Bad batch of ultimaker PLA?

[banana97 0]

Hi guys - I started a print last night which cam to an abrupt stop after one hour. On inspection I found the PLA I was using got stuck just before the nozzle. On measuring the filament I found it was 3.2mm!

This is a silver PLA I bought from ultimaker back in June. Measuring at different points gave me a range of thickness from 2.8mm to 3.2mm! :oops: It's so bad you can even see the thickness variation with your bare eyes!

Do I have a bad batch?

[joergen 2]

Hi guys - I started a print last night which cam to an abrupt stop after one hour. On inspection I found the PLA I was using got stuck just before the nozzle. On measuring the filament I found it was 3.2mm!

This is a silver PLA I bought from ultimaker back in June. Measuring at different points gave me a range of thickness from 2.8mm to 3.2mm! :oops: It's so bad you can even see the thickness variation with your bare eyes!

Do I have a bad batch?

Yes, it was unfortunate that they had a bad batch of the silver. Toss the roll, or do something safe and creative with it, and buy some fresh PLA from printbl.com (US) or fabdashery (UK) and be happy

[IRobertI 521]

You know, with all the problems that this silver PLA has caused for people you'd think they'd send out a statement to those affected so that they know it's crap.

[banana97 0]

This caused me so much grief! I have the V2 nozzle and had to pretty much take it apart to remove the PLA.

Was it just the silver which had issues? I also have their red spool.

I think I will stick with Faberdashery.

[blecheimer 9]

I have the same issue with their brass/gold PLA, that was delivered with my Ultimaker in August 2012. Totally un-useable.

Since then I try to avoid using Ultimaker PLA. Better safe than sorry.

[IRobertI 521]

I got red with my Ultimaker back in Oct 2011. While it works it's certainly not very good, not compared to Faberdashery for example. I can only describe it as temperamental/moody if that makes sense. But that's an old old batch so I can't imagine there being any left of it.

[Daid 306]

Note that we've switched supplier of PLA after multiple attempts to get the right stuff from our old supplier. Doesn't mean we are up to faberdashery-quality with our new supplier, but the diameter we get now is much more consistent. And no longer over 3mm, so it no longer gets stuck in the tubes.

We also made a new silver with our new supplier, which is much more awesome then the old "gray" silver. As it's a bit lighter in color and contains tiny glitters.

[joergen 2]

We also made a new silver with our new supplier, which is much more awesome then the old "gray" silver. As it's a bit lighter in color and contains tiny glitters.

Glad to hear the new stuff is better now... It would be reassuring to know that the old silver stock gets into recycling... In the long run, it would be even better if UM would become a diamondage or fabdashery reseller... This would make the first print for all new owners a much more positive experience, eliminating the frustration of failed first prints, even if it means to reduce the amount of initial PLA in the kit from 750 to 500gr. This would also raise the karma UM gets for providing really awesome filament, which works under a broader range of parameters, and isn't as marginal as the filement from early 2012.

[Daid 306]

As far as I know, we haven't sold anything of the old stock in months. We still have a few rolls here and there, but those are just used for small test prints. Marked as bad, and cannot be sold.

Another reason why I'm happy with this new silver, as the color is different it no longer looks the same as the bad silver.

So we have 3 silvers in the field now. "Bad gray-silver" from about half way 2012, "Good gray-silver" from our new supplier, which has the same color as the bad gray-silver. And there is the new "metalic" silver, which is also from our new supplier and thus warranted to be good.

Also, to be sure, we test one roll of each shipment we get. We pull the full roll trough a 3mm hole in a metal plate, and it should not get stuck. This should catch the case where we suddenly would get thick sections in the filament again. But so far, that has not happened.

[joergen 2]

IMO, there is a bit more to filament, than just consistant diameter, which is just a very basic mechanical parameter. Then there is printability, as I would call it, how nice and easy the extrusion happens, and how nice it cools/solidifies again, and how easy it moves through the machine. I do not know from which shelf the spools came from for the 3dea store, but there was a significant difference in printability between those and the printbl.com filament.

My point is that the very first filament a UM user receives with the kit, should be the most printable and fault-forgiving filament anywhere on the planet.

[Daid 306]

Not sure which PLA was shipped to NY. Could be our stuff or stuff from grrf.

We do test our new types of PLA for printability, but we do kinda assume the chemical consistency stays the same. After all, that's what the producers do, produce plastics with certain chemical properties. The mechanical properties (roundness, diameter) is what's new for them and thus causing the most problems.

Note, stole this link from another topic, this is our new silver:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/nl-nl/#A3G4TcsmdjgFe

As you can see, it's nice and sparkly, and ligher then the old gray.

[billdempsey 0]

It would be really cool if somebody at Ultimaker could test your existing PLA and post recommended diameter and temperature settings for each color/type.

As for the silver, I apparently got a reel of the good gray/silver. It was the first spool that I could actually get decent quality prints with. My troubles were with White and Black. The white, in particular, was unusable. That's sad because I spent about $75 on it when you include shipping to the U.S. and the poor exchange rate. I also got a decent spool of the gold. It was a little more finicky than the silver, but still usable. I used up both the gold and silver spools already and I'm partway through the natural spool, which is still thick and gooey at 215C. It also strings much worse than the gold or silver did. At least, I'm getting prints out of it. I never got any successful prints from the white or black. They just plugged constantly no matter what temperature I used.

[Daid 306]

At Ultimaker we print all our PLA at 210C except for the white, then we use 230C (we are aware of the state of white). Diameter can slightly vary between batch and even roll. If you want to know the best diameter to use for your roll, get digital calipers. Else, 2.89 seems like a good average.

But we never have plugging problems anymore with any of our machines, the V2 hotend solved that for all 12 of our R&D machines.

I've never had problems with the gold or black. (I actually had 2.3kg of black with my machine, only 0.5kg left now)

[msurunner 2]

(I actually had 2.3kg of black with my machine, only 0.5kg left now)

How much has UM replenished of your stock? j Working there now must have some benefits!

[Daid 306]

(I actually had 2.3kg of black with my machine, only 0.5kg left now)

How much has UM replenished of your stock? j Working there now must have some benefits!

I have 1 roll of the "bad batch of gray" from Ultimaker, which sometimes jams. That's it. But I already had 26 different colors, mostly from faberdashery before I started at Ultimaker. I'm not a heavy user of PLA, as I mostly print small things.

[billdempsey 0]

After I used up and/or threw away (white) my 5 spools from Ultimaker, I bought 7 colors x 5LB spools of PLA filament from Ultimachine and so far it seems to be great stuff. I run it at 220-225c with little to no stringing. Flows nicely.

[pepsicola 0]

I recently experienced problems with my PLA on my UM2. After reading this post I measured it and at the section where it jammed the filament was 3.3mm! I unravelled it and looked at the rest and it seems to be alright. Think it was just a glitch in that section of the reel.

I will watch it closely though and if I have any more problems I will take everyone's advice and switch my supplier.

Thanks everyone!

 

[gr5 2,265]

consider taking a piece of sheet metal and drilling a 3mm hole in it. Then passing the entire reel of filament through the hole just to make sure there are no more bad spots.