Strange sound from the extruder in the middle of the print
Hi, sometimes everything worked fine but in the middle of the print, I heard 'ka ka ka ka' sound from the extruder and the printer did not print properly. What are possible causes for that? I loosened and tightened the idler but the problem was not fixed.
This does read like an idler setting problem. Try loosening it and then retightening in small steps until it grips OK.
Cheerio,
RE: Strange sound from the extruder in the middle of the print
This does read like an idler setting problem. Try loosening it and then retightening in small steps until it grips OK.
Cheerio,
To do this, is it the best to do it under Load Filament mode?
RE: Strange sound from the extruder in the middle of the print
Hi, sometimes everything worked fine but in the middle of the print, I heard 'ka ka ka ka' sound from the extruder and the printer did not print properly. What are possible causes for that? I loosened and tightened the idler but the problem was not fixed.
Good morning Prusanewuser,
Is this happening during intricate parts of the print?
Are you using the standard 0.8mm retraction? (Or larger?)
Have you considered using a smaller retraction?
I use 0.4mm retraction for PLA and PETG and the clicking no longer happens.
regards 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
RE:
Good morning Joan,
What do you mean by "intricate parts of the print"?
Yes, I am using the standard 0.8mm retraction. Prusa Slicer 2.4.1
Haven't tried smaller retraction but I can try 0.4mm.
What caused such clicking issue? Looks like whenever this happens, I cannot load or unload filament automatically easily. I think I had to open the door to manually remove it.
RE: Strange sound from the extruder in the middle of the print
It was just printing a flat surface, nothing fancy.
To do this, is it the best to do it under Load Filament mode?
Quickest is to start a very simple print, say a rectangle, and repeatedly pause, tweak, pause ... until you're close then scrap the print and start over with something more typical of your workload.
Cheerio,
RE:
A straight line has next to no complexity, so the printer just prints...
a curve or circle is a little more complex, but the printer typically just prints it.
however if the model is very complex, the slicer will start to jump about as it prints the various sections of the print. (Perhaps on a miniature figure, where there are lost of detail moves)
If you have retractions set for printer movements, your hot filament will be retracted many times per layer, this will tend to take hot molten filament up into the heatbreak, towards the cold zone, causing the temperature to rise in this area. then when the nozzle arrives at the next start point, the filament is detracted, the filament is pushed into the nozzle again, and being hot, the filament may spread sideways a little. meanwhile the cold fresh filament is drawn into the supposedly cold part of the heat break, which was warmed with the last move, some of this heat will transfer back into the supposedly cold filament.. over a number of cycles of detraction / retraction etc, the filament may start packing into the nozzle as the movement of the incoming filament hammers into the molten and partially molten filament, in the melt zone and the heatbreak, causing it to hammer against the restricting nozzle opening. this van start to deform the filament, overfilling the space available for it, the more intricate the model, the greater scope for this deformation, add to this a long retraction, this can cause more heat to be transferred further into the cold end... worsening the situation... this is sometimes called heat creep.
reducing the retraction, reduces the heat creep. (within reason.) you can also prevent retractions on the same layer, which also improves matters.
so less complex models tend to print easily, more complex models can be more problematic...
in a bowden feed printer, some of the retraction length is needed just to counter the 'slop' in the feed tube, the bigger the difference in diameter between the filament and the bowden tube, the greater the retraction needs to be, just to compensate for the sloppy fit of the filament in the tube.
this is why Prusa Mini and ender/creality printers tend to have larger retractions set, compared to the mk3 series.
as you change the nozzle size the effects of the heat creep tend to become more aparrent, more quickly, because the tiny volumes of filament, used for each section of model, cause correspondingly less cold filament to be moved into the heat break from the cold, end. resulting in less cooling, so heat creep can happen faster.
My Mk2 with MMU1 is bowden feed, default retraction is 4mm, I found this gave me blockages, so I reduced to 2mm retraction, and blockages became less frequent.
my mk3's used to use 0.8mm retraction, they now use 0.4mm retraction, and I get fewer blockages.
retraction is often seen as the defacto cure for stringing, (Especially if someone has changed from a Bowden feed printer to a direct feed printer) but many times, reducing the print temperature can have a dramatic effect.
have a play, see for yourself.
regards 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