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Answered Trouble Feeding Filament Through Hotend

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Corey Harris, Jul 22, 2017.

  1. Corey Harris

    Corey Harris New Member

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    Hey Guys,

    I've been working through a number of issues with my printer for the last couple of weeks with the help of Robo3D customer service, who have been a great help. I wanted to reach out to the user forum now, because the issue that I currently have isn't something that I feel is actually broken, but simply something that I'm missing. I recently had to replace my wire harness and hotend after the thermistor wire got snagged and eventually broke away from the connection point. I ordered a new wire harness and was able to replace the hotend with one that I had gotten from a previous RMA from Robo3D, but now the issue is I'm having trouble getting consistent extrusion through the new hotend. I can push the filament through and force some out, but when trying to use either the gear manually or the extrusion command in the software, it barely gets any out and simply chews through the filament.

    I figured it was either a clogged hotend or one that simply wasn't prepared for printing, so I pushed any lingering filament out with the small Allen wrench and oiled the filament, which helped temporarily. I was able to get a few passes of good extrusion, but stopped it because it wasn't adhering to the bed. Ever since then I haven't been able to get any significant extrusion by either pushing the filament through myself or oiling the filament. I wanted to see if anyone had experienced anything similar. It doesn't seem to be a damaged piece of hardware, because it is able to heat up properly and I was able to get a successful start with good extrusion once, but I haven't been able to make any more progress on it.

    Sorry for the long post, but I appreciate anyone might have some information.

    Corey
     
    #1 Corey Harris, Jul 22, 2017
  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Hi Corey is this PLA ? Have you seasoned the hotend with canola oil/use an oiler ?
     
    #2 Geof, Jul 22, 2017
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Corey, the easiest thing to do is to replace the nozzle with a new one. They are cheap on Amazon and even cheaper from places like Banggood. Anything that fits an E3Dv6 will work on the Hexagon extruder that Robo uses. These are actually consumables and should be replaced when they wear. Once the nozzle is removed you can look down the bore to see if there is any obstruction. The Hexagon hotend has no real user serviceable parts and if there is an issue with the heatbreak or bore it will need to be replaced. Also the Hexagon's bore is on the tight side. I recall it is only 1.82 mm in diameter and if you have old filament or perhaps filament that has absorbed some moisture, it can be oversized, nominal diameter of filament is 1.75 mm but many cheaper filaments have tolerances as high as +-0.05 mm. You see you might have sections of the filament that could be 1.80 mm thick which doesn't leave a lot of room if the bore is only 1.82 mm. Also if your hotend fan is weak and not cooling the fins adequately you can suffer a phenomenon called heat creep, where the length of softened filament grows beyond the heat zone and into the cold zone of the hotend. PLA expands a lot when heated.

    There are a lot of factors that can cause your current issues, so try things one at a time until you get it solved.
     
    #3 WheresWaldo, Jul 22, 2017
    mark tomlinson and Geof like this.
  4. Corey Harris

    Corey Harris New Member

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    Geof, I tried oiling the filament with a piece of paper towel soaked in oil rubbed along the filament as it was feeding. I didn't have an oiler, so I figured that was that was the next best alternative.

    That's a lot of good information Waldo, I appreciate it. I've been thinking about getting a better hotend anyway, so maybe this is just the reason I needed. I had a feeling that there might be fluctuations in the actual nozzle sizes, but I wasn't sure since it was a brand new hotend from Robo3D. I'll look around and see if I can't find a good deal.

    I appreciate the help!
     
    #4 Corey Harris, Jul 23, 2017
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Perfect as a matter of fact.
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Jul 23, 2017
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