Clear/Natural PLA Sucks!

[Zip Zap]

   So the last couple of weeks I've been experimenting with PLA.  My first roll of PLA was the silver gray one sold by Ultimachine.  It was a smooth transition from ABS.  It extruded twenty degrees lower than ABS.  Printing hollow objects was stiff and efficient and much more defined.  It didn't even look or feel like plastic.  It had that granular texture as if extruding out liquid saw dust. The only problem I had was entanglement and thus needing to build a filament spool feeder. 
    Ok, so I ordered more PLA rolls from Ultimachine.  They were out of the white and gray.  Red and green were more expensive.  The clear or natural rolls were cheaper and so I bought three rolls with one of them in a spool.  Lo and behold I discovered that the clear ones behave differently!  Unlike the grey PLA,  clear PLA definitely feels and looks like plastic.  Yes I know they are plastic to begin with.  Furthermore, clear PLA is a b*tch to extrude.  It jams, blobs and chokes my MK5.  This thing acts like cement glue.  I've tried beveling the edges of the entry end of the  PTFE tube since clear PLA evidently wedges itself against any sharp edges along the feeding pathway.  Again, it continues to jam.  Now I'm really going to take the MK5 fully apart and replace the PTFE tube and look into the heatcore to look for more problem areas.  If that doesn't work than I'll clean and rebuild the MK5 again and avoid clear PLA altogether.

[Mike Payson]

Did you change your temperature? Each color behaves slightly different, so just because silver extrudes 20 degrees cooler than ABS doesn't mean that Clear does. I have used black, silver and translucent blue PLA, and the blue is far and away my favorite, but it also requires more heat than either of the other two, I would assume that the clear would as well.

And while I don't have a Makerbot extruder (I use a Makergear extruder on a Prusa), it is my understanding that the MK5 is finnicky with PLA in the best of circumstances. It works great with the Makergear hot end.

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 11:23 PM, Zip Zap <zza...@yahoo.com> wrote:

   So the last couple of weeks I've been experimenting with PLA.  My first roll of PLA was the silver gray one sold by Ultimachine.  It was a smooth transition from ABS.  It extruded twenty degrees lower than ABS.  Printing hollow objects was stiff and efficient and much more defined.  It didn't even look or feel like plastic.  It had that granular texture as if extruding out liquid saw dust. The only problem I had was entanglement and thus needing to build a filament spool feeder. 
    Ok, so I ordered more PLA rolls from Ultimachine.  They were out of the white and gray.  Red and green were more expensive.  The clear or natural rolls were cheaper and so I bought three rolls with one of them in a spool.  Lo and behold I discovered that the clear ones behave differently!  Unlike the grey PLA,  clear PLA definitely feels and looks like plastic.  Yes I know they are plastic to begin with.  Furthermore, clear PLA is a b*tch to extrude.  It jams, blobs and chokes my MK5.  This thing acts like cement glue.  I've tried beveling the edges of the entry end of the  PTFE tube since clear PLA evidently wedges itself against any sharp edges along the feeding pathway.  Again, it continues to jam.  Now I'm really going to take the MK5 fully apart and replace the PTFE tube and look into the heatcore to look for more problem areas.  If that doesn't work than I'll clean and rebuild the MK5 again and avoid clear PLA altogether.

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[Zip Zap]

Yeah, I've tried as high as 240C.  It still jams after 10 minutes of extrusion.  My electronics can't read beyond 255C.  I've even heated it higher than that and clear PLA just gets burnt and yellows.  Silver PLA temp startup is 200C and lowered to 180C during the rest of the build.  ABS startup at 220C and 200C during building. 

---

From: Mike Payson <mi...@dawgdayz.com>
To: make...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Zip Zap <zza...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sat, April 16, 2011 11:33:43 PM
Subject: Re: [MakerBot] Clear/Natural PLA Sucks!

[Whosawhatsis]

Sounds like you've got dust in your nozzle. Clean that out and try
again. If you've got any other plastic that you know prints well, you
could also try that to verify that the clear PLA is the problem.

[The Ruttmeister]

I switch between silver, black, natural and any other colour PLA
without changing any settings.
Not one. And I find very little difference between the finished
products too.

Extruding at 185C.

Sounds like you have another issue.

[Robert Hunt]

Are we all talking about the same type of PLA here? PLA 4043D and
4042D behaave differently.

[Zip Zap]

"This is Natureworks PLA4043D extruded into 3mm filament"

---

From: Robert Hunt <robert...@gmail.com>
To: MakerBot Operators <make...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Mon, April 18, 2011 5:29:57 AM
Subject: [MakerBot] Re: Clear/Natural PLA Sucks!

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[M L]

I've had better luck with the clear 4043D than with the dyed filament.
My clear printed plastic models are both stronger and better sealed
than with dyed filament (light blue). These were printed at the same
temperature/etc.

-ML

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Zip Zap <zza...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "This is Natureworks PLA4043D extruded into 3mm filament"
> ________________________________
> From: Robert Hunt <robert...@gmail.com>
> To: MakerBot Operators <make...@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Mon, April 18, 2011 5:29:57 AM
> Subject: [MakerBot] Re: Clear/Natural PLA Sucks!
>
> Are we all talking about the same type of PLA here? PLA 4043D and
> 4042D behaave differently.
>
> On Apr 18, 5:12 am, The Ruttmeister <typea...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> I switch between silver, black, natural and any other colour PLA
>> without changing any settings.
>> Not one. And I find very little difference between the finished
>> products too.
>>
>> Extruding at 185C.
>>
>> Sounds like you have another issue.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "MakerBot Operators" group.
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>

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