Extruder clicks
My extruder clicks, stutter or skips. I don't know how you call it.
I have well over 1300 hours of printing with great results and many problems i could easely fix myself with some logic thinking. Roughly 99% of these prints were PLA. But THIS problem however gives me a headache.
I have removed the hot end with the PTFE tube attached to it and disassembled the whole thing. Then I used a 2mm drill to clean the shaft from debris and replaced the nozzle. After that i re-assembled it and loaded new filament and it seemed to work. I printed for about 1 hour succsfully and then the extruder started having the same problems. It's like the filament can't go trough the shaft properly, even when pushing the filament manually.
What am i missing?
Re: Extruder clicks
Search the forums for the thread on extruder clicking; there's a known issue with the gear idler shaft coming loose on one end and doing exactly what you describe. The video in that thread shows the problem fairly well, and the solution.
Re: Extruder clicks
I solved it. After disassembling the hot end for the second time i had silver greasy fingers. It turns out there was thermal paste applied to the screwthread of the heatbreak, i din't see it the first time. I applied new thin coat of thermal paste and everything works like it should. It makes sense though, the filament is now cooler and stiffer at that point so it will be pushed down the nozzle more easely. No more jams.
I searched for a few days on the internet. It's strange that this solution isn't mentioned anywhere.