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I just switched to my first spool of PLA/PHA and had two jams in the extruder.

The suspect: MeltInk White PLA/PHA Lot 16 1027 01, purchased from SeeMeCNC this past week.

Upon investigation I found the jams were caused by swelling of the filament diameter up to 2.13 mm.

The first swollen spot was about 2 cm long and it caused the filament to become stuck in the Bowden tube near the HE280 where the tube makes the final turn. It required a large amount of force to pull it out of the tube.

The second swollen spot was about 8 cm long (at 2.00 to 2.14 mm dia) and it was too big to enter the extruder cold end.

My questions are, how common are these filament defects, and do I have a case for returning the material?

It is easy to feel these swollen spots so I inspected about 10 meters off the spool but could not find any more such defects. I cut off that 10 meters and trying from the spool again. If it jams one more time like this I'm not going to use it anymore.

Here is a picture. You can actually see where the filament bulges in diameter.

[img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5782/30590737344_948d70c259.jpg[/img]

Honestly, i've never had any issues with bad PLA..... I've used the cheap stuff and the nice stuff, and while the nice stuff is, well, better, the cheap stuff usually works OK. That's pretty bad. SeeMeCNC generally has great support so i'm sure they will solve your issues, assuming it was purchased recently, over time filaments soak in moisture, so if you've left the filament out for a while, i'd sort of expect this in a humid environment.

Qdeathstar wrote:assuming it was purchased recently, over time filaments soak in moisture, so if you've left the filament out for a while, i'd sort of expect this in a humid environment.

The filament arrived three days ago and I unwrapped it two days ago. It was tightly sealed so I would say it was as fresh as could be. My basement is currently 44% RH (Wisconsin winters are dry in the house). I store all my filament in a weatherproof container and a large desiccant bag--the container consistently reads 25% RH or less.

This filament is strange though, when I extrude it manually it swells when it comes out of the nozzle. No other filament I have used so far has done this. It is not foamy due to trapped gasses or moisture, just a larger diameter. I read on other websites that this filament is known to have this behavior. On the bed it makes nice 0.5 mm lines without swelling so I am inclined to believe that this is material just has unique rheological properties.

Thanks for the help.

When I first started 3D printing 5 or 6 years ago, I bought a lot of "cheapest filiament I could find".
I'd estimate I used to see a bad roll of filament maybe 1 in 10, that sounds like an acceptable ratio, and the manufacturer will usually replace the roll, but diagnosing a bad roll of filament, can often be very time consuming.
IME the difference between good filament and bad filament is largely consistency, I buy a lot of Ultimachine filament because in my experience it is the most consistent I've used, and the cost is less important to me than my time.
Be warned though that cost is generally not an indicator of quality, I've paid $40 a roll for filament that is wildly inconsistent, and I'm sure there are cheaper filaments out there that have good tolerances, I just can't be bothered trying lots of different suppliers to determine which.

That's manufacturing, not moisture. Taking on water will change some of the material properties, but not diameter. It's a bad roll, and you should let SeeMe know so that they can check their stock for the manufacturer and make it right with you.