1 Topic by WhiteStar01

  • WhiteStar01
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Topic: A year with no clogs

I see alot of posts about clogs and how to unclog etc.  Just putting this out there- it has now been almost a full year without a single clog for me.  I doubt my printer is a special snowflake- so I figured I'd share what I do (in case it has contributed to my luck)

I print at 195 with ABS, and I NEVER leave the extruder more than one minute without flow. I preheat the bed first in almost all cases and then fire up the extruder when I get near temp.  I do occasionally mess up the timing here- so if I'm still waiting and the extruder is at temp- I always bump the feed every 1 min or less to prime the nozzle. I keep doing this until I am ready to hit go on the print.  After that- I do nothing any different.

My extruder and bed shut off after every print so I don't run the risk of baking the nozzle. Pretty sure everyone does this.  If I want another print- I let it cool enough to remove from the bed, remove my part, and repeat the above.

Just figured Id share in case it helps some newcomers.  Truth be told- I think an "auto-prime" feature in RH would be pretty sweet whereby it would do the same as I do automatically.  I saw a YouTube video where someone made a wiper pin to knock off the filament below the tip just before print- combine that with an auto-priming function- I think we could get rid of alot of clogs due to "baked" filament.  I can't speak from experience though.

Cheers.

2 Reply by TheBaron

  • TheBaron
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  • From: Chicago, IL
  • Registered: 2013-07-19
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Re: A year with no clogs

I do the exact some thing with priming the nozzle, and I haven't had a clogging issue either. I print at a little higher temp, but no issues.

SD3 w/ RUMBA (8825s), merlin hot end (in pieces). Ender3 w/ silent board for PLA printing. Ender5 w/ silent board, e3d v6, new z lead screw, and glass bed. DiY Kossel w/ smoothieboard (in pieces). Vellman Vertex (in pieces)
Shapeoko2 router in process of being converted to laser engraver (in pieces)
Multicam 5000 series CNC Router w/ 11HP spindle, 5x10' table, and auto tool changer (in pieces)

3 Reply by ronsii

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  • Registered: 2012-10-28
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Re: A year with no clogs

I know a few people are working on firmware failsafes to protect the nozzle from baking and a few other automated things, once these get into mainline programming I think it will be just one more step towards better reliability without the tinkering.

4 Reply by WWC

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Re: A year with no clogs

@Whitestar01 This is great info for a beginner like me.
Thanks

5 Reply by cmetzel

  • cmetzel
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  • Registered: 2012-08-22
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Re: A year with no clogs

My only clog after over a year was from my own mistake not following a similar procedure that you do.  I go up to 2-3 minutes max at temp though without bumping, but because the hot end heats up so quick I usually kick it down to 100 if I'm going to be a while and then go back up to full temp for printing.

6 Reply by Proteus

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Re: A year with no clogs

I do exactly the same thing and no clogs since I got my printer three months ago. I will leave my bed on between prints but never my extruder which is never on for more than a minute or two without printing.

I did have a partial minor clog while printing a large tray overnight. Windows decided to update my computer at 3 AM and I think my hotend was idle for about 10 minutes at 195 C on the print. Came back to a giant blob on the hotend, after removing it I had to extrude about 100mm to remove the burnt stuff. Then it worked fine again.

SD2 w/ Heated bed. Mods: E3D MK5, Lawsy MKV, Glass Bed, printed filament stand

7 Reply by foofoodog

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  • Registered: 2013-08-16
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Re: A year with no clogs

I have Slic3r add the home, heat bed and heat nozzle code.

It could have better timing, start heating nozzle when bed gets to 90 but as is this only wastes a few minutes. The bed takes 8 minutes to come up from room temperature and the nozzle takes 4. So a 12 minute spin up from cold.

G28
M190 S100
M109 S200

So that lets me just paste in all the code and run the job, fire and forget. No worries about wasting too much electricity or baking the goo, and better yet, no baby sitting the machine.

8 Reply by dkeeling728

  • dkeeling728
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Re: A year with no clogs

yup, same story here. had my SD for a good 4-5 months now (forgot when i actually received it). and have not had a lick of trouble from the hot end. using the improved start and end gcode i found here on the forum somewhere, modified it to heat the bed to 85, wait till it gets there, then move the extruder to the front left corner and start heating, while also heating the bed the rest of the way to 95. by the time the extruder is hot and the print starts, the bed is usually between 90-95 and the extruder has virtually 0 inactive time while at temperature.

to me the shutdown code was most important, to get the heatbed and extruder turned off as soon as the print was done, in case i was out in my shop or something when it finished. now i can "set and forget" with only occasional checkups to make sure the part is coming out like i want (that my slicer settings were right).

love my SD3!