Extruder clips / hits print

[crashjupiter]

After quite a few successful prints, my extruder has started hitting the print while printing. Most of the time, I just hear it, but once in a while, it hits hard enough to dehere the print from the bed. Most recently, it clipped the print, 24 hours into the print, hard enough to dehere a raft.

What can I do to fix this?

[Jules]

Are you printing PLA?

Make sure you have very.good.adhesive on your plate, and for tall prints that run for multiple hours, try pointing a fan at it as well as running the bed fan on full.

PLA warps up as it cools, particularly on overhangs, so make sure that there is good solid support underneath overhang areas, and/or hit it with more cooling to cool it off faster and stop the warp process.

[crashjupiter]

Yes, it's PLA. So basically, you want to keep the bed heated, but cool the print as quickly as possible, huh? Good to know. If I aim a fan at it, should I up the bed temp to compensate?

[Jules]

Yes, it's PLA. So basically, you want to keep the bed heated, but cool the print as quickly as possible, huh? Good to know. If I aim a fan at it, should I up the bed temp to compensate?

If you're doing 24 hour prints you want to keep the bed temp the same, but use a LOT of hairspray or glue. Too much heat on the bed can destabilize tall prints. The glue keeps it in place without over melting it.

[crashjupiter]

If you're doing 24 hour prints you want to keep the bed temp the same, but use a LOT of hairspray or glue. Too much heat on the bed can destabilize tall prints. The glue keeps it in place without over melting it.

I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes!