Thanks for the heads up.  I looked at the heat sink and there is paste between it and the servo.  It is not hot to touch either.

If the servo had heat problems wouldn't it take more than 1-2 seconds of extruding for the clicking to start?  I would think a minute would be necessary to heat the mass of that servo from a cold start.

I have done about 10 hours of printing since changing from the Folger filament back to Solidoodle.  I haven't heard a click since.  Actually I would prefer the servo to click back rather than the gear to shred the filament due to too much resistance.  Neither of which is now happening.

Anybody want to buy a spool of Folger Vulcan Green filament?

Cheers, Dave

Factory Assembly defect. Once corrected, it will be fine if it is the heatsink issue not contacting the stepper motor.

Tension on the screw is set to medium. Full tension will cause more problem.
Cheers

My most recent failure has been the slipping extruder.  Just like yours, the servo was clicking, not the gear stripping the filament, which I have also dealt with.
I used this site for the 100's of hours of troubleshooting.  The multiple replies on this thread lead me to suspect a partial clog.  After 5 full dis-assembly and cleanings of the HotEnd, it appeared that doing more cleanings while expecting different results would be futile.

I jumped on the PID cal, Servo Chip tuning, Hotter Temp, Hot Servo, Spring Tension, Buy an E3D, and buy a new Hotend red herrings trying to fix this clicking with no success.

During troubleshooting, in the home position, the extruder clicked occasionally.  When I bumped the speed to 200mm/min it clicked worse but only after 2-3 seconds and 50 mm/min gave no clicking at all.  The HotEnd temp was set to 210.

So, I tried printing at a much slower speed.  There was still serious clicking on the first few layers so I suspected nozzle back pressure would make it appear like a partial clog.  So I removed my 1/4" sheet of glass and air printed.  It still clicked. 

I took the advice from wardjr and ordered the E3D.  Except I still needed to get the printer working in order to print the MK5. 
So buying an E3D is not a solution to a problem, it is an upgrade to a working printer.  Unless, of course, you printed a MK5 prior to the machine heading south.

As I could not waste any more time on this machine, I was going to give up like many others have done with their Solidoodles.

But then I replaced the Green Folgers filament with a spool of black that I had ordered from SD when I bought the machine and it has not skipped a beat since.

Obviously, the melting point of this Folger filament is much higher than the SD brand.  I did not feel comfortable running the PEEK above 210 but will attempt to melt the Folger when I have upgraded to the E3D.  It also seems like the viscosity of this filament is thicker than the SD filament even when thoroughly melted.  It may not be all about the temp.

Also, curling of the extruded plastic happened with the Folger and not the SD.  Even though curling would seem to be an indicator of a partial clog, it caused me to waste alot of time cleaning a perfectly good nozzle.

One final thing is that I had made some good prints with this Folger Green when I first started using it.  Otherwise I woud have suspected it right off the bat.  Folger may have different consistencies in their pellet batch.  Don't know, but:

Bottom line, DON'T USE FOLGER and be very suspicious about cheap filament.

Sent you out a e-mail last night with details.... 

Matt

Well I wrote a rather lengthy e-mail letter today to customer support, hoping to explain
my situation and get perhaps a lead on something else to try... I explained what I had done
up to this point... several paragraphs later and I hit the send button....

Their response:

Matt,

You could try testing the heating element for resistance. Perhaps it is about to fail.

Regards,
Joel

Huh?  could you at least explain how to do that?  Why you think that???

I clearly stated I had cleaned the nozzle etc etc and that I was still getting consistent
heating in the nozzle up to 210 degrees (after the PID tuning)... So clearly it is heating...

I am lost... and I REALLY expected more from customer support....

Matt

Whoah. Not cool Joel!

Tell you what, if you send me a quick e-mail at john@solidoodle.com, and I can set you up with a support phone call to make sure you are well taken care of.

