Third day of our agar agar tests. Today we are going to try to test a basic 2d shape with an smaller nozzle diameter. And see what happens. Spoiler alert. MEGA FAIL.

Agar Agar test

Also we will be using a new Bussoga tile. More?

For this test we are using our first day#1 recipe: 100gr of water 2gr of Agar agar. Heating the capsule at 55ºC.

1st Experiment

Printing a circle of 5cm diameter. 1 layer. Speed 10mm/s.

We could not even set the proper low pressure for such small nozzle. Got clogged too fast for a diameter of 0.8mm. We are going to do a second round with a 1.5mm nozzle.

2nd Experiment

Same conditions as first but with 1.5mm nozzle. Same issue here. Nozzle get clogged really easy. Interesting enough that during day#2 it worked hmmmm… let’s try again rearrenging the heating system.

3rd Experiment

After cranking up the heating temperature up to 60ºC (pronterface reading) and readjusting the heating system to cover more the end of the nozzle. It ALMOST worked. We have a serious issue with the capsule heating system.

Cool enough for this 3rd test we reused the already gellified agar agar by reheating it. Thanks to its reversible properties. At least we tested something that works 🙂

Conclusions

Another day, another fail, another lesson. Controlling the heating temperature of the nozzle tip is really important (no news here). The tip of the nozzle is the weakest chain-link. It is that hardest part to heat properly, not that much space to add a proper heater, and also is the only open area of the capsule where the material is in contact with the exterior temperature. Meaning that is the first part to get cold.

We need to workout a system that is able to keep the tip of the nozzle at the right temperature. That is where we are going to focus for now.