Solved Step motor gear jam

My step motor started to make noises on certain areas of the x axis. The filament does not extrude real well when it makes that jamming noise.

See video below. It happens whenever the motor is on the left side

 

Is the nozzle scraping on the painters tape in that area? That could impede the X stepper and also prevent extrusion because the nozzle will be too close and be blocked. I never bothered with painters tape. Hairspray seems easier to me.

 

Steve, its not scrapping. The weird thing is that it makes the noise at the same spots everytime.

 

Extruder is not touching the bed because this happens throughout my entire print.
I did check the belt, I did not see anything wrong with it. You can see in the video that it happens at the same exact x-axis. When it is making a rectangular part, you hear the noise on two points for each layer.

Is there another way to troubleshoot this issue?

 

I'm sure you tried this but when you push the X carriage though that spot by hand do you feel any resistance? When use the host programs (MatterControl, Repetier Host, LCD) manual X movement through that area does the stepper skip?

 

hairspray is awesome too because, not only does it hold really well but it goes on super evenly. Unlike painters tape where the width tolerance is not tight. Not to mention the main benefit that once the print bed cools the parts will almost fall off, avoiding the scenario of a part sticking "too well".

 

been there, I almost broke my printer over and over agsin when my print head was too low. I even bought a build take but I ended landing on hairspray. Also Walgreen's had a 2 for one sale on my hairspray. I'm only halfway through my supply and it coated me only 6 dollars. Also tesseract told me this idk how true it is but, painters tape can acquire a residue from reuse which can cause poor adhesion. Painters tape was easy to learn at first though.

 

Painters tape seem to be good for beginners since you have a bit of height forgiveness due to the thickness of that tape. It also allowed a cushion for the filament to test on regardless if you were too high or not on your first layer.

It sucked 'cause you have to replace it almost every print.

Hairspray last for a long time. Much preferred.

I had my heat bed fail due to a connection coming loose on the bed. Printing with the bed off made the edges curl. Re-applying a lot Hairspray really helped to get rid if that problem. Although I really laid it in thick just in case.


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I used to have to hit mine with a hammer to get some things off.

 

See the video below. I recorded from the back of the printer. The bolt and the gears behind the motor are not rotating at those points. When I manually move the motor with my hand, I don't feel any resistance.
The crazy thing is that if I print toward the right of the x-axis, no issues.

 

That sounds like a stripped gear.

What append if you move the x axis all the way. Then home. Does it make the noise at the same spot?


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OK it is the extruder stepper skipping not the X stepper. Strange that it is so consistent and seems to recover at the same place.

Check all four stepper motor wires. Could a short or open in one occur when the cable harness is in a certain position? Manually move the harness around to see if the skipping position changes.

 

If the gear is skipping that should be easy to see.

 

If I am not printing and if I move it to x home, then there is no noise.
It only happens when it is printing. What is a stripped gear?

 

Steve, I did move it with my hand and when I started printing again I did observe the skipping position change.
It started skipping a little bit to the right.

What do you think it is?

 

A stripped gear is one that is has missing or worn teeth. I really doubt the wades gears can be stripped. If they were stripped the worn areas would be very obvious.

So - you say that the position of the skipping changes when you move the wiring harness? If so then like I said earlier there could be an open or short in the stepper wires which is intermittently causing the stepper to malfunction and stop moving.

Here is what I would do:

1. Heat up the hot end and remove the filament from the extruder.
2. Use your host program to run the extruder stepper.
3. While the extruder stepper is running move the wiring harness around to see if and what wires cause the skipping.