Oh mighty 3D printing gods, I have a new problem. So I have tweaked a few settings and I’m finally getting some prints out but I’m having an issue with the filament coming out. For the most part it’s fine but every so often the extruder “pops” and the PLA won’t come out. This of course leaves gaps in the plastic. Is there anyway to prevent this from happening? I can’t seem to find any adjustment screws so I’m kinda at a loss for how to fix this. A guy at work said that it could be that the filament that came with my printer could be crappy and not held to a tight enough tolerance so the gear is skipping. Is my only option new filament?
@Michael_Johnson that’s not my problem. It’s nice and tight. Just cleaned everything and it’s still doing it.
Take as lint free a cloth or paper towel you have. Put a drop of vegetable oil on it. Fold it over the filament as it goes into the extruder and use a bulldog clip to snug the fold against the filament.
This will lightly lubricate the filament and clean off any dust that could be following the filament into the head.
If it keeps happening it could be out of round filament, or extruder teeth filled with ground off filament. I don’t think it’s a heat break issue as your prints do finish.
@Rob_Sherman_Soulfibe I could try the oil I guess but there isn’t any dust. The thing is brand new. The teeth are nice and clean as well. But the weird thing is that sometimes it prints without any problems. Then next thing I know it instantly gets out of wack. I’m starting to think the filament that came with it is just garbage and I need to buy a different roll. That would suck because I specifically bought this one because it came with a roll of filament. But what can you expect from a cheap machine I guess.
Given that it prints , goes south, and then recovers would indicate bad filament or some kind of temporary clog in the head that works itself out. Try a different spool of filament.
The oil was more of a just in case. The paper towel wrapped around the filament acts as a dust catch.
I would suggest watching the hobbed bolt or whatever you have that drives the filament. It might be skipping because it’s not tight enough. So sir and watch it for a while. Boring, but might be the issue. Also, try raising the hot end temperature by 10 degrees or do.
Well I don’t see that anybody has suggested yet that it could be moisture. If trying a different spool isn’t easy for you to do, and under the theory that perhaps it’s that the filament has absorbed too much moisture, you might try drying a few meters of it (on very low heat) in your oven before printing and seeing if that removes the problem.
AHA! Is the extruder TOO tight? I know on my CTC Prusa that if I tighten the two bolts holding the fan on too far, they cause the encasement for the extruder to start binding up with the gears inside, if you’re also having slight variances with the temperature required to melt the filament/the temperature of the hotend is fluctuating, that might cause just enough required pressure at the hot end for extrusion that causes the gears in the extruder to seize against the extruder case.
TLDR; see if slackening the bolts that hold the hotend fa in place helps, with mine it entirely stopped the extruder stepper from ‘clacking’ (unless the hot end was too cool to actually extrude, but that’s expected behaviour)
@Mr_Bonce I will give that a shot! They are quite tight.
@Dani_Epstein the problem is that there is no adjustment for the gear that pulls the filament through. There is just a gear on one side and a roller on the other. Two screws hold it together and that’s it. Also, if the printer gets to a spot where it’s moving and NOT extruding, it pulls the filament up and then back down about a good half inch or so. When it’s moving like this, it has zero problems and feels like it has plenty of strength. I almost wonder if the extruder is trying to push too much filament through and it’s causing it to skip, eventually wearing away so much material that it can no longer grab it. I may have to try and figure out how to slow the extruder down.
That last one can also be an issue - stripping the filament and then it gets loose. So, before you do anything else, raise your hot end temperature considerably, at least 10C-15C.
@Dani_Epstein that doesn’t help. I’ve already had it up to 220 and it’s still doing it.
if you are printing in PLA with 0.2mm layers at 30mm/s you can safely go up to 240C. If that still does not work, then it’s a matter of eliminating every stage until we crack the problem.
@Dani_Epstein in another post someone gave me a link for a new feeder. One that is spring loaded so that it should compensate for any issues in the filament. We’ll see if it helps in about a week.