SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — weird extruding has me stumped

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-23T14:36:53Z

It was bed leveling and retraction.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-17T21:08:00Z

Of course you have to always watch out for the swelling when the PLA heats up. You can move the fan down a bit to cool the neck of the hotend, so the heat won't creep as much.
Works for me.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-17T04:40:16Z

I also recommend using vegetable oil with PLA it helps a lot.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-17T04:24:43Z

I think my temp was too high and retraction too high to cause these problems. I'm going to try again one more time tomorrow. Can't really waste pla steel with these large prints.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-17T02:12:55Z

Well I leveled the bed and cleared the nozzle and was printing great for a good hour until I reached the finer detail part of the print and it stopped extruding and I came back to it moving over the print with nothing extruding. Could this have to do with my retraction settings? It's set at 3.4mm and it was doing a lot of retracting. Gas I hate having these weird problems. Here is a picture of the failed print.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T21:28:16Z

PLA will work with cold pull, let it cool to around 80c and it should work.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T21:25:27Z

Often for pla that is what you have to do as you cant dissolve it. that or pull it out and torch it

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T16:00:14Z

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Does pla work for cold pull method? I read that nylon is recommended.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T14:52:54Z

Two other things to check. Your hot end may be too close to the bed. It will restrict output. The other, it looks like a partial clog to me. It extrudes, but not well. Use a cold pull method to clean out the hot end. Search for it if you have not seen it before.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T13:14:28Z

Hmm. I just had it leveled perfectly. I don't know what I did to mess up the leveling. I think my main problem is with the tension bolt spring and gear. The MK series come uncalibrated so spring tension is weak. which requires adding more tension to get the gear against the idler wheel. I am trying to adjust it again since I think the spring lost some tension over the year. Right now the filament can be pulled out easily when the extruder is idle, but when extruding its harder to pull out the filament but I still can. If I add too much tension the extruder skips and clicks.

Re: weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T00:20:19Z

Your bed is not level, or your glass is warped. the lack of filament indicates an area that is too high while the more filament indicates a low area. When you level a bed you should use a .25 or .20 feeler gauge. Start at one corner, work clockwise or counter clockwise then go back to the middle. And confirm it is level as well as the original corner. Each corner will offset the other three slightly so you have to make multiple passes.

If your bed is warped as it looks like it is then you have to try to reach a compromise between the high and low areas.

weird extruding has me stumped

2015-10-16T00:08:47Z

I am having inconsistent extrusion amounts during a print. I tried loosening the hob bolt and tightening it. I checked the bed leveling and it's fine. The only thing I didn't check for was a jam. But I just cleaned out a jam a few weeks ago so I find it hard to believe. Here is a picture of the printed lines.