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Topic: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

Hi,

I have an issue with my soliddodle 2. It's been working fine since last year and suddenly today the filament doens't go through constantly anymore. After a few layers it doesn't go down anymore, it kind of jumps when the motor tries to push it through. I can see this also because the opposite bearing doesn't turn when this happens. I've tried tightening and untightening the screw with the spring on it which seems to adjust the pressure of the bearing on teethed the motor wheel, this did seem to have some effect but didn't solve the problem...

Any ideas please ?

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

That can mean a partial clog.  Or that the tensioning arm is too tight or too loose -- with the extruder on and motors off, you should be able to pull the filament up fairly easily.

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

OK, I'll test this. I didn't know of "partial clog", I didn't susprect a clog as sometimes it works just fine, then after a time it starts to "clog"

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

are you using ABS or PLA?

ive had PLA melt into a blob and harden outside the melt zone in the throat of the hotend. causes what you describe. only way to fix it is to take the hot end out and carefully try to pull the blob out. helps to hold the hotend in a small hobby vice with metal jaws, while still hooked to the printer, and turned on to soften the deposit. alternatively you can use a plumbers torch to heat the hotend and dislodge the clog, and if its ABS, you can skip all that and just stick the whole thing in a jar of acetone for a day or so, it'll be shiny and new when you get it out.

but you say that its an intermittent problem, like it works, then jams, then works again. that sounds like it could be heating element related or thermistor related. perhaps a solder joint has worked its way loose. this can be hard to diagnose without electronics experience. but the basic idea is to find where those wires enter the mainboard, and when it has the problem again, put a multimeter on the contacts set for continuity or resistance (depending on your unit) and see if its any different than when its working normally. you have to know what your doing for this because its possible to slip and short out your mainboard, causing a much more costly and time wasting repair. if you purchased a spare hotend with your printer, you can try just swapping it out, doing a PID autotune and rolling with it, see if the problem persists. the idea is to eliminate variables till you find the problem.

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

Right now it seems to be working again. I increased the temp to 200° and it seems for now... but before I always used 190, so why would I need 200 suddenly?

As you say, the problem was intermitent, it worked for a few minutes that started to fail.

I'm using ABS, so the acetone path would be mine. I like the faulty solder idea and I'll check for that ... BUT ... repetier host displays the nozzle temp and from I could see it was OK (190° at the time). Do you think it could be possible that the RH display is right even if the nozzle/thermometer is faulty? Sounds strange but possible I guess.

However, I'll try doing a few 200° prints and if it works fine I'll try dropping back to 190° to see if the problem comes back.

Thanks for all the information, I'll be back to say how it goes.

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

I know that for some reason I had to bump my extruder temps up a bit to keep the extruder from jamming when I got to the rapid fill layers.  It isn't unreasonable.

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

I have also experienced this, especially at the rapid fill sessions like ITman496 mentioned above. Usually solved by loosen or tighten the filamentscrew or increasing the nozzle heat.

I did alot printing with blue filament at 197C, then this issue suddently started, now I have to print at 205C.

Might also help to turn down the speed at infill sessions in slic3er settings or whatever slicer you are using.

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

Well... the issue is back, even at 200°, this evening at about half print (after about 40 minutes, during rapid fill layers (pronterface)) plastic stopped coming out.

I think I'll do the acetone bath before pushing to 205°.

I've been watching this video to take the nozzle appart, it doesn't seem too complicated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQohJtS4wrE

I guess it might be harder than this video makes it look, I'll see...

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Re: Filament "jumps" and doesn't go down properly

Harvey wrote:

Well... the issue is back, even at 200°, this evening at about half print (after about 40 minutes, during rapid fill layers (pronterface)) plastic stopped coming out.

I think I'll do the acetone bath before pushing to 205°.

I've been watching this video to take the nozzle appart, it doesn't seem too complicated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQohJtS4wrE

I guess it might be harder than this video makes it look, I'll see...

print you a set of lawsy mk5 extruder parts before you take the jigsaw apart. there is a very high likelihood of breaking some of the tiny acrylic parts of the stock extruder any time you even look at it funny! upon reassembly, just skip the jigsaw and go with mk5. you can thank me later.

if you try to totally dissemble the nozzle, be very careful not to break the thermsistor. be sure to get a old toothbrush and really scrub the plastic dust out of the hobbed feed wheel on the extruder stepper. this is something you can try first before acetone... but with jigsaw extruder you have to take everything apart anyway, so you might as well carry on with acetone as well.