1 Topic by don ron (edited by don ron 2015-05-23 05:24:11)

  • don ron
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Topic: Video of problem, won't extrude when mounted in place.

So my printer worked fine, then all of a sudden stopped extruding in the middle of a print and hasn't worked since. At first I thought I had a clog so I took it apart and soaked it in acetone for a day and cleaned it out. Now I notice I can extrude manually, but only when it's hanging free. If I mount it, idk why but it will not extrude. Almost like when I mount it, it doesn't have enough heat. Here's a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-D4u3F … e=youtu.be

Any ideas?

2 Reply by ekul3e3

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Re: Video of problem, won't extrude when mounted in place.

this may not fix the problem but this helped me: turn the fan around on the side of the extruder (so its blowing air on it) this prevents the plastic from melting to early

this is probably not the problem but it helped me incredibly

3 Reply by Goshdarnit

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Re: Video of problem, won't extrude when mounted in place.

I suspect you have a break in one of the wires to the heater element. When the block is hanging like that, the break reconnects. When the wire is pulled tight by mounting the assembly, the break is pulled apart killing the heater.

Might be wrong, but that would be where I would start looking.

4 Reply by madfalcon81

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Re: Video of problem, won't extrude when mounted in place.

How do you fix the wires ? I am having kinda same problem: extruder thumps because the 6 pins connector wich goes in the stepper motor is bad (I switched between Zaxis 6 pins ribbon and it worked perfectly).

Fat kids are harder to kidnap!

5 Reply by trayracing

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Re: Video of problem, won't extrude when mounted in place.

When the tube is hanging free, the entire tube gets above the melt point of the plastic. If you put it back in the mount without purging, the upper part of the tube will be cooled by the extruder body, and have a hardened lump of plastic in it that will not melt or move.

What to do?
With the tube out of the body (like in your video) hold the hot block with pliers, try purging the heat break tube by shoving a metal rod down (Like the back end of a drill bit). You want a rod with a close fit. 

Or, (again out of the extruder body) if you have a long piece of filament in the heat break tube, turn off the heater and wait for it to partly cool (maybe 160C or so?) and then pull the filament out of the top of the tube. At the right temperature, the filament will hold together, pull away from the inner walls, and come out of the tube.

Careful in either case, that sucker is nasty hot, and the wires are fragile.

6 Reply by don ron

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Re: Video of problem, won't extrude when mounted in place.

trayracing wrote:

When the tube is hanging free, the entire tube gets above the melt point of the plastic. If you put it back in the mount without purging, the upper part of the tube will be cooled by the extruder body, and have a hardened lump of plastic in it that will not melt or move.

What to do?
With the tube out of the body (like in your video) hold the hot block with pliers, try purging the heat break tube by shoving a metal rod down (Like the back end of a drill bit). You want a rod with a close fit. 

Or, (again out of the extruder body) if you have a long piece of filament in the heat break tube, turn off the heater and wait for it to partly cool (maybe 160C or so?) and then pull the filament out of the top of the tube. At the right temperature, the filament will hold together, pull away from the inner walls, and come out of the tube.

Careful in either case, that sucker is nasty hot, and the wires are fragile.

You're the man, that worked. Thanks for taking the time to respond