Unresolved Getting really frustrated

I've had the printer for about three weeks now and got one good week out of it. The first print jobs were amazing then all of a sudden the quality started going downhill. After reading all of the troubleshooting posts I realized the nozzle was probable clogged. Thought I got it unclogged and tried a different brand of PLA that was highly rated. It got worse. Nothing was coming out. Last night I spent three hours taking about the nozzle and getting it completely unclogged. Decide to give up on PLA and tried ABS. Barely anything came out on the first short print run then I aborted the run. Tried again and nothing came out. I turned up the heat and still nothing. I'm completely lost and frustrated.

 

so with pla, what temp were you using? around 200C? Was the filament grinding on the hob bolt in the back of the extruder at all?

 

PLA is by far the more forgiving filament out of the two. I find using a oiler and seasoning the nozzle makes PLA more reliable.


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Also you are well within the 6mo warranty. So don't get too frustrated before you make a call to Robo.

 

Similar experience, no problems except noob problems the first month, which means problems due to my own ignorance. Model orientation, settings that were less than ideal, etc. Last week, the hotend clogged like yours did because, well, my own issue, thinking I can use PLA that was not reviewed. Play with fire. You will get burned. So jammed first, then clogged and then total and complete failure of the hotend. Good thing, I was smart enough to contact Robo and they sent me a new hotend for free. Installed it and it is now on hour 12 of a 16 hour print.


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Thanks for the quick responses. I think I was running the temp between 190-210. The first batches were great. Then it clogged. Tried everything to get it unclogged before finally taking it apart. Completely unclogged the extruder but when I went to do a test run with ABS just a little clump started coming out. Bumped up the temperature and nothing. I'll give it one more try fixing it on my own before I call tech support.

 

Don't forget to season it and use an oiler like @GAmbrosio suggested.

 

I made the switch to ABS to test it out and to hold off on using an oiler until I can make one using the printer. Still a newbie and wanting to try various filaments. I went with the ones that were recommended on another post.

Its just killing me not being able to play with my new toy.

 

I hear you, but unfortunately, this technology is still a tinkerer, hobbyist, world as we both are quickly discovering, patience and thinking it through will be key to make it enjoyable. If you are losing it, gotta step back and think about it since it is almost guaranteed won't be your last undesirable situation with your printer.


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Mark, I think, many come into this thinking, "oh, cool. I can make crap," without realizing it is whole lot more than just buying the printer, buy quality PLA, finding a model on the interweb and hit print.

It is like RC racing. One does not just buy the gear and run all day carefree.

Oh, the swear jar was full this weekend, along with some broken things around my work area.


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Mark, frustrating? Would be printing a 48 hour print and at 46 and half, stupid spool from a "quality, ISO CERTIFIED 'murican," place is wound too tight causing a jam. And...I love this one, 23 hour job, stupid power goes out (PG&E!!!) at hour 18, after it took 3 retries to get the first layer to look mavelous... now I have a UPS coming...


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A couple of somewhat related issues I had; Remove the two spring-loaded screws that hold in the piece that pressures the filament. Once you have it off, clean all the plastic shrapnel out of there and make sure the feeding gear is clean. Also, check in between the heater block and cooling fins of the hot end to see if any filament is oozing out. Mine was not heated and tightened and was leaking plastic. Google how to properly tighten hot ends because you can screw them up by twisting wrong things.

Do your extruder gears look like they're moving at the right speed or are they slipping/skipping or moving extremely slow? If you preheat, you can move the gear a little by hand and see if it's extruding.

 

Thanks guys, I got it working again last night. My first test run was a simple little model that had a little problem in the beginning but the next larger piece turned out perfect. The only strange thing I encountered was that using Simplify I couldn't maintain a set temperature prior to doing an actual print job.

 

Still new at this. Not sure how to tell the temperature differences for each end. I have a lot of reading on the forum to learn from.

I didn't have the problem until I fixed the clog.