Hello,
I am wondering if you can help me. I purchased the White ABS last week. I have been trying without success to print with it.
I own a fairly new CTC printer (weeks old). It came with PLA filament which it prints okay (no issues other than it is a junky filament).
However when I try to print ABS I get a clicking sound from the extruder. Looking online many recommend upping the temperature. Which I have upped in 5C increments. At 250C is starts to extrude a ‘little’ better but still clicks. I am not willing to go hotter in fear damaging the head. The manufacturer of the filament recommends 230C.
If I go back to the PLA it works fine.
Any ideas what may be wrong?
I have installed Sailfish Bios.
Thanks in advance.
Pyr_X
2
I own the exact same printer brother and while it’s a not necessarily the best printer in the world it’s an open ended kit to upgrade upon and when I purchased it I was not intending to actually use it as it was. While I did spend a great deal of time playing with the stock setup I can tell you right now that it isn’t exactly reliable.
My main issues were just like yours, ABS is a pain to print without a nice enclosure kit for the printer so you are not losing heat to atmosphere as ABS likes to be kept warm to prevent warping. Now the issue that was the great deal breaker for me was the nozzle using a small piece of PTFE tubing inside the throat to guide the filament strait into the nozzle. That thing clogs up, deforms and melts… You will be buying some new PTFE tubing from China to replace those very soon, mark my words.
I finally gave up on salvaging the stock system as I needed slightly more reliability so I decided to remove pretty much everything… I got rid of both the extruders and nozzles and I designed my own mount for a Prometheus V2 J-Head Hot End which I thin setup to be driven with a Bowden Extruder from the back of the printer.
Now with your issue, if you are new to 3D printers and not exactly looking to make it much better than it is then I can make a few suggestions to help.
Use tape to cover the openings of the printer or buy an enclosure kit for the printer.
Purchase some new nozzles for the printer that are not utilizing that PTFE tube. I know they make some all metal throats for that printer I just didn’t go that route so I cannot point you to them. Someone else might know.
Lower the temp back down to the 230 mark and extrude a bit of ABS by pushing it through the hot end and see how smooth it is. You don’t want to print too hot or the material just burns up in the nozzle and clogs it. Plus you risk melting that tube inside of it.
Not to ruin your day but really that printer cannot exactly do ABS out of the box… I feel that they kind of embellished on that part.
Look into pillow blocks and new bearings. They die fast and are very cheap…
Also, maybe if you can afford it get Simplify3D it’s pretty damn cool and works well with Sailfish firmware on this printer.
Cheers and good luck!
