Purging is to clean a hotend by extruding several centimeters of filament through the hotend non-stop. This will clear out any old material still inside the heated zone of the hotend. Small bits of burnt or stuck material may also come out if it hasn't been there for too long.
You should perform a purge when switching material to avoid material or color contamination.
Other scenarios:
- When the 3D printer hasn't been used for a long time
- When changing hotends
- When your prints start showing issues like underflow, artifacts, etc
Steps:
- On the Portrait, go to Setup > Filaments > Unload filament to unload the old filament using the on-screen procedure.
- Once unloaded, load the new filament using the on-screen procedure (Setup > Filaments > Load filament).
- Now download the purge gcode for the Portrait 3D printer and unzip it onto a USB pen drive. This gcode will work with any supported material.
portrait_purge_routine.zip (1KB) - Insert the USB into the Portrait 3D printer.
- Press Print > USB flash drive to select the gcode from a list:
- portrait_purge_routine_T0.gcode for Hotend #1
- portrait_purge_routine_T1.gcode for Hotend #2