Filament & Extruder Problem

Hiya Chaps, Having just received my Robo printer I anticipated i may have teething problems

BUT! Not the problem I am having

I pre-heated the extruder to 230 degress and removed the two tensioned bolts to provide easy access to the filament feeder hole.... I fed the supplied ABS filament into the hole and lightly pressed; About 5mm of fine stuff came out of the nozzle and then NOTHING!

I have since also tried with the PLA... It feels like I am hitting a spongy blob about 15/20mm from the tip but get absolutely nothing else appearing

The tip area IS hot as my finger tip can prove! and repetier says it is up to temperature...

Everything looks fine with the machine except for this issue (oh and the fact a wire was hanging out underneath from the mega board).

Any advise please?

 

Oops! I forgot to say that the filament I am now trying to put in does look melted and a little 'drawn' out at the end....

 

I wouldn't heat the extruder to 230, that's kinda hot for these nozzles, 210-220 is more then enough. The fact that you feel like you are hitting something spongy may mean that you might have damaged the PTFE liner, although that shouldn't melt until 260,

 

aaargh, the robo setup guide says set it to 230 to 'burn in'

[COLOR=rgb(30.980390%, 50.588240%, 74.117650%)]Test the extruder with initial burn-in temperature [/COLOR]
Set your Extruder temperature to 230 and click Set. View the Temperature Curve graph and wait for the temp to reach 230 on the purple line

I did note that you can 'feel' the path the filament takes as it is inserted and it was not nice and smooth.

Any ideas anyone?

 

230 Shouldn't damage anything, but its still high for abs.
More then likely the PTFE tube is either defective or has been damaged some how, the only way to really check is to take it apart, but I don't think the RoBo team would want that, you can try contacting them.

 

How very depressing, IS the hot end part readily available?

I was just looking here: http://www.nextdayreprap.co.uk/reprap-3d-printer-hot-end-fully-assembled/ but this one looks differnet, especially the tip....

 

The nozzle the RoBo uses is a Chinese clone of a J-Head http://reprap.org/wiki/J_Head_Nozzle (mine looks like a MKII) You can get replacement PTFE tubes, If you are mechanically inclined you can take it apart and see what the problem is.

 

Cheers, was just reading http://forums.robo3dprinter.com/index.php?threads/clogged-plastic-wont-feed.1023/

Also looking at the E3D hot ends........ (Future upgrade? Although I do not understand the difference between the Direct feed and the 'Bowden' type?)

 

The RoBo uses direct feed, Bowden has the motor and gears separate from the Nozzle, it pushes the filament along a long tube to the nozzle, I orderd a E3D last week, I can't wait to get it

Here's a bowden

 

Ah I See! The bowden seems to be the better idea Certainly easier to get at things etc

 

OK, I spent awhile removing the hot end and its attached 'tube' (held by two screws on the carriage)..

Of course had to cut/remove the tape holding the heater cables and sensor and then detach the head from the tube and then the inner 'liner' tube too; All seems gunked up with product ABS/PLA so I just cleared them all the best I can with a bent paperclip

Put it all together and turned on the extruder and waited for it to get to 210 degrees and gently put some PLA inand out it came (albeit very little), so thats it! woohoo! fastened the two bolts on the extruder hobbed bolt etc and started to believe I could use it

Here starts my next problem, the PC started to 'stack' commands? not sending them to the robo?? I restarted everything and after an initial communication it happens again!!

I also now noted the extruder temperature had reached 300 degrees!!! and was rising! Surely this cannot be?

Any advise would again be appreciated

 

Just ordered a E3D end too, at leats it looks far easier to clean in situ....

 

that's seems pretty annoying. have you managed to get anything going yet?

 

that's seems pretty annoying. have you managed to get anything going yet?

 

Hiya, Nope, nothing, although I have left it at work.... So will get back at it next week. I presume the temp sensor has moved when i was messing with the head....

 

good luck. I hope you fix it (if you did then you would have two extruders. one could be spare)