Help - extruder mishaps

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insta
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Re: Help - extruder mishaps

Post by insta » Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:50 pm

nirfriedman wrote:
Tim wrote: Maybe. Since it's a V4, you should be able to see the filament come out the bottom of the drive and go into the top of the hot-end. Is it getting that far? The most common place to get stuck is going into the hot-end, if the filament drive is out of alignment with the hot-end. If it's stuck in the filament drive, then there may be something there you can't see---but maybe try running filament through it a few times to make sure it goes through smoothy, before resorting to printing a new one. If it's getting into the hot-end and then getting stuck, and you're pretty sure the nozzle isn't clogged, then it's time to look at whether the heater is properly seated and the nozzle is getting up to temperature.
Yes, the filament gets into the hot-end, and even extrudes a bit before jamming. When cleaning the drive, I run a filament through it to make sure the path is clear. "extruding" with the hotend removed works fine.

How do I check that the temperature is correct? Again, this problem repeated with two hotends - so two temp sensors. Is that a board problem?
I'm going to side with Jules instead of Tim -- it's probably speed. I print my PETG at 260C, 40mm/sec, 0.2mm layers, 0.88 multiplier, with literally no drive gear tension. That's what it took to finally stop folding over in the extruder like you have there.

If you're melting the PETG, you're up to temperature.
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Tim
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Re: Help - extruder mishaps

Post by Tim » Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:58 pm

nirfriedman wrote:Yes, the filament gets into the hot-end, and even extrudes a bit before jamming. When cleaning the drive, I run a filament through it to make sure the path is clear. "extruding" with the hotend removed works fine.

How do I check that the temperature is correct? Again, this problem repeated with two hotends - so two temp sensors. Is that a board problem?
Not very likely. I assume the interface is showing the correct temperature, so only if the heater were loose would the heater be fine but the nozzle not getting completely up to temperature. But that's a pretty rare occurrence, and you wouldn't expect to see the same problem for two hot-ends. So I'm inclined to ask if you're absolutely sure you don't have the filament tension screw set too high or too low, since that would be the most likely reason for having jams. Although there are other things with similar symptoms, like having the filament snarled on the spool, or having a bad section of filament that suddenly gets larger or smaller in diameter.

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Tim
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Re: Help - extruder mishaps

Post by Tim » Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:04 pm

insta wrote:I'm going to side with Jules instead of Tim -- it's probably speed. I print my PETG at 260C, 40mm/sec, 0.2mm layers, 0.88 multiplier, with literally no drive gear tension. That's what it took to finally stop folding over in the extruder like you have there.
Interesting. The only time I've had filament fold up like that in the extruder (and it was PETg) was due to a jam, and was during a large-area print that had a corner pop off of the bed suddenly. I normally print PETg at 235C and up to 100mm/s, although if I want it to look pretty I'll slow it down a lot more than that, since it can get pretty stringy and messy at high speed, and the translucent PETg filaments end up with a dull finish at high speed.

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Jules
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Re: Help - extruder mishaps

Post by Jules » Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:13 pm

I'd check one other thing if possible - examine the openings that the filament passes through in the filament drive and make sure they are round, and directing the filament to where it needs to go inside the drive. Maybe a little bit cracked off inside of the drive itself, and the filament isn't lining up properly any more. Or maybe there is something jamming the filament inside the drive. Or the guide wheel has gotten a little loose.

Might not be a bad idea to try a different drive anyway and see if the problem persists.

nirfriedman
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Re: Help - extruder mishaps

Post by nirfriedman » Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:17 pm

Jules wrote: Might not be a bad idea to try a different drive anyway and see if the problem persists.
I am printing another drive (using the extruder that does work). So updates only after the print (and dinner).

Thanks again Jules, Tim, and Insta for the suggestions.

nirfriedman
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Re: Help - extruder mishaps

Post by nirfriedman » Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:27 am

nirfriedman wrote:
I am printing another drive (using the extruder that does work). So updates only after the print (and dinner).
Printing a new filament drive proved to be useless -- I printed in PTEG and filament path was too narrow...

I did revisit the original drive, and this time cleaned the path with a 2mm drill bit and this seems to do the trick (at least for one test print). I am now printing with much slower setting (40mm/s) and so far so good. Will try to speed it up once I get few prints going smoothly.

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