Canola Convert

[626Pilot]

I wonder if some Hornady One-Shot would be a suitable lube for that area...

http://www.hornady.com/store/One-Shot-Spray-Case-Lube

I think a nozzle with a barrel long enough to completely replace the heat break would be the ticket. There is at least one E3D-alike that does this. I don't get jams in my E3D v6, but that's only because I'm using 3mm retract lengths. Without that annoying heat break problem, I could use 5mm+.

[bvandiepenbos]

I wonder if some Hornady One-Shot would be a suitable lube for that area...

http://www.hornady.com/store/One-Shot-Spray-Case-Lube

I think a nozzle with a barrel long enough to completely replace the heat break would be the ticket. There is at least one E3D-alike that does this. I don't get jams in my E3D v6, but that's only because I'm using 3mm retract lengths. Without that annoying heat break problem, I could use 5mm+.

The Prometheus hot end has a one piece nozzle+heat break that goes all the way up to bowden tube in the upper cool area of the heat sink. I believe that is why that hot end works so well.
The nozzle is polished on the inside also.
That is why I am selling them in the USA http://www.tricklaser.com/Prometheus-Me ... HOTEND.htm
We will have more in stock in a week or so.

[626Pilot]

That is why I am selling them in the USA http://www.tricklaser.com/Prometheus-Me ... HOTEND.htm

Have you thought about selling replacement nozzles for the E3D that accomplish the same thing? You'd have a built-in customer base that would be greatful to spend a little money on a new nozzle instead of a lot of money on an entire hot end.

[radicaldev]

I tried PLA again with the bowden coupler set well on a part with a few retractions that took an hour to print. Aside from a lack of a layer fan leading to some melted spots on the part, it came out OK. Main thing to note is the hotend didn't jam.

I ran it @ 200/55 with 1.6mm/20mm per second retraction settings @ 65mm per second print speed

I couldn't have the temperature that low and go above 30mm/s before.

Now that the substantial downpayment on a house that my tax bill was this year is paid, I may pick up a prometheus just to see what it's like. Definitely gunna drop the hammer on the trick trucks. At the very least, they'll make it easier to build a complete enclosure with carry handle so I can relocate the printer without disturbing the chassis.

[teoman]

I had problems with solid layers on some of my prints and adding lubricating the filament with olive oil solved the problem. There are pictures in this thread:

http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... 039#p79039

[Khalid Khattak]

I wonder what Vodka will have an effect on the performance of hot-end ?

[teoman]

Will not be good. Vodka is mostly water and ethanol plus some impurities that make the flavor of the brand.

Water will evaporate at 100 degs C, ethanol was in the 60-70 degrees range. These will boil and make your extruder puff some smoke (some of which is flammable). And while doing so would push out the molten filament in the nozzle. And the impurities would end up as some fine white dust particles on your print in your Hotend.


I would much rather use vodka as social lubricant instead of lubricant for the filament.






On a side note, i thin i overdid the olive oil and while i was wiping the nozzle i noticed that i had a microdrop of an oils smear the same color as the filament.

[DeltaCon]

I would imagine that canola oil, since it is sold for consumption, contains a lot of impurities that interact with the filament or get burned during extrusion. Isn't there a better solution for this? I guess motor-oil can withstand high temperatures much easier?

[teoman]

Oil for consumption does not evaporate. That is the difference. Machine oil could also work i suppose but i would rather have residue of olive oil on my hands than machine oil.

[DeltaCon]

Thanks teoman, I will definitely try. But would e.g. olive oil or sunflower oil be as efficient? Somehow I think that sunflower oil is much purer, but maybe that's just my misunderstanding...

[teoman]

I used olive oil because that is what I had. It is claimed to be healthier but that is irrelevant for thisapplication. Sunflower would work too.

Engine oils smell a little bit.
Olive oil is a direct substitute for diesel.

[bot]

I laugh every time I see this thread. Canola oil, really? I've been running multiple v6's for thousands of hours without a drop of oil. Mostly PLA, only jams I've had were caused by defective filament. I think everyone here is masking an error in assembly with canola oil.

[teoman]

Bot,

It has been helpful in some situations. And I definitely see the advantage. For normal filaments it is not a necessity. For some filaments it is a necessity though, the ones that print much better with non bowden setups.

Most will not need it.

[bot]

Which situations was it helpful in? I bet one of these scenarios was the culprit:

1) too high retraction distance

2) improper seating of the nozzle to the heatbreak

3) improperly calibrated temperatures (too low)

4) improper seating of bowden tube into heatbreak (if not 3mm direct model)

The canola oil could have lubricated things to the point that the semi-viscous liquid could be forced through in less-than-optimal conditions. This is by no means the proper way to achieve good extrusion.

[DeltaCon]

Hah! I read so many positive replies to the canola oil that there must be some thruth in there... But it made me laugh a bit too. Nevertheless, often the simple solutions are the best. From what I have learned the last three weeks, that's particularly true about 3d printing!

[teoman]

Flexible filaments and out of spec filaments.

Its a tool, there is a field of science dedicated to it. It has some uses. Even masking another defficiency in calibration or configuration can be considered a bandaid application.

[mhackney]

I just have to pipe in...

There are many, many, many more people who print PLA and ABS every day all around the world for their businesses and hobbies who do not need to use bandaids like Canola oil. Many of these use E3D hotends (I do and I've not had a single hot end failure on 5 delta printers for well over a year printing 30+ hours/week each).

My concern with adding any oil to the filament is that it has the potential to negatively affect the interbead and interlayer bonding. I have not personally tried it so I apologize for hypothesizing without experimental data to back it up - but this is one case I'm not willing to experiment because once you've contaminated your extrusion path with oil it would be a major chore to clean out. The residual oil could have a negative impact on Nylons, PET, CF PLAs and many other filaments too. For chotchkies that sit on a shelf that might not be a problem. For printed items where structural properties are important - like my fly reels - it may be a problem. It very well might help/work for some people but I would much prefer to help folks get to the root of the real issue. There are too many of us who get great prints without adding oils. I recommend taking a methodical approach as I advocate in my writings (see signature).

Sorry for the soapbox.

Cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

I agree with Bot and Mhackney about using oil to "correct" the supposed hotend difficulties.
If your nozzle length is correct, retraction length and speed are correct and the hotend temperatures are correct then you should not be seeing the problems that you
are attempting to repair with oil. If all the above list things are correct then you have bad filament or a bad hotend or snags somewhere in the filament path.
After following Mhackney's instructions I print fine with PLA and the E3D V6. What are you going to do when you use the metal filled filaments, WD40?