Printing with new materials

Having always printed in ABS, I felt it was time I had a go at applying my 3D printing process to PLA.

The reason for not having done this sooner is simply that I wanted to ensure my process yielded an acceptable print quality with one material, and ABS filament  was more readily available to me at the time in 1.75mm diameter.

So, happy with the quality of the ABS prints form the eMAKER Huxley, I decided to try a sample of black PLA from Ultimachine. The results were pleasantly surprising. I of course started with my favourite test piece (a 20mm square, with an 8mm hole in the centre).

Buoyed by this achievement, I quickly moved on to something a little more challenging

The sample of black PLA didn’t last long, so I fitted a spool of clear 1.75mm PLA, again from Ultimachine, and had a go printing to make sure it wasn’t beginner’s luck. Here are some parts for the eMAKER Huxley

I have to admit that my thermistor temperature table is complete guesswork, so I currently have no idea what temperature I am using to extrude PLA. I merely increased the temperature gradually whilst feeding some filament in by hand until the force required to extrude it felt acceptably small. On my todo list is to run a calibration experiment coupling a thermocouple to the thermistor.

All in all, I am pleased at the print quality form the eMAKER Huxley, and with the control I am achieving over the bowden extruder setup.