Extruder clicking

It’s been a while since I spent much time with the MP3DP but I’m printing up some cable chain bits now so it’s getting my attention. I ran out of my trusty Hatchbox white PLA so I loaded up some HB blue and things went pretty much normal other than the adhesion thing I battle with. However, I decided I didn’t want blue, I thought I should load up the black I had. The black is a spool of Sunluu (or something like that). It seems like no matter what I do I can’t get it to stop clicking and under extruding at some point in the print - usually once it starts building up the “tower” on the attached part. Raising the nozzle temp to 210 seemed to help a bit but it still gets ugly. The only thing I haven’t done is caliper the filament as/when the troubles arise. I did caliper it before loading and got the same kind of number range that I get with the HB filament. What else should I be trying to get the filament to work? When it runs smooth is seems to print very nice.

I’ve tried layer heights from .2-.5, speeds are at 35mm/s.

I’ve got a spool of white which should be here today so I’ll load it up and see if the clicking stops.[attachment file=84649]

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Clicking most likely means clogged nozzle. Heat it up and see if you can manually push filament through and it comes straight out of the nozzle at a smooth rate, not too much force. If it makes a sharp turn out of the nozzle you got a little schmoo in there.

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Nothing changed other than the filament. No clicking. Beautiful print. I think my kids may have just got a full spool of black PLA for their 3D pens. [attachment file=84758]
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It’s been a long time since I had filament I couldn’t print with. I use makergeeks and hatchbox usually. It’s plausible it has an inconsistent melt temp, or even a much higher melt temp. Makergeeks pla and their raptor pla both say 230C on the box, so 210 just still might not have been high enough.

Or, the plastic is just crap. That has happened too.

Black filament is one color I never buy a cheap brand. There have been several reports of less than reputable filament companies hiding their mistakes in black filaments. It is easy to hide the impurity’s. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you have one of the “lucky spools”.

The clicking is from it jamming or having a hard time pushing the filament as fast as the gcode is telling it to.

So the only two things you can do is slow down the print or increase the heat.

If you increase the heat do it carefully. PLA will turn into a glue like substance if it gets too hot. Then you will have a real extruder jam. I have destroyed two extruders like that. Each brand is different but the safe rule of thumb that I live by now is 220 or less. But I have been ok at 230 with some brands.

Slowing down is safer and easier.

 

Or…it could be mislabeled and actually be PETG or ABS. I have had that happen a few times.

Oh! I haven’t seen that one before. That would be not cool.

You can test to see if it is PLA like I mentioned in another thread recently. You can light it on fire!!! ABS will burn dirty with black oily smoke and it will drip little fire balls. (Totally unsafe but fun) It’s smoke will smell like ABS aka petroleum/oil. (You know all those fumes that can kill you.) PLA will burn cleaner. It will smell like something sweet or organic. Almost like a burning corn field. PETG, I don’t know… yet. If it is PETG then it would need a really high melting point. Isn’t it usually around 240?