Extruder gear worn?

[melgray]

Hi all,

Spent the weekend putting together an enclosure for my printer in the garage. Thought I'd try it out by printing something in petg and it immediately jammed the extruder.

After I got the jam cleared up I can no longer extrude ANY type of filament.

Here is a video demonstrating the problem with me attempting to feed some PLA into the extruder.
https://youtu.be/-QmJUhrbsX0

Any ideas what to do next? Bumped out all the work I put into moving things around in the garage ended up cause problems

[zemlin]

Could be any number of things.
Are you certain the drive housing is clear through? - no filament left inside?
Alignment between the drive housing and hot end - is the filament making it through but missing the hole in the hot-end?
Tension setting on the roller against the extruder gear?
Damage to the extruder drive housing that interferes with the filament?

[melgray]

Yea, positive that the path is clear.

I *think* the pinion is worn. Came to this conclusion because I can still hear the stepper stepping even though the gear teeth aren't spinning.

Contacted Makergear support to see if I could get a photo of what the pinion is SUPPOSED to look like vs what's currently on the shaft of the stepper.

Running a late 2015 m2

[zemlin]

If the shaft is turning but the gear is not, the set screw in the gear needs to be tightened. If the motor is running but the shaft is not turning then the gear reducer is toast. I seriously doubt it's a gear wear issue.

[ednisley]

a photo of what the pinion is SUPPOSED to look like

Like this:
https://softsolder.com/2014/07/31/maker ... tus-check/



If you see this:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1790&p=8351#p8351



You know you've got a problem!

[zemlin]

I was thinking of the extruder gear, not the pinion feeding the planetary drive.

[ednisley]

not the pinion feeding the planetary drive

Stipulating that I'm easily confused, the term "pinion" seemed pretty specific; there's no possible way any finite amount of PLA will wear out the filament drive gear.

Having the little bitty setscrew come loose, now, that's entirely possible.

A simple witness mark across the front of the gearbox shaft and drive gear provides a useful check for that problem. This is the old-school drive, but shows the idea:
https://softsolder.com/2016/02/02/filament-drive-jam/



If the line ever stops being a line, then the drive gear isn't firmly attached to the shaft.

[Jules]

Ed, your posts always crack me up.