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E3D Clogging

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by William, Mar 13, 2014.

  1. William

    William New Member

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    As one problem is solved more seem to appear. Now my E3D hotend is clogging. I can sit and force the filament through and it will temporarily unclog, but not for long. The hobbed bolt is not the problem. Photos shows how the hobbed bolt forced material down where it had no place to go. I removed the the hotend, completely cleaned it out until I could see light when shining one from below and that did not fix it. Any ideas are appreciated!

    IMAG0864.jpg Mangled Colorfabb XT IMAG0865.jpg After removing. IMAG0866.jpg This just shows an easy way to remove the screws with a driver/drill.
     
  2. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    Hi William. I can't remember if we talked about temperatures for XT. It is a PET, not a PLA. So, it does require higher temps. What are you extruding at? 220 and above should be good. If you're there, maybe even try it higher like 230 or 240 just to see if the cal on your E3D is a little off.
     
  3. William

    William New Member

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    Hey Matt,
    I was using 235 for XT. It printed fine for an hour or two before it clogged. After that I changed to PLA and I believe the issue became material on the hobbed bolt. Before this latest PLA attempt I cleaned off the hobbed bolt and I'm presently at 3 hours with no problems.
     
  4. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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    I noticed that the E3D thermistor reading was about 7C lower than a thermocouple reading taken from the hole on the other side with a bit of heat sink compound on it. Anyone else see this?

    Matt, Did you use any filament such that 5-10C lower could make it clog? Perhaps bolt shavings got down into the E3D at some point to add more resistance.
     
  5. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    What thermistor code are you using in the firmware?
     
  6. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    t-glase will definitely clog right up over a 5-10C swing, but XT has a more gradual melt profile. I would expect to see underextrusion (lacy/spongy prints) before a clog.

    Maybe you just hit a bad section in the filament? colorFabb holds really tight specs on diameter and stands behind it if something is out, but nobody's perfect and #$% happens (add in your own cliche).
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Not sure how much, but yes, the E3D thermistor read colder than the stock.
     
  8. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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    I set the value in constant.h to 5 which should be correct for the newer smaller Semitec thermistor. I also double checked the thermocouple with an ice bath and boiling water and it was spot on.
     
  9. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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  10. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    I would ask Sanjay directly. I sure wish someone would come up with a matrix of ideal temps. Forum to forum, they're all over the place! Is your non-peek fan on (normally used for PLA)? I've notice that with ABS at least, sometimes I can't keep the heat up enough. Or, the opposite - like today when I was "optimizing" my wiring setup, I pulled the thermistor out enough to burn up the hot end. Doh!
     
  11. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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  12. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    no but that sure could have saved me...about six or seven times!!! I kill myself. ;) Thanks. I'm going to spread this one around!
     
  13. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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    I tried this again at 200C with the hole completely filled heat sink compound and pressed the thermocouple in much harder. With some patients I got two different thermocouples as close as 3C low. I guess that is not too bad. I know thermistors can be more accurate than thermocouples but am not sure how the accuracy of the RAMPS board's resistor combined with the ATMETA's internal reference affects them.
     
  14. JohnStack

    JohnStack New Member

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    Personally I think you're good with less than 3% variance in temps.

    E3Ds - my commentary:
    1. Fans always cooling the fins.
    2. Extrusion multipliers/speed - you may have to futz with them to get it dialed in.
    3. Depending on your material, other fans.

    I personally know about 20 makers using E3D and met even more this weekend at Midwest Rep Rap Festival in Goshen IN. (As I now live in San Diego, I have a not so subtle reminder of what 12 degrees is...)

    Anyway, it's the standard now. Get them installed right, get your PIDs dialed in and you're good.

    One mod I finished doing across all my hot ends today - screw in thermistors. Buy set 4-40 steel set screws, some Blue Magic Quick Steel (good up to 260C), the right sized tape and drill and have at it. All in all, it took me about two hours to drill and tap three hot ends and get the thermistors into the set screws. The Quick Steel is like iron after it sets up for 24 hours.
     

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