Topic: Issues with Extrusion...
I've been pretty quiet on the forums here, mostly reading and learning.
Background:
Like many here, I got in on the preorder on the Solidoodle press.
When it finally arrived, life had me busy - so I didn't get a chance to play with it.
It sat for months on my desk as an over sized paperweight.
I ran into many of the common issues:
- Grinding noise when moving to the back of the machine (fixed with a rubber band for now)
- A loose grub/set screw causing knocking/thumping sound
- SoliPrint crashing when setting the Z-Offset (learned to do this manually via gcode)
- ABS adhesion issues (Hairspray seems to be working)
- Flipped the fan so that it blows air toward the extruder
With those things addressed, I've done a few printouts - with mediocre results.
Enough that I went through the first roll of filament.
With another brand of filament I started to run into new issues.
The first was A knocking/thumping sound is coming from the extruder stepper.
This video was *very* helpful - I found that my voltage for the Extruder Stepper was 0.8v (instead of the 1.5v that it should be):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJu_BaB3ey8
After tuning those - I got a wonderful print at 0.3mm layer height, and one at 0.1mm layer height.
I was finally very pleased with the print results!
When the issues started:
My extruder nozzle clogged.
Since then - things have taken a turn for the worse.
I cleaned it (soaking it in acetone, and a drill bit) and started to print again.
I've managed to get one successful print done at 0.3mm layer height....
But failure is my typical experience now.
Current Extruding Issue:
Anytime that I am trying smaller layer heights, and sometimes at 0.3mm - it stops extruding when I get to about ~20 layers.
The print head moves, but no ABS comes through the nozzle.
If I look at the filament - it is heating up and getting "soft" just below the feed gear (above the hot end.) once that happens it stops feeding. I can back out the filament, cut it, and get things working again...
But the issue returns as soon as I start the next print.
I've tried lowering the temperature (I was using 240C/105C) -220C/100C gave me the same issues (should I try colder still?)
I've taken apart the hotend again, cleaned it and reassembled it.
I've run out of ideas to try....
I was hoping that someone here might have a suggestion