1 Topic by MacDoodle

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Topic: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

Hello,

I have a problem with my feeder stepper motor. After two days of light use (5 small prints) my solidoodle feeder stepper motor is skipping and won't push filament through. (see attached video)

This appeared suddenly in the middle of a print and I can't get it to work all right again. I tried cleaning the mechanism several times and adjusting the tension spring to different levels. Nothing helps. I opened the tension mechanism and tried pushing filament through manually. It was really tough and difficult to push through. Is my nozzle clogged? I still get some plastic through so it's not totally clogged. How would you clean the nozzle? This is really unfortunate since it means that I can't print anymore.

Anyone else had this problem?
Please help!

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Skipping feeder motor.mp4 1.64 mb, 67 downloads since 2012-12-26 

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2 Reply by 3D_CC_design

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

It seems that the pulley on the engin has Z mouvements.
Did you removed the engin to check the Radial clearance ?
Did you check the cristal part (When I received my printer this part was broken) ?

Printer: Solidoodle 2
Slicer: Slic3r
Soft: repetier

3 Reply by Irish

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

The Hot End is most likely partially clogged, I had the same issue, and will need to be disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt.

Solidoodle posted a good video on removing the Hot End without disassembling the Extruder which is easier than the way I did it. I don't have link to that video but I'm sure someone else here does.

Leaving the temp on in the Hot End when not printing seems to be the big culprit. Have you switched to Repitier-Host for printing? Pronterface doesn't have a place to tell it to turn off the Hot End when finished printing Repitier-Host does.

4 Reply by devilman2075

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

If you want skeinforge/pronterface to turn off extruder and/or bed at end of print its as simple as adding the correct codes to the end gcode.

If it is taking much effort to push through the filament and adjusting extruder tensioner isn't helping, id say you've got a clog. Go to vimeo and search solidoodle for their various help videos.

Id link but I'm on my phone currently. As irish stated, don't leave your extruder idle at operating temperatures too long.  This will cause clogs

5 Reply by MacDoodle (edited by MacDoodle 2012-12-27 16:40:26)

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

Ok, thanks for your replies. I didn't know that I shouldn't leave the hot end activated when not printing. I have left it on for the maybe 30 minutes at least once without printing.

I tried finding the video of how to clean the hot end on Vimeo. I found the solidoodle channel there, but they only describe how to completely replace the hot end.

h t t p://vimeo.com/55450537

I found this related thread on the matter:
soliforum.com/topic/115/clogged-extrusion-tip/

Maybe this could be a sticky somewhere?

Thank you!

6 Reply by Irish

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

I couldn't find the most recent videos that Solidoodle posted on the net. But, they show the easiest way to remove and replace the Hot End. The other videos have you take apart the entire extrusion head, NOT the way to go. With the SD method you undo the nuts on the bottom of the wood holder for the hot end, plus, one of the screws holding the extrusion head. The Hot End slips right out then.

Issue here is that if you don't do it exactly the way they show you could possibly break something. So, make sure you find that video first and study it. It's simple once you go through it a couple of times.

They show just replacing the hot end. You really need to clean yours and that requires total dissassembly of the Hot End. The other video that's available on here shows what else you need to do to clean it. Then basically reverse the process to reassemble.

Here's the link on the 'old' method of disassembly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQohJtS4wrE

7 Reply by Irish

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

Here's that video by Solidoodle: http://vimeo.com/55528973

There are other videos on there too if you look at the top of the screen there are about five of them well worth watching.

8 Reply by MacDoodle

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

Thanks a lot!

I tried removing the hot end, heating is up an poking a thin needle through it to get potential clogs out. I also dipped the end of the nozzle in acetone. I then extruded a lot of plastic at 210 degrees at the same time as pushing on the filament with pliers, hard. After in or two minutes the motor could pull filament through by itself. Sadly though, that didn't last long. I tried printing something and didn't even make it through the raft until the plastic stopped. I shut the heater off quickly and gave up.

I'm out of ideas... maybe a long thin drill would help?

9 Reply by devilman2075

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

If you could find one small enough it might work.  Don't quote me because I haven't had to deal with any clogs but I've seen some kits with small drills for 3d printers on ebay  I'm assuming if you had a .3mm it could work.

10 Reply by MacDoodle

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

I tried a small 1mm drill, being careful not to drill through the nozzle and making it bigger.
As with the last try, it worked for 2 minutes, then it clogged up again.
Do I need a new nozzle maybe? I haven't even printed for 2 days. sad

11 Reply by BigHache

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

Maybe this will help. I had what I thought might have been a clogged extruder but turned out it was filament dust in the extruder head. Filament wasn't pushing through and the tension pulley basically squeezed the filament so it wasn't wide enough to resist.

What I did to fix was spray canned air in the extruder to clear out the gear/pulley. I also do this just about every time I change filament now to avoid that.

BigHache's Website

12 Reply by rheaghen

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Re: Feeder stepper motor "skips" and wont push filament down

I have the same issue. I've replaced the nozzle/hotend. Tried different filament vendors. Used the air spray trick, cleaned the bearing that counters the toothy filament grabber wheel thing.

I did notice that the toothy bit, from other reprap photos, that it might be for 3mm filament. I'm curious if they make a 1.75mm toothey gear.

My next attempt involves replacing the plexi parts in the front with some other design from thingiverse.