SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Extruder either jumping or not moving!

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-13T00:48:30Z

After 18 hours of tinkering the printer is working again. I had to drop the current down to .48 for the y tab.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T23:14:34Z

Replaced hot end. Printer seems to be working. Apparently clog was in middle of extruder, as the top is almost completely clean. Now however I am getting a jumping of my y coordinates. It is jumping back and forward at random.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T21:48:13Z

yep. I have even hand fed to check. I have tried another motor, and now am trying an extra hot end. If that doesn't work, I have no idea what to try after.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T21:09:02Z

I know this is probably the first thing you checked but it doesn't hurt to ask:

Have you made sure that the extruder can freely pull the filament and that it's not binding anywhere?

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T19:57:36Z

So used the multimeter to check the stepper chip. Was high by a bit, so brought it down. While that seems to help, it still has not fixed the problem. I can now get one good bottom layer, but layers afterwards are still having the same problem. And the extruder nozzle is not blocked. I am noticing lots of plastic shavings from the motor, but even cleaning them out and resetting the arm with little tension leads to the same problem.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T08:57:24Z

Assuming that you don't have a blockage now with all the futzing around you've had to do.. thats the other thing to defintely check - is your extruder nozzle blocked which would cause the feed issues you've described as well

If you've rechecked all the tension arm isn't doing anything other than gently pressing the filament against the gear, and you don't have a blockage... then check the extruder current using the above linked guide. its the next most likely thing I can particularly think of to check...

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T08:40:12Z

I replaced a piece of the extruder jigsaw which helped, but yes it is making a clicking noise and failing to extrude. This is especially prevalent at high speeds, even though these speeds are setting defaults.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T08:30:25Z

what exactly do you mean 'jumps' ? do you mean it makes a clicking noise and fails to extrude stuff ?
'Jumps' is just not a particularly common word used to described extrusion issues.... that word to me almost implies it is spitting out *extra* filament as it 'jumps' suddenly from delivering at X speed to Y speed... but doesn't really explain what specifically is happening to anyone.

If you do mean that its stalling/clicking/jamming... then check that the current is set correctly, http://wiki.solidoodle.com/multimeter-testing . Sounds like it might be set to a too low a current and causing motor-stall - assuming that you haven't overtightened the tensioner-arm and that everything is correctly aligned in your extruder jigsaw. otherwise id be checking all that stuff first.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T08:27:08Z

Still having the problem! It seems to jump when printing at higher speeds, like anything at .3mm, and larger than 1 cm. It looks like its trying to pull plastic but cant, which is strange, as even cleaning it doesn't seem to help.

Re: Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T03:43:18Z

Fixed! The extruder assembly had broken, and sunk a bit, unaligning the ball bearing.

Extruder either jumping or not moving!

2013-05-12T02:56:52Z

Been printing for awhile, and all of a sudden the printer is not sending plastic correctly. It is either not moving the plastic at all, with the motor driving, but not catching, or its catching super hard and jumping. This means my prints aren't working at all. I have tried tighting and untightning, and have even rebuilt the sub assembly and nothing is working. I have tried multiple abs filaments and none of those are working either.