Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing  

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

What filament type?  I've was having this happen yesterday and this morning when trying to print something PETG at .1mm layer height when I normally print at .2mm.

I am using Generic PETG profile.  The first layer or two looks good, but somewhere in the 3rd layer, every time, the nozzle seems to clog and you start hearing the clicking in the extruder.  Going back to .2mm works fine.   I feel like it's a temperature thing, maybe another 5 deg or so.  I don't need this print to be .1 so I'm currently printing it it in two different PETG filaments(Paramount3d and eSun) on my to MK3S+ printers.  I think after they are done I'm going to try the .1mm again with slightly higher temp to see if that helps push the filament through.

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

If you are getting heat creep doing super thin layers, try adding a copy to your print - spread the heat around.

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

@dan-rogers

Dan,

In my case I'm printing two parts on on the plate.  Basically two 3in x 3in squares.  Do you think heat could be a problem here?

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

I am printing something really tiny, the heat creep should not be so bad that this is an issue. I'm tempted to install a temperature sensor somewhere near the filament pulling gears.

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

@ssill2

It's PLA

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

Ironing slowly feeds filament while mashing the head into the print.  Consider skipping the ironing.

You can also reduce the speed of the flow while ironing if you think it is causing the bondex gears to grind your filament.

If you are hearing clicking - you may be experiencing heat creep.  I have found that for small parts, heat creep is more likely - which is why when I see it, i slice up extra copies on the bed to help the head move around and prevent heat from building up.  Ironing is a very slow operation.  Think about spinning up your cooling fans too.

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

@dan-rogers

Thanks for helping.

> Ironing slowly feeds filament while mashing the head into the print. Consider skipping the ironing.

If you have trouble doing what you're doing, solve the problem by stop doing it? Hmmm.

> You can also reduce the speed of the flow 

That sounds like a better option. I'll try to make a calibration for this to find the right value.

> If you are hearing clicking - you may be experiencing heat creep. I have found that for small parts, heat creep is more likely 

That sounds good. I have already added heat sinks to my stepper motor, maybe I can fix a fan to it then.

> i slice up extra copies on the bed to help the head move around

How do you mean? That the movement has a "wind" effect? Or does the work on something else cool it down, but in that case should it be not some other, less complicated object? The object I was printing last was only 15mm x 15mm, splitting it up is not really an option?

RE: Filament getting ground up on ironing and fine detail printing

@uncovery

I shy away from adding any mass to the moving print head - inertia is  not your friend.  Even those little filament cleaners and rotation indicators add mass that can make some prints difficult.

Since your part is so small, instead of 2, try 6.  That will allow the other parts to cool between layers, and the wind from moving around the bed will help eliminate the heat build up from sitting in one place for too long.

Turning off ironing to see if it is the ironing that is causing your problem is a valid diagnostic approach.  It sometimes makes a nice finish. It sometimes doesn't.  Without ironing, a file is your friend and more controllable.