I print a lot with the K8400, practically 24/7. Today I put in a new roll of filament, which I have to do once or twice every week. I have always used your original filament. This time, however, I did notice that the filament looked a bit shinier and that it was just a bit more brittle to cut than usual. However, I continued to print a model I must have printed six times over already, all successfully, something odd happened. See the first and second photos. And what happened to my print-head on the third photo. Ok, so this blob or whatever broke my print-head, looked like it exploded or something. Luckily I keep a spare, so after changing the head, I restarted the print.
Now, look at the fourth photo. This has never happened before. (And I have changed print-heads before, so nothing like that is to blame!) The model is really a no-thrills one. Something is definitely wrong with this filament. Have you changed something in the manufacturing of the filament? Or is it ABS mislabelled as PLA? The fifth and last photo shows the label of an old working filament to the left and the new and not-so-working on the right. The roll itself is also marked “PLA”.
What’s happening? I have another unopened filament right here, however the label looks exactly like the one on the right and was shipped to me at the same time, so I’m thinking that should be returned to you as well?
It looks like the print head is getting to hot.
The picture of the print head itself looks like (it’s hard to tell) the thermistor is not mounted in the heater block.
What temp do you print at?
Hi and thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, no, the print-head is not getting too hot and the thermistor is correctly situated (even though that may be hard to tell by my picture). I print at 190 degrees Celsius for white PLA.
So, I went to my local reseller Kjell & Co just before closing, they are super-helpful and did have one roll of white PLA in stock, with the same outer markings as my “good” rolls. I’ve resumed printing with the new roll and it works great as ever. Have not changed anything else.
Please see a comparison below, side-by-side, with “shiny and bad”-PLA on the right (with and without flash), and then the markings on the rolls with the bad PLA on the bottom. The barcode-labels are exactly the same, but the other label differs between the two, as indeed the outer markings on the box (as pictured above).
Also, when cleaning the head (in place), i noticed the remains of the bad PLA are somewhat oily, not at all like what I’m used to.
Maybe someone can shine a light on this? Do I have to open up every roll of filament in the future to check for shine before accepting the delivery?
I’d like to post a follow-up to try and get some updates.
I just opened a new pack of white Velleman filament and it just won’t print.
Already posted here: http://forum.velleman.eu/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=17887
After yesterday’s failure I contacted PRITNinZ and they thought I could be on the limit for the Zebra Plate, so I went back to BuildTak & applied a new sheet to the glass panel. Same result.
I now switched to a grey filament that I’ve used successfully before and it seems to be printing normally from the start.
I just found this post but I’ll check for shininess and upload the spool details. I am not getting a burnt head, filamane load/unload is fine.
