As the title says I am having problems getting my CTC Dual Extruder to heat up enough for it to print with ABS. I am using Rigid Ink ABD and I have my print bead set to 100C and the Hot end set to 250C.
During Preheat I can hit 250C on the hot end but as soon as I build from SD card the temp drops to about 230C and never goes beyond 245C. The bed temp hits 100C and stays there no problem, After about 15 mins I get the error about timed out while trying to reach temp. but the printer starts anyway
Now I have a very DIY method of sealing the printer to keep the heat in and this seems to work but it still won’t reach temperature. I also notice that when printing the edges of the print seem to curl up. From what I have read this is due to the part cooling too fast. Could this be a symptom of not hitting the temp?
Any help you can provide would be amazing as I don’t want to spend money on a proper enclosure to only find I have wasted my cash.
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Why are you trying to print so hot? The bed seems fine but 250 for ABS seems pretty high. I print at 230 for ABS.
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I am going off the recommendation on the Rigid Ink website for their ABS filament. They say ou should print between 240C - 260C for their 1.75mm ABS
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Wow, hadn’t seen that. Have you tried lower? Don’t know if it will help or not. I have PLA and the manufacturer says 230 but that is way high.
Ok, went and checked their site and in another section they have different temps. 235-255. Seems they don’t have consistency on their site!
I would try 230 and see how it goes. Just keep an eye on it and maybe slow speed to start with.
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I ran a print at 230C yesterday and put the speed in Simplify 3D at 1400mm/min The print initially didn’t stick when doing the Skirt, but on the second round on the skirt it stuck and the print started well. But as you can see from the pics things didn’t turn out very well at all with a lot of warping and layers not sticking together. The second pic is of the 1st print I did at a higher temp.
I did notice that the top layer didn’t seem to go all the way to the edge for some reason?
Check out this guide, it has some very good advice on common issues. I tried blue tape at one point and didn’t have the best luck with it. Many do use it though.
As far as temps. If you are using an extruder with PTFE tubes 230 is really about as hot as you want to get. I have been told that once you get above that you start increasing the odds of charring and warping the tube.
The second print does look good. I have seen that issue of the top layer also.
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
Thanks for the update. I will have a read of that guide. If I understand correct, when you say “using an extruder with PTFE tubes” Do you mean the tubes inside the hot end? if so then yes I am use them. I also have PTFE tubes above the drive block to help feed the filament.
I am finding ABS harder to print with than PLA.
Yes the tubes in the hot end. If you are going hotter then I would think it would be good to check them frequently for damage or distortion. This is what I have been advised.
I found ABS to be stubborn until I kind of found the sweet spot then it was great. I was using Makergeeks ABS and it worked well. Then I tried Hatchbox and oh my I couldn’t get it to go. I reset everything to defaults for ABS and ran some Makergeeks and got a good print. Then I switched to the Hatchbox and tried again with the same settings and BAM it started to do fine.
