Extruder fail
Hi,
After about 5 very successful large-ish prints, I began to have stringing and notice a clicking sound. I tried a few temperature-related adjustments, cleaning the plate, etc., but eventually filament stopped coming out completely.
The hotend is heating and does not seem to be clogged itself (I've put the needle up there and there's no stoppage in the hotend itself).
The extruder idler pulley appears to be okay. It rotates and its shaft is fully inserted at both ends.
I think the grub screw of the motor pulley may not be quite flush with the flat side of the shaft. However, I'm having trouble rotating the shaft freely to get at it. What I'm seeing (in the attached photograph) seems to be some PLA glommed up against the pulley.
What's the best way to clear a jam at this place? Also, if anybody sees any other potential issues in the picture, or has any other suggestions for things to check, please let me know.
Thanks!
Re: Extruder fail
thats not filament, thats the ptfe tube and its supposed to be there. its a bit high imo, but should be fine.
do a cold pull, and verify you can feed filament freely by hand with the idler open.
Re: Extruder fail
Thanks for the reply. I think it doesn't show up well in the photo, but there's definitely filament inside the ptfe tube at that point, and I'm not able to get any new filament past that point. I think the only thing I can do is to try to find a way to force it downward.
Re: Extruder fail
I did manage to get it out of the way enough to make sure that the pulley is properly attached and to tighten the grub screw. So the pulley is okay, but there still seems to be a clog right there in the ptfe tube.
Also, I've tried pushing an accupuncture needle up the nozzle (heated), and it gradually runs into cold PLA. I can get it almost the length of the needle up but there's un-melted filament up there.
Re: Extruder fail
well if its far enough up it will be tough to get at without pulling the hotend. that should be your next step.
Re: Extruder fail
get a length of 1.5 mm brass rod from your local hobby shop or from amazon https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6LUO5Q/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 heat the hot end to temperature for the filament in use open the dood to the idler and once the hot end ids hot push the rod down from the top it will push the filament into the hot end and out the nozzle and act like a piston in a hypodermic needle if this fails you will need to remove the nozzle and use the brass rod again to push the clog through. then follow Joan's advice for putting your hot end back to work being sure the PTFE is hard against the e heat break and locked in place with a collet lock.
thanks to Bob at Muppet labs for this method.
Re: Extruder fail
Thanks all for the suggestions! I wound up overcoming my fear of taking the extruder apart and extracted the filament that way. That wasn't so bad after all, and the printer seems to be back in action printing smoothly. Thanks again!
Re: Extruder fail
Good news!
Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK