Adventures in Wood PLA

I recently installed Nozzle X so I could have an all-round nozzle for different filaments. I’ve only ever printed PLA until yesterday :slight_smile: Nozzle X Installed

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to print this PLA with only increasing the temperature.
It’s really brittle in comparison to normal PLA, easy to accidentally snap if you look at it the wrong way.

The first print had to be a calibration cube just to check that I could print it without problems.

My default print settings (Simplify3D) are:
Default Speed: 60 mm/s
Layer Height: 0.16
Top/Bottom/Outline: 4/4/2

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First Layer Height: 125%
First Layer Width: 100%
First Layer Speed: 30%

Bed: 55C
Hotend: 225C

Retraction: 1.20 mm
Speed: 60 mm/s

Surprised by how good the adhesion was, better than my PLA. Wonder if that’s the difference between fresh opened PLA and PLA that has been sitting exposed for 6 months? Really nice wood-burning smell as well :laughing:

Next up, straight into a more complex 6-hour print overnight. Not sure Wood PLA was actually the right choice for this but live and learn.

So there were some issues, easily spotted if I had checked the slicer, but didn’t think there would be a need to.

The centre point is completely missing? Also the lever should have a small triangle to hold it in but that was also missing when printed?

Original STL

Screenshot 2020-07-08 at 13.04.02

vs slicer

Screenshot 2020-07-08 at 13.04.10

In general, was impressed with the Wood PLA. Shame the print didn’t turn out as expected.

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A guide for people that aren’t familiar with Wood PLA. Thanks for the great share :+1:

I tried a print with wood PLA, it blocked the nozzle pretty quickly. Would you advise using a higher temperature? (I didn’t change any settings from my ‘normal’ 200c)

why did you change the initial layer height to 125%?

I found layer height 125% was the sweet spot for my first layer. Everyone has their own ideal settings for first layer.

What does the PLA recommend? Also at what point does it block? I have my fan on a low setting for the first layer.