Solved PLEASE READ - Hotend Jam/Clogs? - Seasoning and an Oiler

I have yet to use an oiler, with around 200 hours on my machine I have not run into issues described in this thread, I switch back and forth a lot from PLA to ABS so not sure if that has impacts or not, I however do see the reasoning of seasoning , so I will add this to my scheduled maintenance window every 3 months.

 

The PC(poly carb) Is pretty resilient. I would bet you had acrylic and the PAM spray has alcohol in it. I've seen arcylic shatter many times due to alcohol exposure, but never Poly carb (lexan).

 

Do I need to do this for the All metal hot end that Robo 3d has been shipping lately on the R1?

 

Yes. Same with E3D as well. Especially if you plan on printing with PLA a lot.

 

I had needed to use some PLA that i've had for some time after printing ABS. I have had adequate prints and then times when extruding will stop mid print (mechanics continuing on). When I open the extruder, the hobbled bolt has ground into the filament, but nothing else seems to be wrong. Could it be getting too much friction at the nozzle causing the jamming and need to be seasoned? I've not seasoned it at all since I bought the printer.

 

I had a problem with filament feeding, it started when I was TRYING to print the case bottom for the smart LCD controller from solid, it quit feeding after printing the bottom of the bottom plate and a couple passes above the flat bottom (it continued going thru the motions with nothing being extruded). I took about 3 inches of filament, put a drop or 2 of canola oil on it and ran it thru no problem.

Then I tried feeding the white spool filament back into it so I could try printing it again, but it would NOT feed at all.

The continuous problems, one after another is making me think again about my buying a Robo. Those dang BLUE lights are useless, (other than looking cool). In fact when I switched filament in it from blue to white I wasted some white filament as it looked blue with those pretty useless blue LEDs.

I was going good, so I thought and ordered several more rolls of filament...
For now, till I can get this balky printer going, it just a pretty & huge paperweight...

NOTE: To NoGoRoBo......... how about putting bright WHITE LED lights in the top aimed down so I can SEE what I am trying to do. You can leave the blue LEDs in or toss them, but WHITE LEDs switchable or always on does not matter to me

 

Sounds like you're too low and need to increase your offset.

Also I believe the incoming batch of printers will have white LEDs

 

Someone else suggested setting the extruder temp to 245. That worked after I figured out how to get MC to accept my 245 and not reset it to 0 or 210. I had tried w/o luck earlier to set a higher temp in a effort to clear it.

White light LEDs would be far more useful, especially if they are placed high up in the towers. I also am not fond of the filament spool setup. I think I will try the top mount unit I saw in a video.

One minute I am happy with a tiny success, the next frustrated.
I think the nerds behind this machine had good ideas & concepts, but lacking in some important user areas. (and QC) Speaking of QC, One of the red/blk wire pairs is touching the axel/bolt of the big feed gear. Over time I expect that turning of it will wear off some wire insulation and could cause electrical problems, possible short if the insulation gets worn down to bare wire.
I expect I will soon add white LEDs in the top bridge aimed down so I can see what I am doing better.

Thanks Mike..

 

I was looking at the blue LEDs... they look like NeoPixels from Adafriit. If they are, there could be a way to change the color. I have a regular arduino.

 

See post http://community.robo3d.com/index.php?threads/solution-to-petg-print-jams.6030/ if anything applies. Looks like not enough spring force/unconstrained feed path? If the hobbed bolt is turning and the filament is feeding, then where is the material going? Any plastic build up on the teeth of the hobbed bolt indicates slippage.

Instead of oil how about Tungsten Disulfide? Buff powder to inside of clean/bare metal extruder tube. Watch out for the dust. Safe once bonded. Amazing stuff. Lots of info on the web. Read: http://www.lowerfriction.com/pdf/8.pdf Available on eBay 0.6um powder for Pine Wood Derby hop-ups. Pretty durable. Good to 594C in air. Coefficient of friction 0.03 Dynamic; 0.07 Static. Once you get it on something, there is no way to get it off short of removing underlying material (they say). Used in plastic injection machines to reduce molten plastic friction and increase flow rates and production throughput.

Would also be interesting to try WS2 as a surface coating on a 3D printed part when you need PTFE like performance.

 

I applied WS2 on my E3D when it was first installed, but have no basis for comparison since I don't use PLA.

All plastics probably stick to some degree, PLA being one of the worst. If the hobbed bolt advances by one tooth and the PLA remains stuck, what happened to the advanced material? Does it get compressed? Did it wiggle to the side, bow or bend? or did the tooth slip on the filament? Does the hobbed bolt have to dig into the filament deeper to get enough traction to break the PLA loose? Is there too much compliance in the feeder that the hobbed bolt is not being rigidly held in place? Some of the pics from the first page indicate a severe problem. Oil, WS2, tubelube will get you printing again, but is there something else lurking in our designs?

 

Damn.. i have been having lots of failed prints ( jams ) .. but I dont have any canola oil. I have olive oil.

is there any Petrol based stuff I might have out in my shop? I have A Tri Flow Pen that I use to lube my printers rods. I have a tube of super lube. I have lots of motor oil out in my shop. Lithium grease etc. Will any of that work? haha.

 

Well, I have installed a new hex . I just ran a big job, better than 1 whole reel of Hatchbox PLA.
Most of the runs were 5 hours per model run. I ran it all night. I encountered no problems. I don't use oil.
Am I lucky or was it the Hatchbox filament. I still have the remains of the second reel to run.

Here's something that might have made a difference. I noticed a minor obstruction in the new hex nozzle so I reamed it out with a .40mm drill till I could slide the drill straight in and out.

I ran at infill 60, inside per. 60, outside per. 50
Temp 210 / 50

 

I may have overdone the oiling. I have removed my oiler and shot 300mm through the nozzle. still can't get anything to stick and thats on BuildTak. Messed with my Z offset but pretty sure thats not it... I have printed previously with my z offset ridiculously high and it still sticks to buildTak. So I'm thinking i got way to much oil..still in the system?

What should I do?