Long time listener, first time caller (Page 2 of 3)

Do you mean 4043? I haven't heard of 4034 before, maybe it has a higher melt temperature.

Anyway, AZERATE has the right idea - just unmount and remount as needed. Eventually the barrel will stop rotating, once it is fully tightened. Make sure you're using the stall protection board and have it set properly and you shouldn't be able to do any damage to the assembly.

Varying sounds is likely the heater cycling on and off, this affects the voltage very slightly and our ears can pick up on the slight frequency shift. Clicking is likely the relay cycling on and off.

The nozzles are intentionally slightly undersized as it is easier to make a small hole bigger than a big hole smaller . There's no one size fits all diameter and different plastics have different amounts of die swell. You can drill it out with a standard drill, though. I'd aim for more like 155C-160C on PLA to keep output speeds up and motor load down, and drill the nozzle accordingly. Are you pre drying the PLA?

Check that the PTFE loop isn't too tight on the Filawinder, it can produce too much drag and overload the motor.

Those noises are normal, sometimes they can be reduced by realigning the motor and auger, but the bearings are pretty robust so anything you hear is likely superficial.

Did the sensor move when the barrel rotated? That would explain the diameter reduction.

You should reorient the barrel so the opening is facing as upwards as possible. It's a tapered thread so it has to stop rotating eventually.

Nozzle leakage generally means there was plastic in the threads. You could try heating it up hotter then tightening.

Assuming the nozzle isn't clogged and you have good pellet feed (the barrel cutout still faces upwards and pellets are flowing in nicely).

Most likely plastic is sticking to the auger and not the barrel, so a plug of molten plastic just goes round and round. I've had that happen twice now over the course of 2500 hours and a few people have reported it as well. What I did to fix it is heat to around 220C, remove the 4 main bolts, pull/pry out the auger, peel off the plastic, and reinstall.

Did you do anything different? Run some colorant? Start the motor early? Did the slow extrusion occur when you first started up, or after you had been running for some time?

One colorant pellet won't do it, unless it's some wacky colorant that doesn't melt until 260C or something.

Are you saying you have changed to vertical and added barrel insulation? Or that you're thinking about those things?

In a couple instances I replaced the barrel and the problem disappeared, we can do that if needed.

That's interesting about the full insulation. I also run full insulation, but it has happened to people that don't. Just trying to figure out the pattern so I can tweak the design to avoid this in the future.

Time for another weekly broadcast to the Filastruder section!

I removed the motor, heated to 220 for a few minutes, removed the rear flange, and could NOT remove the auger for inspection. Even with many tools at work and a helper, it would not budge at that temp. So I posed a theory that there was a clog.
After ramming the straightened end of a paper clip through the nozzle, I set back up for extrusion, reset the temp to 185 and dropped a single black pellet before the remaining MG94 as a marker and I am back up and running.
I have noticed some rather large metal shards after the probing, and hope I have passed the clog. Once the purging is complete, I will break it all down for a full inspection for installing the melt filter to be certain.

Easy solution for a problem that may not be completely gone until then, but I pose a question:
Would plunging a circular brush multiple time and hitting the pipe with an air compressor made a significant difference? Seems to me like it would have.

I did remove the nozzle and that is another interesting point. The debris must have been sitting on the back end of the hole.

Sorry I wasn't very clear. I posted via phone earlier...
The brush/compressor comment was in relation to after grinding and before initial purging. If anything, I would assume it would speed up the clearing process for those with access to a compressor or brush. The brush I have in mind is like one to clean baby bottles with.

You are most welcome and I am glad this was fixed for the most part. Since clearing via paperclip, I have absolutely zero waves like I previously saw.
I will say that the motor/auger coupler that came in my kit has warped some on the motor end and seem to have melted a touch. This does not seem to effect any rotation, but I may purchase a metal one in the near future to reduce potential downtime...unless there is a significant reason why the kit was changed to a composite socket?

It was not melted afterall. Not even close. lol
My wrappings of electrical tape were so tight, it resembled part of the socket while I was in a rush. I reseated the socket and adjusted the motor placement half a hair and now everything seems to be working great.
Currently, I'm averaging 20"p/m even while playing with a couple colorants at 190c. I also raised the rear about 2" to act semi-angled and all waves and most imperfections are gone.

Every now and then the filament snags on the brass guide which then causes a problem

I was just wondering, what is the benefit of wrapping the whole barrel in insulation material? And what type of material could I use?