Plug of Death :( (Page 2 of 3)

Users I'm aware of:

Extrusion totally stopped:
elmoret (v1.3) - Problem happened after ~1500 hours of use, 95% MG94, 3% other ABS, 1% PLA, 1% ABS+black or green colorant. Prior to the clog, nothing my MG94 had been run for several hundred hours. Disassembled, removed plastic plug, reassembled. Problem has not resurfaced for ~200 hours since, extruding MG94 at temperatures from 180 to 190C. In the link, I detailed everything I observed - including the fact that after the barrel cooled, I could rotate the auger with a wrench - indicating the plastic was not even touching the walls of the barrel anymore. The jam occurred after heating up from cold - not after running for a period of time.
IanJohnson (v1.0) - problem happened after running Asaclean. Replaced barrel, problem did not resurface.
insta (v1.0) - problem happened after ~100 hours (5kg). Ran nylon pellets which seem to have pushed clog out.
digitydogs (v1.3?) Ran MG94 ABS and PLA for 200-500 hours, several jam/clean cycles to no avail. Two machines exhibit this behavior, two do not. One of the two exhibiting the jam ran GITD filament right before the jam, one of the machines that does not exhibit this behavior has run 50lbs of GITD filament.
kitcarguy (?) Ran GITD filament in the first few hours of use, jam occurred. Disassembled and cleaned twice, problem went away.
kszwab Improper assembly, problems stopped after correct assembly.

Very slow extrusion:
Ggalisky (v1.5)- Experienced 1-4"/min with MG94 and GP35 at 1.75mm diameter. Went up to 16"/min after clearing the clog, no issues since.
ericpaulbishop (v1.4) Experienced "dramatic slowdown", found that higher temperatures triggered it sooner, found that wrapping the barrel helped.

Slow extrusion, seemingly unrelated to this problem:
spencermatousek Experienced 6"/min at 1.75mm filament. Changed to 185C extrusion temps, jumped to 12-14"/min (normal). Probably a case of thermocouple/controller not well calibrated.
borreas Experienced 7"/min at 1.75mm filament. I made some suggestions, never heard back. Not sure if solved, but 7"/min is not characteristic of what we're discussing here.
wahada - experienced 4.5"/min at 1.75mm filament, in vertical configuration. Problem was poor pellet feed/hopper design/configuration, as confirmed here: http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6976/ver … er-shaker/ he is now achieving 30"min.
thormj Nozzle was blocked with debris, cleaned nozzle, problem went away. Now "very happy".
Hargert Barrel was not tight enough and rotated durign operation, blocking pellet feed.

That's what I'm aware of so far. digitydogs, that's 5 users with complete stoppages, and two with very slow extrusion which may be related to the same issue, for a total of 7. If I missed any, please let me know so I can compile their data here. I also added some users who had troubles that were resolved by other issues - pellet feed, temperature, debris in nozzle, etc.

So you have no insulation ?
This create problem. You only get melt at the tip. Material behind it is not pushing enough to squeeze it out, i suggest you wrap your nozzle all the way to the hopper. It will pre-melt (soften) plaastic before it reaches the nozzle, and soft plastic will help to push.\

I achieved very consistent extrusion rate doing that, before it was random allover.

Have you tried different auger metal ? There are couple of different once at the hardware store. Just make sure you check for inner weld seam. You can either take care of it if you have tools or limit your choice.
At my store all of them have a nasty seam inside so i cant try any at all.

("plug of death" LOL, thats funny !   There are so many things named "of death" on forums mostly automotive.)

No one said you were. I just said "try"
I wanted to get black iron shorter one to see how it behaves in terms of extrusion rate and color mixing but it comes with a big seam inside that am not sure how to get rid of.

By "Stainless steel thermal conductivity too low" you mean from resistor to the barrel or in general ?
If only from resistor to barrel, it could be fixed by tin foil, but am sure you've tried more then i could think of.

Just for that you should setup parts shop. People might buy things they cant find in the store, like seamless barrels and heater band and termistor etc. I my self would like to buy another termistor, mine was covered in plastic first feew days of testing so its kinda messed up, still works somehow.

Anyway thanks for the info on stainless steel.

Have you tried longer/shorter screw ? I wonder what the effects of that.

Pfft, too big.  Do you have a parts list for the longest barrel I can make with COTS parts from a big-box store?  I'd be interested in trying it and I don't really care if the machine is three feet long.

I've been experiencing plugs on a regular basis.  I have to clear the barrel out with just about every batch.  Do I need to get a new barrel and auger?

I've only run ABS through it but I've tried different formulas of ABS.  I've also tried several different colors, blue, black, red, yellow, silver, copper, green, though never Glow in the Dark.  I don't remember when I got the first plug.  It was probably within the first 100 hours or so.  I've probably run in it 500 hours, give or take.  I haven't been logging run time so that is a guess.

I have used ASACLEAN to clean it between colors.

To my knowledge I did not have any issues with assembly.  It seemed to work from the beginning.

When I clear it out, I take the barrel and auger off and use a torch to heat up the barrel so I can unscrew the auger from the plug.  Sometimes that works, sometimes the plug comes out with the auger.  I just keep warming it up and using pliers to pull the plug off or unscrew it if I can.  Then I reassemble it.

I only used the torch on the outside of the barrel to warm things up so that I could get the auger out easier.  I didn't try to use it to burn off residue on the inside.

So, are you saying that my solution is a new barrel?

I'll probably go with new barrel.  How much are they?  Do I need a new auger?

I had misunderstood what you were saying about the torch.  Sorry.

I emailed you through the filatstruder contact link.  I think that is how you asked me to do it last time.