1 Topic by Celcius1

  • Celcius1
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Topic: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

Dear Members,

I have had my filastruder for just under one year, Now I have made many meters of filament with it, and happy until now!!!!

I have come to the conclusion this unit is design to FAIL!  In the last few weeks I Have replaced various parts on the unit to only have the unit, would you believe destroy the parts AGAIN!  So here we go with the parts failures that I have endured.

Firstly I had to replace the thrust bearing 3 times, as the bearing would not handle the load, and eventually be worn out and need to be replaced, and over the course of this happening it was slowly grinding a hole the size of the thrust bearing and collar into the aluminum housing at last checking the indentation is now less than half of the wall material.

And then after replacing my 3rd thrust bearing the gear motor decided to strip it GEARS! now I contacted Tim over this and his attitude was he does not warrantee this as its a user serviceable part, like hello dummy, I never opened it, and only contacted you when it stopped working and made funny noises.  I only discovered the stripped gears when I opened it up yesterday, to find out 4 of the 6 gears were stripped of teeth.  What I found out is that 2 of the 6 gears were made of Acetal if they are going to be under such loads, why are they not all made of metal.  But I replaced the broken gears, heated the unit back up and it was back to life, I set it running on an extrusion run, producing 1.75mm filament the unit ran for 12hrs so I had it running over night, and when I came to check it in the morning, the unit had stopped.

So I let it cool down, re heated it back up, started the motor and low and behold, the motor had stopped working AGAIN! so when I opened the housing you want to know what I discovered, it had stripped its gears AGAIN!!! in this case it was only one, but an acetal gear again.  Now I've had it with item planned to fail in this way, what I cant figure out is if your not going to provide quality parts, why be in business at all! 

What makes me even more angry is I live in Australia, to order a $5 gear from Filastruder is $5 US for the Gear which is approx $7 Australian plus the postage which is $20 US approx $27 Australian, so to replace the gear that gear motor stripped in 12 hours is going to cost me another $34 Australian for one gear that Filastruder prices at $5 US.  So when I bought the replacement gears last time I did not know which had failed so I ordered a complete set! It was not until I opened it I discovered I only needed to replace 4 of the 6, but even then to buy that full set it cost me $75 Australian approx.  And seeing as I CANNOT source the gears locally I'm forced to pay Filastruder prices which when you do currency conversion impacts greatly.

To sum it all up unless they really fix the design of this unit all I can say is that anyone who uses it regularly like me, you'll be replacing near enough the entire unit in under 12 months and if this is the case, this is a sign of pretty poor design or if it is a quality issue, then very poor quality control.

I did not bother to send Tim an email as I did not appreciate the brush off I got last time over the gear motor!

Regards
Paul Fisher
Filamax R & D

2 Reply by milehigh3dII

  • milehigh3dII
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Re: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

Welcome to the bleeding edge of technology?  It’s a wood screw in a pipe, what did you expect?  It sounds like you may have an alignment issue if it eats bearings like that and eventually feeds into the motor.  I agree about plastic gears- that doesn’t seem like a great idea, but for a couple of hundred bucks?

The wear on the screw and inside of the barrel gives me heeby-jeebies and I’m glad a melt flow screen is available to spare my hot end the most egregious specs.

I’m not an apologist and far from a fan-boy, but I am a realist.  I hate the phrase, but it is what it is.  The other way to look at it is what the next alternative?  Filabot are a couple of grand?  It seems all the other ones in between are vapor ware?

Perfect; far from it.  A value; maybe.  The only option I have; for right now.

Love the one you’re with.

3 Reply by genesat1 (edited by genesat1 2018-06-12 00:24:10)

  • genesat1
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Re: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

Celcius1 wrote:

But I replaced the broken gears, heated the unit back up and it was back to life, I set it running on an extrusion run, producing 1.75mm filament the unit ran for 12hrs so I had it running over night, and when I came to check it in the morning, the unit had stopped.

Woah, never run it unattended.  I mean, I've seen what happens when a printer malfunctions and turns on the little cartridge heater nonstop, and it isn't pretty (and thermal runaway does NOT protect you quite as much as I thought it would - 'Oh, I have thermal runaway turned on in the firmware, it'll detect if something is wrong.' Nope, it detects one specific kind of failure, not if your control board just completely locks up/goes haywire/blows a mosfet..)  At least if you're running the stock 12V and haven't upped the voltage going to the heater that limits the max temp some, but still if something went wrong with the heater, PID, or thermocouple - and you left it like that for 12 hours...  Especially if the machine is giving you problems already.

