So i got a spool of this new N-Vent material and i’ve tried 2 runs with it and both have ended catastrophically. Everything seems to go well up until about layer 38-73 and then it all goes to pot. The first time i came back to a plate of spaghetti and a large blob of extruded material just hanging off of the nozzle. I cleared the mess and discovered my hot end was clogged. With a little patience i was able to clear the blockage and considered this just a job gone bad. I had to try again so i loaded it back up (For both of these attempts i was using the LULZBOT recommended temperatures for this material on the TAZ5). The second one went to hell straight away. This time no pasta but the piece was terribly incomplete and instead of a tangled nest of extruded material there was a large blob that had melted to the point where it was fused into a clear blob, and left plastic residue all over the exterior of the hot end and scorched it so that the nozzle and heater are brown, likely from a small amount of plastic that’s burned and fused to the assembly.
If you read about this stuff it’s lauded as the next big thing in plastics but i haven’t seen a difference in quality from ABS (from what actually prints) and it’s caused me nothing but frustration and potential damage to my hardware. I’m using LuLz’s recommended temps, and the downloadable Cura profiles and i’m damn near destroying my extruder.
Any thoughts on what i might change to get a better result? I’m fairly new to 3D printing so i’m not sure if raising or lowering one or the other temps will help, if the cooling fan needs to run faster, surface preparation? I’m not running any more parts with this stuff until i know how to make it work, because frankly it’s dangerous.
