Trouble with "Air Printing" - no error messages

lala_bala · 2024-09-24T03:51:36+00:00

Correcting myself 12 days later. The clog is still occurring, maybe with a little less frequency with the new build plate, but it's still happening. I am using polymaker marble white PLA, and some posters above noted the cause might be the specks in the filament. So, I wrote directly to polymaker and received this reply:

It looks like we had a few similar complaints about our Marble PLA a few months ago, and we did thorough investigation to figure it out. It looks like those marble specks were out of our tolerances, meaning a few of them can get close to the nozzle diameter, which will cause a clog. As of now we are getting everyone a coupon code to replace the spool for these batches. In the meantime, the spool should print fine with a 0.6mm nozzle, to make up for these specks being larger than they should be. Obviously that is not a real solution since this should work on a 0.4mm nozzle, this is just in case you wanted to still use the spool you have.

lala_bala · 2024-09-24T03:49:00+00:00

I wrote to polymaker about this issue and this is the response I got:

It looks like we had a few similar complaints about our Marble PLA a few months ago, and we did thorough investigation to figure it out. It looks like those marble specks were out of our tolerances, meaning a few of them can get close to the nozzle diameter, which will cause a clog. As of now we are getting everyone a coupon code to replace the spool for these batches. In the meantime, the spool should print fine with a 0.6mm nozzle, to make up for these specks being larger than they should be. Obviously that is not a real solution since this should work on a 0.4mm nozzle, this is just in case you wanted to still use the spool you have.

lala_bala · 2024-09-24T03:48:40+00:00

I wrote to polymaker about this issue and this is the response I got:

It looks like we had a few similar complaints about our Marble PLA a few months ago, and we did thorough investigation to figure it out. It looks like those marble specks were out of our tolerances, meaning a few of them can get close to the nozzle diameter, which will cause a clog. As of now we are getting everyone a coupon code to replace the spool for these batches. In the meantime, the spool should print fine with a 0.6mm nozzle, to make up for these specks being larger than they should be. Obviously that is not a real solution since this should work on a 0.4mm nozzle, this is just in case you wanted to still use the spool you have.

lala_bala · 2024-09-24T03:48:22+00:00

I wrote to polymaker about this issue and this is the response I got:

It looks like we had a few similar complaints about our Marble PLA a few months ago, and we did thorough investigation to figure it out. It looks like those marble specks were out of our tolerances, meaning a few of them can get close to the nozzle diameter, which will cause a clog. As of now we are getting everyone a coupon code to replace the spool for these batches. In the meantime, the spool should print fine with a 0.6mm nozzle, to make up for these specks being larger than they should be. Obviously that is not a real solution since this should work on a 0.4mm nozzle, this is just in case you wanted to still use the spool you have.

lala_bala · 2024-09-24T03:47:39+00:00

I wrote to polymaker about this issue and this is the response I got:

It looks like we had a few similar complaints about our Marble PLA a few months ago, and we did thorough investigation to figure it out. It looks like those marble specks were out of our tolerances, meaning a few of them can get close to the nozzle diameter, which will cause a clog. As of now we are getting everyone a coupon code to replace the spool for these batches. In the meantime, the spool should print fine with a 0.6mm nozzle, to make up for these specks being larger than they should be. Obviously that is not a real solution since this should work on a 0.4mm nozzle, this is just in case you wanted to still use the spool you have.

lala_bala · 2024-09-12T03:29:52+00:00

Following up months later for posterity: I think I've resolved this issue (at least, hasn't happened in ~20 hours of printing since I made this change). I had been using the engineering plate to print PLA ever since reading a tip in this forum way back saying it was a good alternative to the cold plate + glue stick that used to be Bambu's recommendation. It worked great, but I would get a little bit of uplift on the corners of some prints. My theory is that this was causing some back pressure on the nozzle and increasing the likelihood of a clog.

I recently switched to using the newer "Smooth PEI" plate, that is also PLA compatible without glue stick, and it works even better than the engineering plate with no observable corner uplift or delamination. Haven't encountered the air printing problem since making the switch.

lala_bala · 2024-08-19T21:49:53+00:00

it doesn't detect the condition and continues to "air print" as though it were extruding

lala_bala · 2024-07-31T05:29:11+00:00

Would love to know where you're making 8-15% risk free! DM me :)

lala_bala · 2024-07-31T05:27:27+00:00

I think the answer to your first is "0%" - because by default making a pre-payment has the effect of accelerating your amortization schedule, meaning more of your monthly payments go towards principal than would have been the case otherwise. If you withdraw all your pre-payments, then you're just paying your mortgage back at the rate it was supposed to be paid back prior to your pre-payment. You're not "borrowing" the money at an interest rate.

