrusion multiplier is supposed to be around 1.1224), noticeable because there are gaps in perimeter lines . Is this an issue with the flow calibration cube that I have just ran into with this specific ASA? It appears that increased temperatures and higher fan speed helps in a specific combination, although if you get the settings wrong, the side on the fan is a lot worse. The only answer I have managed to see other than "calibrate your filament" is over extrusion, although the calibration cube tells me otherwise. Note that changing layer height to 0.2 from 0.1 makes it somewhat better, and the horrible floor of the benchys appeared recently after changing a couple of settings, although it might have something to do with it. the floor was fine before, but I am still experiencing the scaly hull. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
RE: Flashforge ASA issues
Great to find a fellow sufferer from the dreaded FlashForge Burnt Titanium ASA! Pic below is the same print printed fresh from the bag and a couple of days later.
Like you I've tried a lot of tweaks, but interestingly enough I spotted a couple of Reddit posts where users of this particular colour of filament (ASA and PLA) have been complaining about it - basically when it prints properly it's sublime, but otherwise it's a total pain in the seat!
Most suggestions I've seen about the ASA (in particular) is that the additives that make it that cool multiphasic colour also make it about 1000x more hygroscopic, so the "crowd wisdom" was that this needs a 60-70C drying for about 6-8 hours before you even start thinking about using it. One guy also suggested a 10 hour dry and then print from the dryer while it's still drying.
So that's what I'm going to try next - those models take about 4 1/2 hours, so I'm going to dial up a 9 hour drying programme on my Eibos dryer on its ASA program then do a feed-from-dryer print after about 5 hours.
PS not sure if it's my C1 going out of tune again, but I'm seeing a lot of nozzle clean errors with this filament after the first print. It's been sitting out for a couple of days, so maybe the Redditors are correct in saying that it's now H2O saturated?
Hope this helps, I'll keep my fingers crossed for your tweaking. Failing that, I'll come back here if the drying does sort this out...
RE: Flashforge ASA issues
Well, I did my experiment, and here's the results below, from right to left that's fresh-out-of-the-box; sat-out-for-a-few-days; and dried.
The walls of the freshly-opened and dried are smooth, as is the roof. Plus the sat-out-for-a-few-days is actually a different colour and the walls and roof are rough enough to use as a nail file... 😉
So, I'm going to say that the Redditors appear to be correct - that the additions needed for the colour also make FlashForge "Burnt Titanium" ASA also pretty hygroscopic.
My "dried" filament was in the Eibos Polyphemus for 12 hours on the ASA programme (70C no rotation) and I printed from the dryer. I'm currently doing a print of four of my test models (print time 17 hours+) with feed from the dryer, and it's set to 60C (because I've already dried this filament!). One point to watch though, the drying process also seems to make the filament a bit more brittle - I managed to snap the filament during loading when I tried this test print, so I was a lot more careful with the current print!
Hope this helps, let me know how you get on @fake_jello ...
PS I'm using a slightly tweaked version of the default Fibreology ASA profile.