Still having a hard time with the E3D....

I had a good first two prints but I've been having extruder issues now and I can't figure out why. I've tried everything from putting a straw in to make sure the filament is feeding straight. Leveled my bed as much as possible (even though its cracked ATM), I've tried shifting the hobbed bolt around at least 20 times to make sure its aligned. Sometimes it will print fine for a few layers then the filament starts to come out uneven. When i try pushing the filament through by hand the pressure I have to exert is uneven...sometimes I will have to really push it to extrude and other times it comes out real easy. Not sure what to do. Any one have any tips? This is starting to get frustrating..........still....not frustrating enough to destroy it with a sledgehammer and poop on it.....but frustrating

 

try turning the e3d up to 250 or so and forcing filament through until you start to see a consistent output.

 

I did the thing where I seal it at 300. Should I be looking for anything when I push it through at 250? What does it do? Should I be doing that every time I change the filament or just the once?

 

Alright, I tried the 250 thing, pushed through like butter when it was at 250 but now it seems to be coming out crappy again. I've been printing at 210.

 

Just once. You're trying to force out any gunk that might have gotten in there.

Try doing it at 250 and set the temp to 210. While it's descending keep forcing it through until it stabilizes.

I'm also having flow issues as we speak on my E3D. Not sure what the deal is.

 

gotcha. I'll try that when I get home tonight. Keep me posted on whats happening with yours and let me know if you find anything else out!

 

I wonder if the thermistor is not reading the right temp. It doesn't make sense that it extrudes fine at "250" but not at "210" . Are you printing PLA or ABS? If ABS try 220 for the temp.

 

I'm using PLA. Yeah I think my next step is to check the temp. It will extrude fine for a bit at 210, but then it slowly starts to extrude unevenly over time

 

Have you checked the diameter of your filament? I'm having issues with some filament. Whenever I checked the diameter it's gone from ~1.75 to over 1.90 when it finally jams

 

Melody Bliss are you using Robo 3d stock filament or other brand?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Peter, Yes. I've got about 18 spools of filament here. Some are Robo 3D's, some are others.

 

Ok I tried the 250 to 210 trick and still nothing. Printed fine for about 4 or 5 layers then started getting thinner again. Any other thoughts?

 

Ok Chas I determined mine was likely caused by a speed issue.

Check your speed settings in slicer. If anything is well outside the default (hover the block it'll say what default was) maybe turn that down to default.

I think that helped me slightly but i'm still having infil issue. