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enter image description hereI recently tried to use Matterhackers Quantum filament and I've run into some issues and curious if anyone else has. I have a CR6-SE with community firmware, a regular Bowden tube with upgraded heatbreak (the metal tube that goes inside the heat block where the material is melted) installed, slicing software is Cura 15. My issue is I can't get it to print well or for long. I can run Polymaker, Geeektech, Sunlu, and most other brands of PLA without issue or minor tweaks. This stuff will not play nice. I'm at my wit's end trying to figure this out. Here are something's I've tried. The first 15 to 30 layers will go down beautifully and then it just stops extruding. When it starts to stop extruding it will print blobs all over the print surface, wispy lines, then nothing. If I am not there watching it, it will have layers of virtually very little filament like it was getting clogged up and the next layers after that will be normal.

Other measures taken:

  • Hot end temperature ranges 215 to 240 °C as per Matterhackers support instructions.
  • Adjusting retraction distance/speed independent of each other.
  • Adjusted heat bed ranges 40 to 70 °C.
  • Adjusted print speeds 30 to 60 mm/s.
  • Adjusting initial Z height from 0.15 to 0.2 mm.
  • Put the filament in a food dehydrator for 2 to 48 hrs.

It's not just one particular file either; it's anything I try to print with this filament from a simple cube to complex curves and angles.

Image 1 shows first layer prints, these are mostly smooth and not problem with adhesion to the bed.

Image 2 shows how the print is changing. The temp has stayed constant throughout the entire print, but only towards the top is it smoothing out. On the bottom (pic doesn't show it clearly) there are layers missing, or partial layers missing.

print variations with constant temp

Dennis Best II
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    You haven't even explained what these "some issues" are except that it won't "print well for long". For this question to be answerable you need to at least show pictures of what's wrong or a description of the specific problems, ideally both. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jul 12 '22 at 16:18
  • I will post pics when I get home from work. – Dennis Best II Jul 12 '22 at 18:15
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    If you are going to add images, please explain what `with upgraded heatbreak installed` actually means. I get the impression that it is an [all-metal heat break](/q/10863) which are prone to cause heat creep, the strange thing is that I fail to understand why other filaments do work well. Are the other filaments printed at lower temperatures? That would explain it! So please update your question. – 0scar Jul 13 '22 at 11:41
  • @0scar yes, it is an all metal heat break. I had to change it out because the stock one from Creality pushes the Bowden tube all the way down to the nozzle. The new one stops the Bowden tube from going into the heat block, allowing only the material through. – Dennis Best II Jul 15 '22 at 14:20
  • @0scar yes, the temps are different .. vastly different. Polymaker, Geeektech, and Sunlu print awesome at 220 °C @ 65 mm/s. Matterhackers Quantum filament recommends 230 to 240 to print. Tech support from them told me to try going up to 250, but that just straight out clogged up my nozzle. – Dennis Best II Jul 15 '22 at 14:24
  • PLA usually prints better with lined heat breaks rather than all metal ones, unless they are bi-metal heat breaks. A plain all metal heat break isn't always an upgrade, it is a widely misunderstood assumption that it is an upgrade. – 0scar Jul 15 '22 at 22:32
  • @0scar: I used to think and say that too, but if the all-metal one is machined from a single piece and doesn't have internal lips for anything to get caught on, and has plenty metal length before the junction with the PTFE, it really is pretty much just a pure upgrade. Of course it's hard to know whether this applies to the one OP bought. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jul 16 '22 at 03:22
  • But, OP, if you have an all-metal heat break, even one that's working very well, but still the original Creality extruder, your problem is probably just that the extruder is junk. It has very very little grip in the filament, and will fail as soon as there's any resistance in the filament path, which there will naturally be more of with metal, especially after any nontrivial amount of retraction and resume has taken place. If it just happens with this one filament, the filament is probably just slightly harder to grip... – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jul 16 '22 at 03:25
  • ...but a decent extruder will not be on the borderline of not gripping the filament like that. A good extruder will grip the filament so well it skips motor steps before the filament slips. You can try increasing the spring arm tension, cleaning the brass extruder gear, etc. but you should probably just buy a good extruder with a gear that wraps around the grips the filament rather than just touching it at a single tangent point. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jul 16 '22 at 03:27
  • @oscar it is a bi metal heat break. Copper and titanium for heat dispersion to prevent heat creep and melting / warping of the PFTE tube. I'm looking at getting a new dual geared extruder for it. The CR6-SE has an enclosed extruder, so there really isn't a way to increase the tension on the spring or replace the spring. It is also a pita to take apart and clean, once you take the cover off the spring wants to fly and the small parts inside don't stay put either. – Dennis Best II Jul 18 '22 at 12:41

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