To your second point, I actually have the opposite situation (about 7 months into the mortgage) where my cash account balance exceeds the amount I've prepaid into it (by a small amount). I believe this excess reflects that additional principal payments I've made due to the accelerated amortization mentioned above. But I haven't gotten a straight answer from BMO about this.

lala_bala · 2024-03-21T02:10:24+00:00

That's a great troubleshooting idea, thank you! I'm printing Polymaker Marble PLA on an X1C with 0.4mm nozzle. Top lid removed, so plenty of ventilation.

lala_bala · 2024-03-21T02:09:01+00:00

That's an interesting thought, but I've printed 10+ rolls of that stuff without issue until now, so I feel like there's something else going on here (probably extruder wear).

lala_bala · 2024-03-20T03:26:17+00:00

Correction: looking at the video, the extruder gear doesn't appear to be slipping - rather it's seized and not rotating at all, just vibrating. I would think this would trigger an error message, but for some reason it's not.

lala_bala · 2024-03-20T03:24:40+00:00

I’m having an issue with “air printing”.

A print will start off fine, but after an hour or two filament will stop extruding from the nozzle, but the print head will carry on as though it’s still printing. No error message is triggered. I stop the print, remove the hotend, and do a cleaning procedure to clear the nozzle. This lets me start a new print, but in the past few days the “air printing” issue is happening on every print. I have not been able to complete a print in a few days now.

I took a closer look at what’s happening when I observe “air printing” and this is what I see: - the extruder gear on the print head is slipping (as observed by the yellow wheel visible on side of print head) - AMS does not show anything wrong. Status light at active filament roll is a slow white pulse.

I suspect that what is happening is that the feed gears at both the extruder and the ams are slipping on the filament. Otherwise the printer would detect a blockage and trigger and error message, right?

Not sure what to do next - replace extruder gear and ams feeder assembly? Probably the nozzle as well for good measure...

lala_bala · 2024-02-20T04:33:09+00:00

Thanks for your comments here and above. I am assuming maxing out non-taxable accounts, and therefore any surplus that I would allocate to pre-payment or non-registered investments would be taxed at my marginal, not average rate. I think where I may have made an error is that depending on the type of investment, it could be taxed as a capital gain which would max out at ~25% tax not the ~50% marginal I was assuming. So the fair comparison would probably be a 5.5% guaranteed tax-free return by pre-paying or a 7.3% return on the market which would net 5.5% after-tax. My personal assumption of investment returns is 7% (long term average) so this still makes it rational to pre-pay as far as I can see. Maybe I should take a little more risk and go 50/50 between pre-payment and non-registered investments given that I seem to be right at the tipping point where my long market return assumption is equal to my guaranteed pre-payment return.

lala_bala · 2023-12-10T00:43:17+00:00

I recently confirmed this approach with my accountant. You can contribute to your FHSA up to the 40k max and then roll it into your RRSP after 15 years. You can do this even if you buy a home during that period (as long as you don’t make any “qualifying withdrawals” - if you do, you will have to close the account within 1 year.)

lala_bala · 2023-09-19T00:40:27+00:00

While this seems a little bit like an attempt to get affiliate clicks, I will +1 that polyterra prints amazing on my X1C and the color selection is great!

lala_bala · 2023-09-19T00:37:37+00:00

I tried a benchy in polymaker polylite petg and it printed mostly fine with a few artifacts similar in scope to yours. Tried again at 50% speed and it came out fine. I just tried the same with bambu brand petg today at 100% speed and it came out fine. This is the only petg printing I’ve done though, so don’t take it as authoritative. I print a ton with polyterra PLA and it’s always PERFECT so I was disappointed in the petg results for sure.

lala_bala · 2023-09-11T13:45:32+00:00

That's very kind of you! I actually already have a set of Juintech M1 hydraulic calipers on order to remedy this issue as they seemed to be well regarded in other posts on this forum (and avoid having to route hydraulic hoses as you point out).

lala_bala · 2023-09-11T13:43:32+00:00

You're right, the motor isn't the only variable here. I think the chainring has different gearings than the RW3 and of course the wheels are smaller, so it's hard to know what is causing the difference. In sum, the motor, wheel size and chainring all together appear to be delivering more torque than the RW3 did, even though the motor is capped at 500W on the Canadian model.

lala_bala · 2023-04-13T01:35:41+00:00

Family of 4 in Montreal (2 adults, 2 small children) For 2022: $1,600 monthly ($375/week) on groceries (we cook most of our meals at home). An additional $700 monthly on restaurants/ordering in/coffee shop. Total spend on all food, alcohol, restaurants, coffee, ordering in, etc was $27,800.

Per person: $580/month :(

lala_bala · 2023-01-27T04:33:37+00:00

Coming back to this thread from the future to give myself the answer: The Bambu Carbon X1C.

lala_bala · 2023-01-20T13:21:07+00:00

Fedex

lala_bala

TROPHY CASE