i just wanted to inform you about my problems with brittle filament.
I have printed with leapfrogs MAXX Economic PLA (white) which is as brittle as normal PLA.
After printing some parts the filament broke at the steppermotor (without me noticing) aswell as breaking at the end of the teflon tube that leads to the spool holders.
This means that there was filament stuck in the tube, so far not that much of a problem.
But (!) for absolutly no reason the teflon tube that connects the spoolholder and the extrusion motor (where the filament is stuck in) has an inside diameter that is very much bigger then the filmament diameter (1,75mm).
This means that the filament that got stuck can’t be removed with other filament that you push through one end.
The stuck filament creats so much friction, so that it’s not possible for the extrusion motor to pull the filament that i fed though the additionally.
So make sure, that you pull all filament out of the tube when changing it. If you have this problem you have to disassemble both side pannels (white) aswell as the cover just below the belt that connects the Z rods.
Finally it would be very good if a leapfrog official sees this so that the printers that will be produced have a teflon tube with an inner diameter of 2mm or similar. A tube where more then one line of filament fits in just provoces problems like the one i had.
Hi Marius,
I use the same filament with Creatr and at each change of filament I put a little WD40 spray at the entrance of the Teflon tube for lubrication and never had this problem. You can even find few models on thingiverse for this purpose, like a box for mounting in front of the Teflon tube entrance in which you put a sponge soaked in WD40.
Hope it would be helpful for future use but I understand it would not solve the problem once the filament stuck… Maybe you can try with air compressor or with pushing 3 mm filament if you have one?
Hi, Thanks for the tips to solve this issue, I guess the hole in the tube’s ending is too small for a 3mm string or filament but I did test that. My main point of criticism is, that there is absolutely no reason for the tubing to have such a large inner diameter. -Marius
Hi, it seems a little bit odd to me, that the wire can push out the filament as (at least my tube) has such a big inner diameter, so that the wire might go beside the stuck filament instead of pushing it out. I will try this the next time the filament gets stuck. -Marius
I’ve been printing PLA for about 5 years now and what I have found is that some PLA filaments break in several places within the teflon tubing if left overnight on my printers. Most PLA filaments don’t do this. I have never had ‘natural’ (clear) PLA break inside the teflon tubes, but I have had colored PLA break. One of my printers has been loaded with the same spool of transparent PLA for over two years (I only print a very low volume of small parts with this PLA) and it never breaks and it always prints perfectly, even though the spool has been in open air for a couple years. This is on a 3-extruder machine (BFB 3D Touch), so when I use it to print in another color, I load it into one of the other extruders. Sometimes, if I leave the PLA in the printer overnight, it breaks in many places within the tube, but nowhere else, and it breaks right up to the end of the teflon tube, but not outside of it. Logic tells me that there is some kind of reaction going on between certain (but not all) PLA filaments and the teflon that causes the PLA to become very brittle.
