Hi All, Iv just got my volcano up and running and im pretty impressed so far. My only issue is after retracting there is sometime, but not always, a gap in the following perimeter. I think its because with the longer heater block the filament gets hotter quicker, especially when stationary during travel moves. This means the cheep PLA filament im currently using gets too hot and starts to breakdown, releasing gases which can be heard popping out of the nozzle when it starts (or is suppose to start) extruding again. I have never had this problem with my V6. Has anyone else has similar issues? Can someone sugest a PLA filament that works well with the volcano at these higher temperatures and flow rates? Im tempted to try the E3D everyday PLA, has anyone had any success with this? Maybe someone from E3D could help...
@Andrew Willenbrook You will not be suffering from filament breakdown as the temperature of the hot end is tightly controlled and PLA breaks down at much higher temperatures. Usually, popping suggests that your filament has moisture in it and what you are hearing is the gas bubbles from the water bursting; this will cause discontinuities in the filament flow in the worst case. I assume you store your filament with a desiccant in an airtight container as this is important, particularly if you have a humid environment or one where there are large temperature changes. I suggest you try drying your filament in a low oven, no more than 60C, for a couple of hours but be careful as the PLA has a low glass (softening) temperature so could distort, making it unusable. If I suffer this problem I pop the reel on a hot radiator so that my supper gets cooked in the oven ;-) The E3D filaments are all of good quality and there are other quality filament suppliers. Mike
Actually there is an element of breakdown that can occurr, even at the correct temperatures a polymer in the melt will begin to degrade over time. Leave ABS in a normally hot nozzle for a while and see what you get out! One of the main culprits is dodgy colourant/master batch. We did some testing of this a while back: However, I do think from the popping sounds you're reporting that moisture is certainly a very likely main culprit, and it's cheaper to dry your material than buy some new stuff, so do try that first. E3D filaments of course work great with Volcano.
