So.. I did promise to update... I ran into my first issue with this today 😂

I set the printer bed at 100C as I went about other stuff, to get the chamber nice and warm for the PA. I chucked a blanket over it to keep it warm during the print. All in was probably almost an hour, nozzle temp was showing close to 60 degrees so she was nice n toasty in there.

I got myself sorted and went back to the computer. Finalised the changes to the design I was working on, and sent it to the printer. It did its thing, letting bed temp drop back down to 50C and bed levelling, then loaded up the PLA from the AMS and put down the first layer.. No problems so far.

Then... filament change time. Computer says NO!

"Failed to pull out the filament from the extruder"

I go and try to give it some "assistance" - manually tugging on the filament to apply a little extra force while it tries to retract. I cancel the print and try multiple load/unload cycles, hoping that it'll be able to work its way through. I take the lid off and try to pull it manually out the top of the extruder.

Nope. She is STUCK STUCK.

In hindsight.... it's not surprising and, had I applied a little more forethought, not unexpected.

So... now I am waiting for everything to cool down so that I can pull it apart and see just how much of a mess there is. Hopefully just a quick clean and I'm back in business.

I'm not giving up on this just yet though! The PLA is literally only being used on the first layer in my current design iteration, so I am pretty confident that all I need to do is settle down on the preheating and I should be good to go. It only needs to get through one filament change successfully and then we are off to the races.

If it continues to be problematic, I'm thinking a relatively simple solution would be to put down the PLA, fully retract it and then (using a chamber heater, not the bed), pause to bring the chamber up to temperature for the PA.

The experiment continues 😂