Ever print with Bronzefill? I love the stuff, when it works, but, reliably, run into some problems.
- The print begins fine with a skirt and base layers, adhesion is no problem. Because of the expense, I have only tried to print a few small trials, within a 50mmx50mmx50mm bounding box. Shortly after the first few layers, no material is extruded through the hotend, and it begins air printing.
1.1) More often than not, The culprit is the bronzefill is being ground by the hobbed bolt and idler, creating a divot, so the bolt has nothing to grip to pull through.
Question - Is this a matter of one of the following - idler tension? retraction speed and distance? a combo of both? temperature settings?
Subtext - The only prints I have done with bronzefill that have worked as intended featured no retraction/need for retraction, and with an extremely tight idler.
Thoughts?
If the extruder is cutting into the material, it sounds like your extrusion rate is higher than the nozzle can handle. BronzeFill works well, but I have to go slow.
Thanks, Ben! As for the retraction, I was afraid that the distance and speed may be a big factor, it has to be far enough to prevent ooze and massive stringing, but slow enough to not be abrasive so much on the relitavely brittle filament. Am I factoring this idea into the equation too much?
Bronze fill is neat stuff but it is also very abrasive on on extruders and nozzles.
I have had my best luck going slow and leaving out retractions. Sometimes that means there are some nubs to manually clean off though.
I have heard about how Bronzefill can be abrasive on extruders, and I’m fine with replacing parts, or having a dedicated extruder setup that I can switch out, that I know will require more maintenance but not hinder my production with ABS or PLA.
Are there any prefab dedicated extruders that deal with abrasive filaments more effectively?
@Michael_Anton1 My CEL Robox doesn’t use retracts so I can’t say anything about it. Sorry! What you say sounds about right.