I am trying to fix extrusion issues on this replicator 2. It requires frequent cleaning to keep it printing at all and even then it starts banding. It seems to perform poorly at any temperature but this pic is with 200c. Thoughts? I don’t have any money to spend on this right now.
Makerbot replicator 2
Pla, 200c with cooling
0.4mm height
Looks like heat creep to me. Is your extruder cooling fan working properly? Bearings might need to be oiled. symptoms are it prints fine on the lower layers while it is cooler in the filament guide and as the print progresses the temperature creeps up the filament turning it into mush and causing the under extrusion.
Does it happen faster at higher temps?
Re. heat creep (which looks like possible to me as well) – has your hot end heatsink become loosened – unscrewed from the heat break? Worth checking.
It happens at or about the same layer on different temperatures. The uniform pattern also makes me think it is something more deterministic than simply under-extruding. I am beginning to suspect a slicing issue.
Do you have a bed part cooling fan? Is it on at the lower layers?
Do you have a hotend cooling fan? Is it on at the upper layers?
Does it happen on all your prints or just this one? Does it happen if you scale it down?
I scaled it down successfully in earlier attempts. I don’t know if this is a recent problem since the initial small ones.
No bed cooling. This is a stock rep2.
Clean the drive wheels. Replace the PTFE hot end liner. Plastic pieces clog the gear. The PTFE breaks down over time and at temperatures greater than 245C. I’ve done this many times on a Flashforge creator series. You can get a meter of PTFE on Amazon. An ice pick will clean the gear. https://www.google.com/search?q=ptfe+hot+end&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI85nK1brYAhUG32MKHU7CDgkQ_AUIEigC&biw=1024&bih=638&dpr=2#imgrc=P6iM6ZnCCxQglM:
