Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Still learning the proper terminology for all the parts, so bear with me on this one lol...
Fixed the previous issues from my threads, and was good to go. When I pre-heated and went to load the filament, I noticed it didn't seem to take so I tried again and it started sucking it in after I wiggled it a bit.
That said, I noticed something just didn't seem right with the filament after trying another spool with the same issues. When I pulled out the springed screws and looked straight down the hole from the top of the extruder body, I could clearly see it wasn't a straight shot to the PTFE tube... I think that's what it's called. Also noticed the filment had grind marks on it from the pulley and all the friction where it was trying to pull it through. Needless to say, I put it up for the night.
When I initially put the body together for the extruder, it really wasn't a good fit. I wasn't sure if this was by design for a cable or something, but it wouldn't go flush together although the screws took care of most of that and everything was solid once it was all assembled. I double and triple checked my build to make sure I didn't miss anything, but that hasn't been the case so I assume it's may just a part that's been printed a little off?
Here are the pics...
Not sure if I need to shave something down or drill a larger hold up top?
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Adam
Firstly, do not make any adjustments to the hole!
The alignment of the driving gear with the PTFE tubing is the important bit and if you have the filament cut at an angle as per the instructions, it will centre itself and be pushed down the tubing.
You also need sufficient pressure on the springs to grip the filament and ensure centring.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
I haven't done anything yet, but everything is exactly as it's supposed to be according to the plans. After my previous mistakes, I wanted to triple check everything before posting another request for help 😀
The filament was cut at an angle as well, that was tougher than expected (initially) but it definitely had a good angle each time I tried last night.
Is it supposed to go "straight" down from the top hole, and light touch the pulley before going into the tube as that isn't the case with mine? I assumed you should be able to slot a piece in (with the side open) and it should go straight in and not hit the lip of the tube so it has to be manually forced.
There are no pictures of it online so I couldn't see how it is supposed to look when it's actually being fed into the tube. As mentioned the body itself did not fit the hot end properly... Did yours fit flush when the body was closed together or was there a noticeable gap?
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Hi Adam
Here's a picture of my filament feed:
The hot-end assembly is a tight fin in the housing; that is normal. The gaps close up when the screws are tightened and the fan attached.
With mine, there looks to be a slight angle from front of printer to the back, but I think that is because of the slight bend in the filament and the position of the spool holder.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Thanks for the photo, that helped quite a bit.
I rechecked everything and tried to print a few more times to no avail. When it tries to load the filament, it starts to take, than just makes a grindy noise and while it catches the filament, it hardly moves. Tried several times, and it's not pulling it into the end, but it is leaving lots of teeth marks in the filament from trying. I made sure the filament was cut at a good angle and inserted properly as well, still a no go.
To me, it still looks like the housing is off by a millimeter or two, seems like the motor is a little too far over if that makes sense. If it were back a bit, that would allow the filament to basically go straight down into the tube while lightly resting on the pulley instead of having to be bent around it to be inserted.
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Adam
Let me get this right...
When looking from the front of the printer... It looks to you as though the extruder drive gear is to the left of where it should be? or the right?
There is no left/right adjustment available. So can you check the diameter of the drive gear? Mine measures about 6.15mm in diameter.
Here's a photo from the top:
Feed hole out of focus at the top of the picture; you can see that it is pretty much aligned.
And yes, I am having issues at the moment and that's why my printer is in bits... My problems are probably only maintenance issues though.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Adam
Looking at your pictures again, it's not very clear as they are not taken square to the extruder. However it does look as though you may want to move the drive gear 1mm towards the motor.
Peter
EDIT: and have you measured the filament?
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Sorry for the delayed response, was tied up with work and unfortunately haven't had much time to spend with the printer....
That said, I just dropped it down to bed level and took the housing apart. It still feels like the fit is more "off" than it should be, but once I put it back together and set it back up, it seemed to line up better. Still trying to figure out how many times I need to twist those screws, but was able to print several nice things before having calibration issues with that uneven axis again.
Re: Extruder body not lined up with pulley and tube
Hi Adam
Please to hear you are now printing.
The filament tension screws, I think are somewhat trial and error. I have them so that they are about 50% compressed without filament inserter. Seems to work OK for me.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…