Now Using Hatchbox Gray PLA
Like probably every other Prusa owner, I started my 3D printing with the Prusa silver PLA that came with my printer. I even ordered a spare roll of it, as well as a .25 mm nozzle, anticipating a need in my near future ;)
I printed that first roll with the default .4 mm nozzle and everything went great. I think that I had 1 very minor jam during that whole roll of filament, which I cleared out with the included acupuncture needle. After I used up about a third of that second roll, I decided to install the .25 mm nozzle... and I noticed an unfortunate pattern.
I was experiencing jams. A lot of them. After every 15 hours or so of printing time, the nozzle would get clogged and would just stop extruding. Most of the time, all that I had to do to clear the clog was to unload the filament, snip the end, then reload it. There were a few doozies though, and during this period I really learned how to disassemble and reassemble my extruder, as well as how to do a nylon cold pull... but none of it seemed to really help.
After every aggressive cleaning technique, I would get great flow and prints for another 10-15 hours... and then it would clog again. That would kill another "printing window" (such as the block of time while I'm at work and can't start a new job), as well as waste a bunch of power and material. It was getting really frustrating.
I remembered that, when I was researching 3D printers and trying to decide which one to buy, I read some reddit discussions about having jamming problems with Prusa silver PLA. Given how smoothly my initial roll of prints went, I pretty much disregarded those experiences as outliers... but now I was re-evaluating that thought. When I switched to the smaller nozzle, I started experiencing the problems that those guys had been talking about.
In that same discussion, those guys mentioned having good luck with Hatchbox gray PLA. So, fed up with the constant jams, I ordered a roll and decided to give it a try. I did one last cold pull to get the silver PLA out of the extruder, then swapped over to the gray and started printing.
At this point, I've done maybe 80 hours of printing time with the gray PLA... and I haven't had a single nozzle jam since I switched over (I know, I'm jinxing it by writing about it). As I noticed my lack of jams, I grew confused. How could Prusa, a well respected company and a technological leader in this space, make crappy filament that causes jams when fed through my Prusa nozzle attached to my Prusa printer?
Then, I thought about it a little more. I didn't have any meaningful problems with that filament the whole time that I was printing with the .4 mm nozzle. I don't know if the silver PLA has larger pigment particles or something, but the problem didn't show up until I installed the smaller nozzle. But, I think that's the key.
Since changing over, I've chatted with other 3D printing enthusiasts about their experiences with different PLAs. The guys who've been doing this longer than me have noticed different levels of issues with different colors from the same manufacturer. I don't think I'm looking at a Hatchbox vs. Prusa issue here, I think I'm looking at a gray vs. silver issue.
At its core though, it doesn't really matter. When I print something, I either don't care about its color because it's purely functional, or I don't care about its color because I'm going to prime and paint it. Either way, I'm just happy to have a PLA that seems to print reliably, because it's let me get back to doing the things that I love!
I printed that first roll with the default .4 mm nozzle and everything went great. I think that I had 1 very minor jam during that whole roll of filament, which I cleared out with the included acupuncture needle. After I used up about a third of that second roll, I decided to install the .25 mm nozzle... and I noticed an unfortunate pattern.
I was experiencing jams. A lot of them. After every 15 hours or so of printing time, the nozzle would get clogged and would just stop extruding. Most of the time, all that I had to do to clear the clog was to unload the filament, snip the end, then reload it. There were a few doozies though, and during this period I really learned how to disassemble and reassemble my extruder, as well as how to do a nylon cold pull... but none of it seemed to really help.
After every aggressive cleaning technique, I would get great flow and prints for another 10-15 hours... and then it would clog again. That would kill another "printing window" (such as the block of time while I'm at work and can't start a new job), as well as waste a bunch of power and material. It was getting really frustrating.
I remembered that, when I was researching 3D printers and trying to decide which one to buy, I read some reddit discussions about having jamming problems with Prusa silver PLA. Given how smoothly my initial roll of prints went, I pretty much disregarded those experiences as outliers... but now I was re-evaluating that thought. When I switched to the smaller nozzle, I started experiencing the problems that those guys had been talking about.
In that same discussion, those guys mentioned having good luck with Hatchbox gray PLA. So, fed up with the constant jams, I ordered a roll and decided to give it a try. I did one last cold pull to get the silver PLA out of the extruder, then swapped over to the gray and started printing.
At this point, I've done maybe 80 hours of printing time with the gray PLA... and I haven't had a single nozzle jam since I switched over (I know, I'm jinxing it by writing about it). As I noticed my lack of jams, I grew confused. How could Prusa, a well respected company and a technological leader in this space, make crappy filament that causes jams when fed through my Prusa nozzle attached to my Prusa printer?
Then, I thought about it a little more. I didn't have any meaningful problems with that filament the whole time that I was printing with the .4 mm nozzle. I don't know if the silver PLA has larger pigment particles or something, but the problem didn't show up until I installed the smaller nozzle. But, I think that's the key.
Since changing over, I've chatted with other 3D printing enthusiasts about their experiences with different PLAs. The guys who've been doing this longer than me have noticed different levels of issues with different colors from the same manufacturer. I don't think I'm looking at a Hatchbox vs. Prusa issue here, I think I'm looking at a gray vs. silver issue.
At its core though, it doesn't really matter. When I print something, I either don't care about its color because it's purely functional, or I don't care about its color because I'm going to prime and paint it. Either way, I'm just happy to have a PLA that seems to print reliably, because it's let me get back to doing the things that I love!
I have recently found a US based company that is making some pretty nice PLA, or at least the samples that I have used so far. And the colors are quite nice! The main reason I have been looking to get my filaments through them is that they are offering Master Spool Refills. I am not sure if you have checked out what the Master Spool system is but I think you would be interested in it.
ReplyDeleteBasically it is a printed filament spool that you can put filament coils on it and reuse the spool. This has a number of benefits; one is that you are not having to have extra empty filament spools any more (unless you want to turn them into hardware storage XD ), it saves on unnecessary plastic as there is no need to ship filament on a spool if you just reuse the one you have, AND since they are not shipping your filament with that extra weight its cheaper and you technically get more filament out of the deal as a normal spool that is "1kg" includes the weight of the spool it is on.
After looking into this system and wanting to start getting my filaments this way the only place I had found previously was MatterHackers, but they only sold 4 colors of PLA. This is not such a big deal if you are planning on painting them like you are, but for me I like to be able to also have the different colors in case I get a commission to print something in specific colors. But after finding Push Plastics through one Facebook Prusa printer communities I am going to be getting my refill coils through them. They offer all of their PLA colors, ABS, and PETG colors in roil refills, which is fantastic! And they have many colors including specialty filaments. I would check it out if you are interested and if you want to try some of the filaments let me know, I still have some samples left over :)
That's pretty cool - I had no idea that such a system existed! I love the idea of refilling my spools, so I'll absolutely give that a try!
Delete