Their response:

Huh?  could you at least explain how to do that?  Why you think that???

I clearly stated I had cleaned the nozzle etc etc and that I was still getting consistent
heating in the nozzle up to 210 degrees (after the PID tuning)... So clearly it is heating...

I am lost... and I REALLY expected more from customer support....

Matt

Good one!

What I meant to say was Folger Tech LLC

http://sidewinder181.wix.com/folger/

When I went to this filament is when I started with the problems... first few prints were amazing and then ugh....

Right now my printer is sitting... waiting... hopefully new Hot End will solve issue...

Matt

... Folgers Corporation...

???

I think I know your problem is... Try switching to a Starbucks filament. They all work well, but the trade off is it will cost more.

Also I know that when I'm slipping that there's nothing much better then a cup of the ol' 100% Kona coffee. Hahahahahaha

Thanks so much for the reply... that is alot like what I am getting...  I had no issues printing at
all until I started using this filament from the Folgers Corporation... and now... well it has been a pain.
I did take the hot end apart... cleaned the brass tube really well and swabbed it out with a q-tip and acetone...
Cleaned the tip really well (or so I thought) and tried again....

Just nothing... lotsa clicking and slipping... and very little flow at all... I tried the temp from 195 to 205 with no real
change in results.... made sure the filament was not tight on the spool or binding...  I am at a loss.

I have a new hot end ordered... and hopefully that will correct this issue...

just hate having to wait for parts and loosing the project time...

Matt

I had some of the same problems:

1. Got a clog
2. Took it apart, cleaned it.
3. printing would work fine but then kind of die out (Several prints that were good for first inch then less and less material)
4. Lots of dust and slipping at the gear that drives the filament.
5. Noticed black bits from time to time when using transparent orange filament.
6. Did the PID tuning.
7. Tightened the spring (so gear would slip less)
8.  drove and reversed filament several times manually until I didn't see anything black in the light filament output.
9.  Lowered temperature to 195.
10. Manually sets temperature, extrude manually about 15 mm to gets the filament that has been sitting in the hot end for some time out and then hit the "run" button.

I've had no clogs for about 3 months now but I'm not sure what I did that allows it to work. I'm running 5 different spools of filament from 3 different places.

http://home.comcast.net/~tomhorsley/har … 20Friction

Of course, now I need to figure out a better spool holder, since I don't want to sit there turning the reel by hand all the time :-).

that balanced out the heating issue... now calmly cycling between 199.4 and 200.2... so MUCH better...

Now to figure out this damn clogging click issue... I know I cleaned it out good enough

Instead of altering the firmware in Arduino you can just open RH EEPROM settings and enter in your PID values there.

I went through severla things over the last few days to try and correct my issue I was having...

Here is the play by play:

1.  Got myself an E-string and attempted to clear clog by running wire up thru nozzle.  This seemed to help some
BUT after a little bit of printing, it went back to clicking and slipping.

2. Broke down and decided to try and remove the nozzle to clean it...

            ~ Followed the step by step instruction on the Youtube disassemble video...
            ~ Made sure I heated the extruder before attempting to remove
            ~ Cleaned both the brass tube and nozzle completely and allowed them to soak over night in acetone.
            ~ There was some signs of charred and burnt filament which was removed completely
            ~ reassembled hot end...

I felt pretty confident after cleaning and reassembling everything... but it seems that was all for naught.... After turning machine on and firing up Repetier, I set the extruder to heat... and what came next was unexpected....

The extruder temp cycled from around 185 to 210 again and again and never settled to a steady temp...  I let the heater run for some time thinking once it got hot a bit it would settle... NOPE.   And when I tried to extrude filament... I got the same slipping clicking crap again after just a few minutes....

I have added a pic of the Temp Curve...

Not sure what else I can try here....

Did I fowl up my hot end?  Should I just replace it?

.... sucks not being able to print... got too many projects to finish....

Let me know what you think....

Matt