Groaning printer and TPU killed me
Hi all,
First time posting, thank you all for your help. I figured I'd reach out here before running to support. My printer is making a groaning sound. I purchased it maybe 3-4 weeks ago and it didn't make this sound at first. I posted a video on youtube so you can hear what I'm talking about:
Another note, I use BASF TPU 85A for a lot of projects. It finally jammed in the printer and I had to open the idler and do some pulling. I wasn't able to get it out for a bit but it finally came out. When I went back to feed it back in with the load feature it would not want to feed it for a while. I went back to PLA and it fed fine then I came back and tried another 4 times on separate occasions and it finally started to feed the TPU again. I didn't know if you all had any suggestions on how to remedy that for the future?
Thanks
RE: Groaning printer and TPU killed me
This modified part really helped with gripping Flex filament. I also plan on adding this, but I can't say I've tried it yet.
RE: Groaning printer and TPU killed me
I suffered from the TPU jamming issue as well. It seems that filament profiles from earlier versions of PrusaSlicer are loaded with some default values for the ramming and unloading rates that are way too fast for soft flexibles. Reducing the loading and unloading speeds in the filament settings helped me quite a bit, but I still pull on the TPU by hand while it unloads to reduce the chance that it gets behind the extruder gear.
RE: Groaning printer and TPU killed me
When you move each axis on its own do any have an odd sound? I had the same problem and my z axis was the route cause. I just removed the top rod holder things and re aligned the rods as straight as i could and it made it a lot quieter. If the Y axis sounds abnormal i would make sure the belts are straight, and loosen the front 4 screws holding the rods, pull the bed forward towards the front 4 loose screws and the retighten them, and repeat the same process at the back. Having the printer on a light table can create a lot of vibration which makes it sound a lot louder but i still feel its important to reduce any friction and abnormal sounds as much as possible.
When i sent my video to prusa support they said it sounded normal but also sent me this https://help.prusa3d.com/article/vibration-when-printing-mk3s-mk2-5s_2177
Its mostly about the mk3 but they said its relatable to the mk4
RE: Groaning printer and TPU killed me
I wanted to reach out and thank you all for your input and assistance. I will work on implementing some these!