M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

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jeffpowell101
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Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:22 am

Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by jeffpowell101 » Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:56 pm

So my question now is, how do i best take the hot end apart and clean the nozzle/barrel? I see instructions online on how to put it together but not necessarily how to take it apart. My experience with other 3D printers is you need the end to be hot when you take the nozzle off, doesn't seem possible or at least simple here.

jsc
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Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by jsc » Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:40 am

Have you done all the mechanical checks that some others suggested before? You haven't said. Those were all good suggestions, high probability of occurrence ones. Without first making sure the obvious, common mechanical faults aren't in play, it will be hard to debug your print issues, especially since you have some experience and have gotten good prints before.

To take apart the hot end for cleaning, you can take the assembly instructions and just follow them in reverse. You will need some PTFE tape for reassembly. Some proper sized wrenches (listed in the instructions) help a lot. It shouldn't be necessary to do this unless you have a serious clog. If you extrude 20mm in free air, does it appear to be extruding properly? If you have inconsistent extrusion, a cleaning may help. You may have gotten dust in there. Once you have it apart, you can give the barrel and nozzle a good soak in paint stripper. Here's a thread with my own experiences in clog clearing: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=732

jeffpowell101
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Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by jeffpowell101 » Fri Feb 13, 2015 12:48 am

yes, I have done all of the mechanical checks that have been recommended. Tightened belts, cleaned the filament gear and the area around it, assured the screws in the extruder are tight. Hopefully cleaning the barrel and nozzle will do the trick, just couldn't figure out how to safely unscrew the two or get it out of the PEEK barrel (the black part at the top of the hot end) Guess I need to order some PTFE tape first.

jeffpowell101
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Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:22 am

Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by jeffpowell101 » Fri Feb 13, 2015 5:17 am

First I need unscrew the PEEK plastic part, right? I cannot get it to budge, i'm holding the PEEK part with my hand and the nozzle with a wrench.

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sthone
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Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by sthone » Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:14 pm

Before you go taking it apart did you try doing the cold pull technique on it to clean it? I did this last night and you can see from the below picture is is very effective when it even cleans out the .35 tip.
clog001.jpg
clog001.jpg (28.37 KiB) Viewed 9438 times
Basically with the temp off and the filament still in the extruder I removed the entire thing from the motor. After it is removed turn on the extruder and when it reaches around 80c give a yank on the filament and it should be just hot enough to pull out but just soft enough so everything in the nozzle/barrel should and come out with it. (it might stretch a bit when you pull on it) That temp was using PLA though, read this page for more info on using other filament types. http://bukobot.com/nozzle-cleaning

-Steve
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jeffpowell101
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:22 am

Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by jeffpowell101 » Wed Feb 25, 2015 2:23 am

I have not gotten back to a .35mm nozzle. Need to get some paint stripper for my clogged one, I can't unscrew it.

Switched to a .5mm nozzle. Had bridge nylon prints that worked, but weren't as good as the .35mm nozzle prints I had done. May be my uncertainty in which settings to use (used these settings with some small tweaks - ), may be problems with my material (put it back in my dehumidifier set-up) or may just not be good to print it with a .5mm nozzle. Not sure, but i'll run some tests at some point in the future.

Printed ABS with a .5mm nozzle very well, so It seems I have no major problems and it all had to do with the other nozzle, though i'm not completely convinced. Seems some of my layers were shifted some times. For now, it at least works well. I used the rsilver's ABS settings on thingiverse, modified for the .5mm nozzle (.6 width, .3 height).

jeffpowell101
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:22 am

Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by jeffpowell101 » Wed Feb 25, 2015 3:21 am

My printer is making a strange noise. I thought it was a wire cover scraping against the frame but it is not, seems to be coming from my extruder. Tried to upload it to vid.me and tiny url but neither is working. I've uploaded it here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2ZcS- ... sp=sharing

This part has appeared on the floor below my printer, not sure where it goes or if it is related to my problem
http://imgur.com/oqVG8WY

I should mention that I just switched out ABS spools. Maybe a string is trapped in the extruder. I'll clean it out after this print.

Dale Reed
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Re: M2 (less than month old) suddenly printing poorly

Post by Dale Reed » Wed Feb 25, 2015 4:40 am

jeffpowell101,

Regarding the little rubber foot (I replied in the other thread as well, copied here): it sticks on the bottom of the bar that holds the bottom ends of the smooth Z slide rods, near the front of the printer. It's there to give more support to that corner, because the big (1") rubber foot at the front left can't be mounted right at the corner and is set back a ways.

If you put a lot of 3-in-1 oil on the rods, it may seep down along the rod and get on the bottom of the rod support block, ruining the adhesive that sticks that little foot on. Clean off the oil on the bottom (isopropyl, maybe...), and stick a new foot at the very front end of that bar.

HTH
Dale

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