Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears  

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

Maybe i am little to fast on the trigger .. but I have made the first print without “clicking” (at normal speed and temperature) after I have replaced nozzle, heat brake and PTFE tube 🙂

Off topic, but what is that thing that you printed? It looks quite interesting!

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

This is an IQ-test 😉

Thomas

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

I guess there's a language barrier. What I really wanted was the thingiverse link, if there is one, not to play 20 questions.

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

Could it be this?

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2516033
Joan

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

Maybe i am little to fast on the trigger .. but I have made the first print without “clicking” (at normal speed and temperature) after I have replaced nozzle, heat brake and PTFE tube 🙂

Off topic, but what is that thing that you printed? It looks quite interesting!

Hi, it is this i am printing 😉
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:201097

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

Was the OP ever able to solve this to his satisfaction?

I suppose one could insert additional temperature sensors to monitor the temperature in different stages of the heating process. That might help diagnose the problem. It does seem like R&D that end-users shouldn't have to be doing though.

Would a stock E3D V6 fit and function within the Prusa I3 MK3 PETG parts, or would only the customized Prusa E3D V6 fit?

I was able to solve my problem temporarily for about 2 weeks after completely replacing the hotend with an official one from Prusa before I started having the exact same blockage issues again (I'm currently unable to print PLA, it still has the same clogging issues sometimes hours into a print, sometimes immediately causing holes in the first layers and extruding filament in a non-uniform manner), I'm able to print ABS using custom settings I got from another forum user at .20mm but that's about it, which is unfortunate as almost all of the figurines I print were using PLA and looked and functioned great after printing.

Because of this, the printer is still usable for my prototyping business for quick ABS parts but not for anything else until I can really get this PLA failure issue figured out. I have tried 3 spools of Prusa PLA that previously all worked great but now all prints fail since whatever the cause of these blockage issues are. Perhaps that I'm not having failures often with ABS is a clue, but I find it odd that my printer was working perfectly with the exact same PLA and print settings and suddenly is unable to use PLA after those 2 weeks when I hadn't made any changes to the printer, I'd really like to find out the exact cause.

In my many attempts to fix the problems, I've replaced the heatbrake with a Microswiss heatbrake, replaced my PTFE tubing with new capricorn tubing, and replaced the nozzle as well (which shouldn't have had problems as it was a new authentic E3D nozzle but I figured replacing everything was a good idea). I've also re-done all calibration settings with each minor change and followed the official guides for replacing each part. I'm still having the same issues. See this page of another thread for extended details and photos of how my PLA prints turn out: https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/hardware-firmware-and-software-help-f64/filament-jams-in-heatbreak--t15788-s60.html .

The constant stress of having every PLA print fail, when I have a small business that mostly sells PLA prints was so frustrating that I stopped working on it for a week just to clear my head because I was waking up every day frustrated with my printer (I used to spend about half of every day while awake working on 3D modeling/printing things to sell and it was a big part of my routine).

I'm currently looking at replacement printers as I've been spending days trying to get PLA prints to work and fiddling with parts and settings and trying new parts with no change or improvement and it's really draining to work that much for no real progress. I haven't given up on my MK3, as I know at one point it was capable of good prints, but until I find a way to print PLA reliably again without having to replace the entire hotend regularly I think I need to find another option.

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

You may want to switch to a volcano. They do seem less prone to jamming.

Have you tried disengaging the idler and just pushing the filament through by hand? That might give you a better feel as to where/why it's getting stuck.

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

Hi

I had similar troubles recently.

I noticed that the extruder motor is really hot. After 1 hour printing, i can't touch it more than 1 seconds without burning my finger.

I removed the jammed filament around the gear, and touching the gear i felt it was extremely hot as well. All metal parts were extremely hot.

May it be hot enough to create problem with PLA ? Well, might be, as it seems to be far more than 50°C...

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

Your extruder motor is probably hot because it's struggling to push the filament through. You're right, though, that it could be softening the filament and causing the final fatal failure.

For comparison's sake, my extruder motor doesn't get that hot, even when it's pushing 4x the filament speed through the volcano. At the higher speeds it does get hotter though. In fact, all the motors do. That's to be expected.

I feel sorry for the OP. I hope he doesn't give up but instead finds a solution.

Have you tried using different, premium filament? Maybe yours got affected by humidity, or had contaminants in it. I'm leaning toward this hypothesis.

FWIW, the latest firmware is supposed to sense the onset of a jam and stop before it happens. Or, something like that. Maybe clear things out and try it?

Re: Filament continually clogging and getting stuck in extruder gears

I had all the issues explained here with my almost new MK3 (bought in October 2018) and PLAs from Prusa, and after successfully printing a few test models it started failing. My experiments and replacing the ptfe tube 3 times and a few more parts a couple of times, and the problem returning, I chanced to buy a heat creep with a tube inside after reading an excellent explanation of heat creep by metacollin in https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/hardware-firmware-and-software-help-f64/don-t-buy-the-e3d-titanium-heat-break-t22811.html . Photo below.

As to the details of why I think the MK3 model I have was failing, I built an enclosure and weather started heating at similar times. Thus the heatsink probably can't get any cooler than 40+ Centigrade. This can easily keep the heat break above the glassing temperature halfway through, which will cause heat creep and jams after a little time into printing with PLA (mine started happening always through the first 10min, and another one after probably half an hour, etc.).

As a reference, I bought the heat break seen on the photo from: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Stainless-Steel-Pipe-Throat-Heatbreak-with-Teflon-for-E3D-V6-Extruder/192595544144?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

So far I have printed with PLA and PETG and haven't had any issues, well into two-weeks of ~30h total printing. All within the enclosure. I use the enclosure even with PLA because dust protection.