4 Reply by carl_m1968 (edited by carl_m1968 2018-06-12 01:06:44)

  • carl_m1968
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Re: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

I would never leave anything that heats plastic to a melting point unattended or unwatched. That is just asking for problems. These are not machines with the best fail-safe. If the logic locks up which it does sometimes the safety and protection lock up as well since it relies on the firmware and process which are no longer running in order to operate. There have been several homes that where burned to the ground by 3d printers left unattended. These Filastruders run on the same logic, so it is very possible for the same scenario to happen with of them as well.

it sounds like you are trying to use a non-production machine a machine that was meant for a hobbyist to tinker with and play with as a production machine and maybe your expectations are a bit high.

For years and years in fact just until recently the entire 3d printing market was a hobbyist thing and most who got into it knew that they would have issues and need repairs and such for their equipment all the time if they wanted to keep it running. Most of the stuff we bought was used, or untested parts that we pieced together.

I am not trying to take sides, but I think people get in this hobby thinking it is just a hobby that you can hit the floor running and nothing will ever go wrong or if it does support is just an email or phone call away and that is not the case on most occasion.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

5 Reply by elmoret

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Re: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

First, a quick question - how many hours of runtime have you had in those 12 months?

If you need another few gears, drop us an email and I'll get some sent for the price of shipping.

To respond to your points:

Celcius1 wrote:

I have come to the conclusion this unit is design to FAIL!

No, it isn't.

Celcius1 wrote:

In the last few weeks I Have replaced various parts on the unit to only have the unit, would you believe destroy the parts AGAIN!

Perhaps there is some factor that is causing the failures that is worth investigating?

Celcius1 wrote:

Firstly I had to replace the thrust bearing 3 times, as the bearing would not handle the load, and eventually be worn out and need to be replaced

The included thrust bearing is rated for 1910 lbs of dynamic load. That's a small car. The design thrust loads of the Filastruder don't exceed 200lbs, so the bearing is rated for about 10x the load.

If your thrust bearings are failing something is wrong, likely contamination or insufficient lubrication.

Celcius1 wrote:

And then after replacing my 3rd thrust bearing the gear motor decided to strip it GEARS! now I contacted Tim over this and his attitude was he does not warrantee this as its a user serviceable part, like hello dummy, I never opened it, and only contacted you when it stopped working and made funny noises.

We cannot warranty the kit at all, as we cannot ensure that it was assembled correctly, but we do make very inexpensive replacement parts available. A gear is $5, a thrust bearing is $7.

Celcius1 wrote:

I only discovered the stripped gears when I opened it up yesterday, to find out 4 of the 6 gears were stripped of teeth.  What I found out is that 2 of the 6 gears were made of Acetal if they are going to be under such loads, why are they not all made of metal.

They are made of acetal to reduce noise. Everything is a tradeoff - MTBF (life), cost, noise, etc.

Celcius1 wrote:

it had stripped its gears AGAIN!!! in this case it was only one, but an acetal gear again.

If the original gears lasted 10 months, and the replacement gears 12 hours, then something changed in that time. The replacement gears are OEM replacements. Perhaps not all of the debris was cleaned out of the gearbox when you replaced the gears? Or perhaps whatever caused the gears to fail in the first place hasn't been rectified?

Celcius1 wrote:

Now I've had it with item planned to fail in this way

It is not planned to fail.

Celcius1 wrote:

What makes me even more angry is I live in Australia, to order a $5 gear from Filastruder is $5 US for the Gear which is approx $7 Australian plus the postage which is $20 US approx $27 Australian, so to replace the gear that gear motor stripped in 12 hours is going to cost me another $34 Australian for one gear that Filastruder prices at $5 US.  So when I bought the replacement gears last time I did not know which had failed so I ordered a complete set! It was not until I opened it I discovered I only needed to replace 4 of the 6, but even then to buy that full set it cost me $75 Australian approx.

International shipping for one gear is $6USD. Shipping on a full set of 5 gears is $12. We generally lose money on international shipping. If we could make it cheaper, we would.

Celcius1 wrote:

To sum it all up unless they really fix the design of this unit all I can say is that anyone who uses it regularly like me, you'll be replacing near enough the entire unit in under 12 months and if this is the case, this is a sign of pretty poor design or if it is a quality issue, then very poor quality control.

You've replaced about $40 worth of parts (3 thrust bearings, 5 gears) over a 12 month span. I don't think its fair to call that "near enough the entire unit". If you need another few gears, drop us an email and I'll get some sent for the price of shipping.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
E3Dv6 All Metal Hotend - the premier 3D printing hotend

6 Reply by Johns Print Farm

  • Johns Print Farm
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Re: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

When a part fails, there is usually a chain of smaller failures that lead up to the catastrophic failure.

