Ok Im at a loss now. Like ready to give up and burn this thing loss.
I have been having prints fail consistently for almost a month. I have been trying to make these parts for a new concept Im building. Simple 4 walls, no complex geometry.
Almost every time I get halfway through and the parts fail at the cold end. Either filament binds up or grinds away or back drives the motor in the case of the airtripper. Here’s what I’ve tried so far and machine specs.
Extruder- Air tripper v5 with 66oz/in motors and makerbot mk8 drive gear, and Wades Geared modified for bowden. Both with PTFE tube ran all the way to the drive roll to support filament.
Hotend - E3Dv5 with .4mm nozzle.
Filament - Coex3D 1.75mm ABS (3 colors), SeeMeCNC Silver ABS.
Hosts- Repetier .95F and OctoPrint
Slicer- Slic3R 1.0, 1.1, 1.0.1, Simplify3D
Slice settings
Layer .2
infill - rectilinear, line, honeycomb, 15-70%
speed -50 -100mm/sec (can usually print at 100 no problem)
retract 3-5.5mm at 40-80mm/sec
acceleration 500-1000
Temp 220-250°C
Ive cleaned my nozzle many times to the point that its shining inside and out, Ive changed bowden tubes, motors, drivers, extruder gears and hobbed bolts. Im not sure what too try next. I just know I want to print reliably.
If you need any other details ask that’s all I can think of now. Whats really frustrating is its random I have a full set of these parts that printed fine. But it took almost 2kg of filament to get there. This is to a point that Im ready to quit this all together. The time I have spent on this is just too damn much and the only variable left is me I think. So who’s got some advice.
tl;dr Prints failing halfway through, tried everything under the sun. Need new ideas.
Also if you’re using a bowden, it might be binding at certain locations. Also the extruder motor could be overheating.
Does it also fail when you disable retraction? And personally I think printing at 8.0mm^3/s (0.2100.4) is damn impressive. Out of my UM1 .4mm nozzle I get at most 3.2mm^3/s (allthough other UM1 users get higher), and for reliable retraction I go below 2.2mm^3/s. Have you tried half the layer height to reduce the flow and a lighter grind-grip on the filament?
OK I knew people would bring up things I forgot. 
The Bowden is a gentle loop. No pinch points. I made sure of that.
I adjusted the trim pots on the motors as well. They are receiving proper amperage and are “cool” even after hours of printing. Like I can hold my hand on them and its pleasant.
The temp logs are smooth. As far as I can tell. I have some thermistors I suspose I could try changing them out but I don’t have another 12v cartridge to try.
Like @Corey_Punches suggests, check/redo your connections on the therm and heater cartridge all the way back to the controller. Best practice is to isolate solder connections from all mechanical stress to prevent fracture/failure due to fatigue.
When it fails can you push filament to the hotend by hand or is it difficult to do so? I was having problems with extrusion so I increased the temp in the e3d hotend. I’ve found I need 245 to print at 60mm/s. For 100mm/s I’d suspect you need it even hotter.
Have you tried printing .3mm layers? I used to do .25 layers with .35 nozzles, but i had trouble with that height on the .4 nozzle. Thus far it manages .3 layers ok for me.
@Matt_Miller all the connections are isolated from stress and dont move. The only solder connection is the termistor to the wire, so I will check that.
@Chapman_Baetzel The filament usually starts out ok and gets more difficult. Ill have to check this silver stuff as Im not at home and this is the first failure with it. When I loaded it up last night it flowed much nicer then the coex stuff. I have been able to print at 230-240 since christmas without issues until the last couple weeks. I was pretty sure these were filament/supplier issues until this one. Ill check that stuff when I get home in a few hours
Got the E3D’s fan going full blast?
wired directly to the power supply.
Tried different tension settings for the extruder’s idler? Both too tight and too loose setting can lave you with a grinding hobbed bolt.
man Thomas Ive tried so many. Different springs, hoses, super tight-loose and everything in between. And switched from a wades geared extruder to air tripper direct extruder. Its really down to the hotend or filament I think.
The only other thing i think of is some sort of contamination of the filament that ends up jamming the nozzle - either from particles inside the filament itself, particles/dust the filament picks up from the environment or swarf/chippings from the hobbed bolt (and the related parts).
@Sanjay_Mortimer , got an idea on what could cause this?
That was my thought and why I switched suppliers. I dont feel like silver was the best one to go with but it was the only ABS I had from a different supplier. I have a roll of natural from another supplier coming today that Im interested to test. Ive heard nothing but great things about them its IC3D.
Before I ran these parts I cleaned the nozzle completely to a shiny brass point. The Drive gear is a purchased one from makerbot so there isnt any chips on this one.
@Joe_Spanier Try this…put a giant box over the top of this or put it in a closet at least 2 feet off the ground and then print. See how it turns out. Be nearby and/or watching a webcam or phone video feed while printing to avoid issues due to overheating.
ABS is a pain in the butt when it gets far enough off of the heated bed and air is allowed to circulate.
Printer is fully enclosed…
That issue is usually cracking and warping though. Not a failure to extrude.
I just started using my e3d and it has been a temperamental beast. I had the same problem as you using PLA. To print PLA I found I have to bring the temps all the way up to 250c. Try bringing your temps up after you start printing. If you idle ABS @ a high temp it will clog but if you keep in moving you can really crank the temps up. Don’t be afraid of bringing the temps up to 280-290.
I havent ran that hot yet. I guess I could try it.
You don’t have much to loose
@Joe_Spanier we are experiencing a similar problem with pla and we are investigating too.
I agree with @Thomas_Sanladerer about filament
I suggest you to try to print the same gcode with a filament of a different supplier.
The next time will have the problem I will cut some meters of filament because I really suspect that is a filament production fault.
Maybe a wrong paste mixing, or a non complete reaction by catalyzers…