This was a 1st for me… Never had these kind of filling issues before. What can cause this? I didn’t change anything from previous prints that were successful.
Need more info on your setup but it looks to me like either a worn out hobbed bolt/drive gear (or at the very least one that needs some cleaning) or the nozzle is clogged or worse case the hotend needs to be replaced.
OK - I print a Lozenge as I type and the 1st layer fills perfect - the 2nd gets like this in the picture - missing a few fills every XX lines. Ill check the hobbed bolt if a tooth is clogged or if it is slipping but if it did I should hear it.
Its on a printrbot Simple btw…I removed the filament and checked but there is nothing visible then I reinserted the filament and printed a 2nd loxenge again…better result on layer 2 but then it repeats on the 2 top layers.
This makes me assume the filament is not fed correctly on the bolt as it was OK in the beginning…Ill have to redo the filament holder…
Just had similar issue with a printrbot hotend that I had to pull the nozzle off and heat it up with a torch to melt the crap out of it. Worked fine thereafter.
Thx for all tips - Ill clean the nozzle as well and see if it improves - so far nothing has helped. I think I can realign the hobbed bolt(gear in my case) on the motor shaft. My rig has this extruder
http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-1-75mm-direct-drive-extruder/
Yeah, I just upgraded my jr to that kit. I was using the laser cut gregs style extruder with a hyena hobbed bar that worked fine until all the teeth stripped out. Upgraded to the direct drive kit (what a PITA) and still had problems. Heated the nozzle and unscrewed it from the rest of the hotend, cleaned the nozzle so I could see light through it, pushed some filament through the nozzle-less hotend to remove any other debris, then screwed the nozzle back on. All is well now.
Cleaning nozzle, simple version: heat nozzle to 80°C, switch it off, pull out filament. And make sure there is always some kind of foam cube on the filament to keep dust out.
Ok so it is nozzle related. I’ll clean it tomorrow, thx
I have a small binder clip with some paper towel pinched into it. I wrap this around the filament. Very effective as the towels get tons of dust on them
Wow this is very similar to my experience. My hobbed gear is not evenly toothed but I found I could get a better print by raising temp to 192/187, printing a guide rude for filament and then tightening the idler. Just tightening caused the filament to always slip off the +X direction side of the gear. It’s still in even print but no gaps