Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
Hey everyone!
It's been 2 days since I completed the Prusa MK3 kit.
I was very happy to see all checks were OK without any errors and started printing the test PRUSA logo asap!
It all worked perfectly without any noise!
Here is where it started:
LINK TO VIDEO WITH CLICKING NOISE AND IDLE PULLEY: https://vimeo.com/311271150
After 2 prints of taking aprox 2 hours each I started to hear a clicking noise.
I've checked and it's coming from the pulley and I think it's from the idle pulley (if you check the other pulley, I think that's the extruder pulley? That one is just turning fine!).
I'm not sure what I should do to fix this?
Open it back up? I'm so not looking forward to disassembling the entire thing but if I have to ofcourse I will.
Anyone have any fixes for this issue? I've seen it sometimes missing a few lines or whatever, probably because it's having trouble pulling the filament correctly?
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
Provided that you have your two gears lined up perfectly, and your lock down screw is on the flat part of the extruder driveshaft, you just need to tune your tension screws. Those two long screws with a spring on them, if you have them too tight the small variance in the thickness of your filament can cause it to get stress and deform the filament trying to get it fed through, hang up altogether, or not feed it due to the filament being to narrow.
I always buy filament rated +- 0.02 mm for this reason, but even after that, making sure you have the right tension on the screws holding the idling gear down is important. Seeing how much you have your screws poking through the end, I think you have them too tight. Try backing it off 1 revolution at a time until you get really smooth advancing and retraction with minimal noise.
If it stops feeding filament altogether because you are getting a blob at the top of your PETG tube, that is usually a heat/retraction problem, not a tension problem.
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
I had the exact same issue. If you're careful, you can remove the top Z axis supports and carefully remove your entire X axis. Once removed you can unbolt the stepper and pull the idler pull assembly off the rods and replace the pulley.
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
I had the exact same issue. If you're careful, you can remove the top Z axis supports and carefully remove your entire X axis. Once removed you can unbolt the stepper and pull the idler pull assembly off the rods and replace the pulley.
This is probably not necessary. If his pully has come loose on the extruder motor you can get the lock down screw to line up so you can access it from the hatch to retighten it by manually advancing the motor in the display. I do not think it is damaged from his video... I believe he has the tension screws too tight. Back them off first and see what happens.
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
I had the exact same issue. If you're careful, you can remove the top Z axis supports and carefully remove your entire X axis. Once removed you can unbolt the stepper and pull the idler pull assembly off the rods and replace the pulley.
This is probably not necessary. If his pully has come loose on the extruder motor you can get the lock down screw to line up so you can access it from the hatch to retighten it by manually advancing the motor in the display. I do not think it is damaged from his video... I believe he has the tension screws too tight. Back them off first and see what happens.
Could be the tension screws. However, with the clicking type sound, my money is still on the bearing. The sound is just like what I was hearing in the videos below. The 2nd one is the bearing removed from the printer and a file was used as a spindle to turn the bearing upon. You can hear the noise very well in the 2nd video.
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
I had the exact same issue. If you're careful, you can remove the top Z axis supports and carefully remove your entire X axis. Once removed you can unbolt the stepper and pull the idler pull assembly off the rods and replace the pulley.
This is probably not necessary. If his pully has come loose on the extruder motor you can get the lock down screw to line up so you can access it from the hatch to retighten it by manually advancing the motor in the display. I do not think it is damaged from his video... I believe he has the tension screws too tight. Back them off first and see what happens.
Could be the tension screws. However, with the clicking type sound, my money is still on the bearing. The sound is just like what I was hearing in the videos below. The 2nd one is the bearing removed from the printer and a file was used as a spindle to turn the bearing upon. You can hear the noise very well in the 2nd video.
If I were only listening to the sound I may agree with you, but the video shoes it is responding to a physical obstruction. The idler gear struggles against a physical stress, overcomes it as the metal gears overtake it, it snaps suddenly making up the tooth.
Make sure the filament is centered and the tension screws are not too tight and this one should be solved.
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
This is probably not necessary. If his pully has come loose on the extruder motor you can get the lock down screw to line up so you can access it from the hatch to retighten it by manually advancing the motor in the display. I do not think it is damaged from his video... I believe he has the tension screws too tight. Back them off first and see what happens.
Could be the tension screws. However, with the clicking type sound, my money is still on the bearing. The sound is just like what I was hearing in the videos below. The 2nd one is the bearing removed from the printer and a file was used as a spindle to turn the bearing upon. You can hear the noise very well in the 2nd video.
If I were only listening to the sound I may agree with you, but the video shoes it is responding to a physical obstruction. The idler gear struggles against a physical stress, overcomes it as the metal gears overtake it, it snaps suddenly making up the tooth.
Make sure the filament is centered and the tension screws are not too tight and this one should be solved.
I just saw this got answered further!
Yes, releasing some tension in the screws has resulted in a complete removal of the clicking noise and everything is going correctly :)!
Thanks for the reply!
Re: Prusa MK3 - Idle pulley making clicking noises
I modified the axle supports in the Idler Door part to fix the issue. It eliminates any possibility of the axle shifting during printing. It also ensures the axle is always in the optimal "non-clicking" position.
This is the remixed part: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3504682