Extruder/Filament alignment

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therenegademaster
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:12 pm

Extruder/Filament alignment

Post by therenegademaster » Tue Jun 07, 2016 4:32 am

I recently replaced my hotend, and now I can't seem to get the filament to align with it to go through. I brought the hotend up to temperature, extrude 100mm in Simplify 3d, and tried wiggling/adjusting the alignment of the hotend with some pliers to hopefully get the right position, but nothing seems to work, and I can't get the filament to go through.

Any tips for getting this right?

Brad

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Jules
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Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:36 am

Re: Extruder/Filament alignment

Post by Jules » Tue Jun 07, 2016 5:04 am

Is it a V4 style hot end? Or V3B?

For the V4, it helps to remove the fan assembly, get down at eye level at the bottom of the filament drive, with a small flashlight, and a light colored filament to feed through, to make sure that you have the hole in the filament drive and the top of the hot end lined up - very easy for those to be slightly out of kilter.

If you just replaced a V3B with a V4 - it's possible to not have the holes lined up correctly during the initial installation, (at least it can happen with the duals - I'm guessing it can on singles as well.) If that's the case, go back to the Motor Bracket Assembly in your instructions and make sure you have the bracket aligned properly.

therenegademaster
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:12 pm

Re: Extruder/Filament alignment

Post by therenegademaster » Tue Jun 07, 2016 7:22 am

It's a V3B assembly. It seems to have some room to slide around, I just have no way of knowing how to adjust to get the filament to actually feed through. I tried cutting the filament at an angle to make as small an entry point as possible, but I'm still just randomly twisting the hot end with my pliers and hoping (in vain) that the filament will go through.

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Matt_Sharkey
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Re: Extruder/Filament alignment

Post by Matt_Sharkey » Tue Jun 07, 2016 11:54 am

The fitment between each PTFE tube should be the same, but maybe not. I had an issue with alignment once so I removed the PTFE tube from the brass tube as well as the filament drive. I put them together and looked down the pathway that the filament travels. It should be a perfect alignment. if not, you can try to cut away at the filament drive to get it to fit.

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jimc
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Re: Extruder/Filament alignment

Post by jimc » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:27 pm

Put a very slight chamfer on the edge of the white ptfe that lines the peek barrel.

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