Solved Filament jammed inside BETWEEN extruder and hot end

Wow I stand correct, 6082 aluminum according to this: http://files.e3d-online.com/Drawings/E3D_Heat_Block_5.jpg

Appologies for the misinformation!

 

And... the nightmares continue. I'm really starting to regret buying this printer.

It appears the hotend fan (attached -- rather shoddily, I might add -- to heat sink) has failed. It does not come on when I power on the printer. It does not come on during the preheat process. So I assume that means it has failed.

To make matters worse, it's the one component up there that DOESN'T have an easy clip terminal to swap out for another one. So, now I have to figure out:

a) Is it the fan that is broken? The wiring? Or the board/connection?
b) Which wires are the ones connected to that fan -- where does it connect to board?

What a friggin nightmare. I didn't expect to be doing this much work after printing:

1) whistle
2) glasses
3) bowtie (x3)
4) robot
5) Great Pyramid (x4 -- student-created models)
6) tablet stand (custom model)

So... less than a dozen prints in, and I get broken components, leaking, jams, and a PITA to fix...

 

Sounds to me like you had one issue. The hotend fan broke. This led to a series of other issues but were all caused by the same issue.

Best thing to do is submit a replacement part request here for a new fan: http://www.robo3dprinter.com/pages/replacement-part-request

 

I should be okay, I have replacement fan anyway. The bigger annoyance is the wiring of the fan (guess I might just solder and electrical tape it...)

 

FYI, I snipped off the existing fan, cut the wires to the new one, and soldered on. Seems to be working. What a PITA, though... good thing I happened to have a soldering iron and some solder, I guess (this is another one of those design flaws that could be significantly improved by just providing a clip-in point for swapping in a new fan.)

I hope RoBo takes note of some of these flaws/bugs and continues to improve upon them, because they have a good thing here if they can work out the kinks. [Also, it looks like hotends, in general, could use some improved design. How can we get something that is versatile temp-wise, but has a good heat-break to prevent traveling upwards, and without the need for these clumsy and unreliable fans...? That's what needs to be invented.]

 

Now onward to secure everything back up again, and finally see if I have repaired the dang thing! (should I also clean the hobbed bolt of the extruder? Seems to have some small bits of filament that have shredded/wedged in the teeth, which probably reduced the grip...)

 

They absolutelly have been taking notice of problems and actively working on correcting them. There was a small batch of printers that went out (not sure how many) and their fans had unusually high failure rates. I think this batch was also before they were advised from RepRapDiscount that hot securing is now required (They used to say securing it cold was fine then flipped, not really RoBo's fault but they just had the fallout from it)

The alternative to the all metal hot end (which is pretty universally the same) is the J-head. That uses a PEEK plastic body that you don't need a fan to cool. The downside is they require a PTFE insert which limits the temp down to 240ish.

Most every printer these days uses an all metal and fans. The new fans robo3d is including is much more reliable.

As for the clip, judging by the number of users who have no idea the fan even needs to be on, I'd be concerned of a fan coming unclipped then a user jamming up badly. Better to have a solid connection even if it sucks to service. Trust me I must have replaced 10 fans by now (tweezers + open fan blades = fan death)

 

Yeah, seems like it is slowly but surely getting there. Metric upgrade (should've ensured correct firmware got flashed along with it), all-metal hotend upgrade (would've been better if they'd ensured that it was tightened/leak-proof, and used a better fan-mount than the "clip on" printed one)... but it sounds like they have worked out most of the bugs and this printer is now close to what it should be...

 

Thanks, this helped me, too. Filament was jammed and sticking out of cold end, not high enough to grab with tweezers or pliers, and couldn't push it through. Finally found the one screw holding it in...so easy...and then pulled out the stuck section.