Anyone have experience with this? My afinia prints beautifully in ABS, but I put some makerbot PLA in the machine and it has a great deal of slips when moving through the extruder.

Anyone having a similar problem? Any help would be much appreciated!

Brian

That machine has an extruder with a fixed bite size, the extruder gear is not pushed against the filament, it is fixed in place. That’s why some PLA will not push through.

try and increase the temperature a bit.

i have a H480, and the only PLA that I can print is Polymaker PLA and AFINIA PLA.

i replaced the fan for a more powerfull one to increase cooling because the heat creeps up the hotend very easily.

I purchased the aftermarket temperature controller to modify the temperature of the print head for PLA usage and exotic filament; I’ve not had any issues running PLA/PLA+ through my printer using primarily filament from these manufacturers; Inland, Hatchbox PLA, Makergeek, Makerbot PLA, Sainsmart PLA as well as 3D Solutech and GP3D PLA - with the exception of certain color batches from Hatchbox (anything green) and 3D Solutech (“silver metal”) . I print directly onto PRINTinZ’s zebra plates, BuildTak and/or PEI sheets applied to glass depending on usage/color/transparency. I did not have to replace the fan but I did print a fan blower attachment to redirect airflow from the fan to the print nozzle by rotating a small switch.

- Octave Extruder Nozzle 8 Setting Temperature Switch for Afinia H479/H480 and the UP, UP Plus & Up Plus 2

Update your software!

now you can change the temperature of the hotend and the bed in the software, throw away that temp switch.

That makes sense about the extruder gear. I had already tried a temp increase, which did help a little bit I got much less slippage, however could never finish a piece. The PLA just stopped coming out.

My thoughts are that the heat did creep up and softened the filament so much that the extruder gear couldn’t grip it enough to push it down, so it ceased to extrude. I assume this is why you went with a more powerful fan?

I am going to buy some Afinia PLA, just to check it out and see if a filament change solves the issue.

Don’t let the price of Polymax PLA discourage you. That stuff prints like butter and is stronger than ABS.

good luck!