PLA as support for PETG

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TN Yankee
Printmaster!
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 7:42 pm

PLA as support for PETG

Post by TN Yankee »

So, I hear of people doing this, and say it works very well, but I've yet to find specific examples. PLA is appealing due to low cost and ease of purchasing from multiple vendors. Heat creep seems to be a recurring problem with PLA for me over the years, but its appeal as an inexpensive support material has me reconsidering it.

My primary question is what to do about the temperature difference between PETG and PLA. I have a V2, with an EZR (with 5.18:1 geared stepper) as my primary extruder, Titan (standard stepper) as secondary extruder, to a genuine E3D V6 with 0.6mm nozzle. I have several rolls of MakerGeek PETG, and typically print it at 230. I also have MakerGeek PLA, and run it at 200 (though I have had a difficult time getting it to feed reliably through the Titan). Both bowdens meet at an SMC Y-adapter.

My concern is having PLA bits remaining the nozzle while running PETG at 230. I have tested the PETG down to 215, but would prefer to run it hotter.

I'm trying KISS these days, and one thought was to do purging at 215, then ramp the temperature back up to 230 for PTEG, or down to 200 for PLA.

I have tried a sample of Rigid.Ink's BreakAway (designed for higher temp filaments like PETG), but while it did break away nicely, it was expensive and I couldn't keep it from grinding in my Titan extruder.

Any suggestions?
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