Breakaway PLA stops feeding?

I’m trying to use the breakaway PLA that Snapmaker supplied with the Dual module and running into a weird problem…I can load the Breakaway (it comes out of the nozzle very ‘thick’ looking?) just fine but when I try to make my print, the first layer lays down just fine - after printing the first layer of my ‘normal’ PLA, the Breakaway stops feeding - nothing is coming out of the nozzle???

I stopped the print, and re-loaded the Breakaway (again, the filament coming out of the nozzle looks very ‘thick’) and started printing again. Again, the first layer of Breakaway printed just fine, but subsequent layers didn’t lay down any Breakaway PLA!

As a test, I restarted the print without re-loading the Breakaway, and once again, the first layer extruded just fine (I didn’t expect it to), and subsequent layers failed to extrude!

I’m printing at 222 DegC (the spool said 220 - 230). I’m going to try the higher temp as another test, but I was wondering if anyone else has seen this problem? I’m anxious to try out the Breakaway for a cleaner model, but can’t seem to get it to work :frowning:

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Print it with more temperature as first test.

What’s your toolchange retraction settings?

With how you say it looks “thick” reminds me a lot of silk PLAs. The mixture that gives it the sheen that silks are known for does the same thing. When purged, they withdraw and seem thicker, and their layer adhesion is sorta bad because of the additives.

The solution is a bit more heat, and reduce retraction speed/distance. With how the plastic additives make it thicker so a fast withdrawal is harder, so it likely begins chewing the filament, making a small gouge so the teeth do not grab anymore.

You want just enough retraction to relieve the pressure in the nozzle, but not cause a suction force, or potentially pull the molten blob off the end.

I raised the temp to 230, and my test print worked :slight_smile: Then I tried my actual print - again, the first layer of Breakaway was fine, but no subsequent layers printed :frowning: I tried raising the temp again, but no difference. My ‘real’ print has about 3-4 minutes between laying down that first layer of Breakaway, before it gets back to printing the next layer, so that may have something to do with it (my test case was a small 1x1” block with a small overhang - again this one worked fine at 230 DegC).

I believe the retraction is set at 1mm for the Breakaway.

I thought it might be chewing the filament too…that’s why I ran a second test immediately after a failed print, without “re-priming” the filament. I figured if it was chewed, the second test wouldn’t lay down any filament–well, it did. Again the first layer printed fine and no subsequent layers printed.

There is a difference between toolchange retraction and normal (print-) retraction. Same for the retraction speed.

My standard toolchange retraction setting is 15mm retraction at 35mm/sec. My Idle temperature is 150°C.

I would go about 10°C higher, let’s try 240°C for printing.

If there is no massive stringing issue (breakaway is known for stringing) you should be fine.

I bumped it up to 235 for my last test that failed…after half a dozen failures, I swapped out for ‘normal’ PLA for my support (and after slicing it realized I hadn’t set the support to ‘Removeable’ and not ‘Reliable’). I’t now in the middle of the print with 30+ hours to go, so it’ll be a while till I can get back to testing out the Breakaway PLA.