Parts wear out. Assemblies loose alignment. Bolts need to be retorqued. Then there are Human Factors that are also involved in failures.

So when the first thrust bearing wore out, the whole extruder should have been torn down and everything checked for wear and alignment. Then worn items replaced and everything checked for alignment. This is generally referred to as an overhaul.

Does Filastruder supply an overhaul manual and an overhaul parts kit?

You should just purchase all the parts needed for a complete overhaul and as many upgrade components. The postage probably being the biggest cost.

Today Tim answered a lot of my questions about running the Filastruder 24-7 to feed my print farm. I will be buying spare parts including the replacement gear. I will also be lubing the thrust bearing probably once a week. Then when my farm starts paying for itself, I will be buying back ups of critical systems. One of which is a backup Filastruder.

A few months ago I wrote off the version one Filastruder and was gathering parts to build my own when I checked back at the Fialstruder web site. The new version with the winder is well worth my money.

Tevo Black Widow
MonoPrice Mini Delta
TonXY X5S-400, 2 each
Filastruder and Filawinder on order

7 Reply by jjhcs2

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Re: 10 months on from Using the Filastruder

DO what I did Mod the Unit... All my printers TEVO Turantula/HyperCube and Pursa Mendel have been extensively modded from the parts that came with the kit Once I get this kit I will Mod it with a GMC Wiper motor drive and a Farm Grade Thrust Bearing from Princess auto and Tighter ABS Gears or Higher Reduction gears check "Thingiverse"=https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=fi … a7789b33e4 for Modes to this Bot. you never stick with the stuf your given with a Item that is a Prototype nice Idea for the Arduino you con get other boards that will handle more current but a Bigger board should not be Necessary

Celcius1 wrote:

Dear Members,

I have had my filastruder for just under one year, Now I have made many meters of filament with it, and happy until now!!!!

I have come to the conclusion this unit is design to FAIL!  In the last few weeks I Have replaced various parts on the unit to only have the unit, would you believe destroy the parts AGAIN!  So here we go with the parts failures that I have endured.

Firstly I had to replace the thrust bearing 3 times, as the bearing would not handle the load, and eventually be worn out and need to be replaced, and over the course of this happening it was slowly grinding a hole the size of the thrust bearing and collar into the aluminum housing at last checking the indentation is now less than half of the wall material.

And then after replacing my 3rd thrust bearing the gear motor decided to strip it GEARS! now I contacted Tim over this and his attitude was he does not warrantee this as its a user serviceable part, like hello dummy, I never opened it, and only contacted you when it stopped working and made funny noises.  I only discovered the stripped gears when I opened it up yesterday, to find out 4 of the 6 gears were stripped of teeth.  What I found out is that 2 of the 6 gears were made of Acetal if they are going to be under such loads, why are they not all made of metal.  But I replaced the broken gears, heated the unit back up and it was back to life, I set it running on an extrusion run, producing 1.75mm filament the unit ran for 12hrs so I had it running over night, and when I came to check it in the morning, the unit had stopped.

So I let it cool down, re heated it back up, started the motor and low and behold, the motor had stopped working AGAIN! so when I opened the housing you want to know what I discovered, it had stripped its gears AGAIN!!! in this case it was only one, but an acetal gear again.  Now I've had it with item planned to fail in this way, what I cant figure out is if your not going to provide quality parts, why be in business at all! 

What makes me even more angry is I live in Australia, to order a $5 gear from Filastruder is $5 US for the Gear which is approx $7 Australian plus the postage which is $20 US approx $27 Australian, so to replace the gear that gear motor stripped in 12 hours is going to cost me another $34 Australian for one gear that Filastruder prices at $5 US.  So when I bought the replacement gears last time I did not know which had failed so I ordered a complete set! It was not until I opened it I discovered I only needed to replace 4 of the 6, but even then to buy that full set it cost me $75 Australian approx.  And seeing as I CANNOT source the gears locally I'm forced to pay Filastruder prices which when you do currency conversion impacts greatly.

To sum it all up unless they really fix the design of this unit all I can say is that anyone who uses it regularly like me, you'll be replacing near enough the entire unit in under 12 months and if this is the case, this is a sign of pretty poor design or if it is a quality issue, then very poor quality control.

I did not bother to send Tim an email as I did not appreciate the brush off I got last time over the gear motor!

Regards
Paul Fisher
Filamax R & D