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Partially Solved feeder chews filament

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Sean Carson, Mar 25, 2016.

  1. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    If your still under warranty hit up robo for a new hotend :) never bad to have a good one even if you do the e3dv6... I like spares :)
     
  2. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    The hardened nozzles really are interesting to me. What are you materials are you printing with them?
     
  3. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    I have harassed them for warentee parts plenty of times. Twice my fault, but the rest says this thing was a lemon. Oh well, I'm running out of parts to replace.
     
  4. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Xt, Ngen, magnetic from protoplasta, carbon fiber, wood and bamboo fill and glow in the dark lol
     
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  5. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    Bamboo sound like a nice material. Is it still PLA based? I'm not too thrilled by having to oil PLA.
     
  6. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Yea I believe it is. Mine is colorfabb @Printed Solid can probably clarify I think his website has tons of information on each material he sells (www.printedsolid.com).

    I don't mind oiling as it doesn't take much and I printed ab oiler so I just have to remember to add a drop or 2 every.... Ok so I always forget lol but so far whenever I happen to remember to oil it's enough to prevents the normal issues pla has. I haven't had a pla jam on the robo since installing. I run everything through the oiler even though it doesn't help anything but pla because it also doesn't hurt anything :)
     
  7. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    Whereas my robo treats everything like unseasoned PLA! Om-nom-nom.
     
  8. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Lol beast needs fed
     
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  9. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    We actually named it GLaDoS, but she is a hungry beast.
     
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  10. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    Just chiming in since I'm tagged... Pico nozzles don't fit the hexagon. E3D nozzles work great on it though. You might want to look at that as a first attempt.

    After it chews the filament, if you pull it back out and push fresh filament through, does it flow freely? If it does, I'm thinking it's probably not a blockage, but something else. ABS and PET aren't terribly sticky. They shouldn't be blocking that easily.

    Some additional things to check:
    -Is the fan that blows on the heatsink on all the time?
    -Is the hexagon assembled well? Good check for this is looking to see if there is filament oozing up over the top of the heater block.
    -Are the heater cartridge and thermistor secure?
    -Check wiring for the extruder and for the thermistor and heater.
    -Can you elaborate on this PTFE tube? Is it just running from the top of the heatsink to the hobbed bolt or do you somehow have it pressed into the heatsink?
    -Retraction settings: I just noticed on the facebook group that the stock retraction settings are way off. They're bad enough that they could pull molten filament up into the heatsink and freeze causing the problems you are reporting. Stock retraction is at 5mm and 30mm/s. Should be more like 1.5mm and 60+mm/s. People try to address stringing by increasing retraction distance, but that isn't the right approach. All it does is lead to clogs. You just want to reduce pressure very slightly and do it quickly.
    -Brush the teeth on the hobbed bolt.
    -Fiddle with the spring tension. I believe you just want it as tight as can be, but I guess it's possible that if you have a hex with diameter on the low side and are ovalizing the filament, then you could be causing plugs.
    -One last option: use better filament. The hex diameter tends to be lower than it really should be, which can lead to clogs if you have high diameter variation in your filament.
     
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  11. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    Fan works fine, no escaping filament, retracting was dropped to 1.2 when I switched to simplify3d, the wiring WAS fine but I just destroyed a thermistor, the filament is actually undersized, I am constantly brushing the teeth on the hobbled bolt, the PTFE tube just narrows the clearances between the hobbled bolt and the hotend, keeping PETG from going full pigtail, I tried loosening tension to the point there was only one loosely attached spring on there.

    I'm going to upgrade now. I have destroyed the thermistor, the extruder won't let go of the cooled filament, I've made a big mess in there.
     
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  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Probably the best approach at this point. You have invested more than the cost of the E3D in time and effort trying to get the hexagonn working...
     
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  13. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    i think you'll be happy with the e3dv6. its a pretty great hotend. No issues running any filament so far and when there is an issue its serviceable...
     
  14. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    What is the volcano nozzle about? Does it print fast but sloppy?
     
  15. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I am not sure I use just the e3d stock. My understanding is a larger zone of melted material at all times so faster printing speeds are achievable. I'd assume like all speed increases there would be loss of detail to a degree
     
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No. It is a much larger melt zone. You can print a lot faster. If you want to use larger nozzles you can or you can stay with smaller ones. Unless you go really fast or really large with the nozzles you do not lose any real resolution. If that is important, stay with a 0.4 nozzle on the volcano and you can still push the speed. More important for people who want to print faster with a bit less resolution. I posted pictures (as have others) comparing prints at different nozzle sizes.
     
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  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I have one Robo I use with a volcano and a 1.0 nozzle all the time and the other Rob with a 0.25 (non-volcano).
    The volcano equipped one does not even have the leadscrew upgrade and the prints are still more than adequate. I use that printer a LOT more than the detail one :) (the print times are wildly different).


    If you are going to prime/sand/paint the model anyway I dare you to be able to 'see' the difference :)
     
    #37 mark tomlinson, Mar 27, 2016
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2016
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  18. aenea22980

    aenea22980 New Member

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    I had a lot of trouble with my filament stripping on the hobbed bolt, I tried cleaning out the print head, increasing the tension, changing temperatures, all that stuff. I finally ended up making a spool sled like this one: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:484445 and used bike ball bearings that had been stripped and then WD40'd so they turn very smoothly with little pressure. This cleared up my problems entirely, so I think it was just that the spool on the little spool holder stick that comes with the Robo3D was creating too much friction on the filament, it would strip, and then get stuck/ clogged.
     
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