Cleaning filament

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Phil
Posts: 214
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:49 pm

Cleaning filament

Post by Phil » Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:39 pm

I have been using eSun's Cleaning Filament for some time now, but not so much from conviction, as from being recommended by other people here...until now. I would not have believed so much old filament stayed in the extruder when you changed to a new filament. Take a look at the attached photo to see the left-over orange ABS, and how it is not immediately forced out of the extruder. If that much stays, going from PLA to ABS, (or anything with a higher extrusion temperature), could easily cause clogs.
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2017-07-18 15.20.25.jpg

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sthone
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Location: Connecticut
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Re: Cleaning filament

Post by sthone » Wed Jul 19, 2017 3:48 am

Yeah it's crazy... I've run some black filament and then changed to blue filament without cleaning it and run an 8 hour job and let it cool down. I've come back the next day to run another job with the blue and the first layer has black in it.

Filament can bake on to the inside of the nozzle and come off at anytime... this is why clogs happen when switching from say PLA to ABS. Cleaning filament is worth every penny.
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Gwhite
Posts: 372
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:38 pm

Re: Cleaning filament

Post by Gwhite » Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:51 am

I looked at the reviews on Amazon, and a lot of people (like 11%) have had problems with the eSun filament diameter/roundness being so out of whack that it won't feed. Most of the bad reviews seem to have been from 2016, so it may be they had a bad batch or quality control issues.

Has anyone had this issue?

Thanks!

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Larry
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 12:02 am
Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Cleaning filament

Post by Larry » Thu Jul 20, 2017 2:02 am

I've not had any issues running the eSun cleaning filament since picking up a spool a couple months back. I use it routinely when switching colors, or PLA <--> PETG. Seems to work well, and I've not observed the problems you note.

Gwhite
Posts: 372
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:38 pm

Re: Cleaning filament

Post by Gwhite » Thu Jul 20, 2017 2:07 pm

Thanks! I will be switching back & forth between PLA & PETG, and it sounds like a good idea. Time to go shopping...

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