1 Topic by fawefawef

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Topic: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

I'm running a Davinci 1.0 and I believe there is some debris in the extruder that I can't clear. I've cleaned the feed wheels with a wire brush although there is no visible debris on them. I've also spent hours with the wire cleaning the extruder but when I do a feed test, the filament comes out straight for a second then arches and balls up on the extruder. If I try to print the filament comes out slower than it should and starts clicking a few minutes into the print. With the extruder heated to 215C I've removed the extruder assembly and ran a 6 inch length of wire wire from the small tip, through the barrel and out. I've also concentrated on the tip of the extruder, inserting the wire a fraction of an inch in and cleaning the small opening.  I have cleaned out plugs and small particles from the extruder. I have spent from10 minutes to an hour cleaning the extruder and each time I try a feed test and I get the same results.  So far I have spent about 5 hours total trying to resolve this . Each time before the test the extruder is seemingly very clean. Each time the filiment comes out and arches, then balls up on the extruder head. I'm at a loss of what else I can try to clean this extruder or what else may be causing the issue. I have tried switching filament as well with no success, obviously.

I thought of possibly placing a few drops of acetone in the barrel, but I thought that might damage something.

2 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

Mine will curl back up on the extruder if I do a purge to prime before printing. But once it moves over the bed it sticks and has no issues. I just always watch it right before it starts and grab any little bit with tweezers as the bed makes it's move up and down right before the head moves.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
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3 Reply by prpickett

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

I have used acetone in the barrel and it didn't cause any issues. I don't think it fixed any either. If you have a light colored filament try loading some of that and extruding it. Check for any dark specks and if noticed, try raising the temp to 230 and extruding while alternately cleaning with the wire. Once you have no specks and a vertical extrusion, you have pretty much cleaned it out. I have a wide variety of filaments, and I have noticed that dark colors, especially cheaper filaments tend to leave residue. If you don't have one, I would recommend some type of filament cleaner. Can be as simple as a piece of black spongy packing foam that you run the filament through prior to extruding. All of my comments are assuming that you aren't using XYZ cartridges. If you've already done all of the above, you may need to completely disassemble the hot end and verify that you don't have a blockage due to the barrel not being fully bottomed out in the hot end. Check for posts dealing with "clicking extruder" for more details on that issue.

DaVinci 1.0 w/ repetier firmware, Andy's Carriage, E3D V6, Filastruder #1956, Filawinder

4 Reply by fawefawef (edited by fawefawef 2014-12-11 16:32:06)

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

I am not using XYZ cartridges. Can you raise the temp to 230 with the XYZ software or through the LCD menu? I didn't see that option. I wasn't able to find any posts regarding the barrel not being fully bottomed out in the hot end.

5 Reply by prpickett

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

Here is the link for the issue regarding the hot-end not being seated fully.  http://www.soliforum.com/topic/7879/fix … stripping/

I believe I was able to heat to 230C using XYZ but that would have been after using the cartridge resetter. I use repetier now so I don't recall exactly.

If you check this forum and the Voltivo forum, I had a few posts when I first got my printer detailing some clicking issues I had and these might have a solution that works for you. I remember at one point, removing the hot-end from the carriage, removing the heater so that only the thermistor was still connected, heating the nozzle with a butane torch and then alternately dipping in acetone and running the cleaning wire completely through the barrel but I don't think the acetone was very effective on burnt/debris in the nozzle. One other thing that helped a lot was brushing all of the filament bits off of the feed wheels and idler roller, especially if I had heard clicking. In the end, I realized that I had caused the initial problem by having my bed too high and effectively prevented extrusion leading to grinding of the filament in the feed rollers. This allowed filament in the nozzle to cook for a while.

DaVinci 1.0 w/ repetier firmware, Andy's Carriage, E3D V6, Filastruder #1956, Filawinder

6 Reply by fawefawef

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

Thanks! I really appreciate your help.

7 Reply by hansen644

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

HI I had same problem. I took the extruder completely apart. I took the heater and thermistor out and soaked it in a glass of acetone for about 1 hour or so. Then used misc small dermel bits to dig out the melted plastic. Was super surprised how much trash was really in there.

8 Reply by fawefawef

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

hansen644 wrote:

HI I had same problem. I took the extruder completely apart. I took the heater and thermistor out and soaked it in a glass of acetone for about 1 hour or so. Then used misc small dermel bits to dig out the melted plastic. Was super surprised how much trash was really in there.

Thanks. I'm trying to figure out how to do just that. I'm not really sure how to remove it but I have been unable to resolve this issue with any amount of traditional cleaning.  I guess you just remove the set screw to remove the thermister but what about the heater?

9 Reply by prpickett

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Re: Filament Balls up on extruder regardless of how much I clean it

I think the set screw is for the heater. I just removed the screw and gently pushed the heater out. I left the thermister attached since it has plastic (PTFE?) liners on the wires. I placed a phillip's screwdriver in the hole that the heater came out of and used a wrench to secure the silver threaded piece while I removed the brass end, again gently. I then soaked the brass end in acetone while suspending from the thermister leads so that only the protected part got submerged. I soaked for about an hour and then used the brass brush to clean off as much as I could and ran the cleaning wire through a few times.

DaVinci 1.0 w/ repetier firmware, Andy's Carriage, E3D V6, Filastruder #1956, Filawinder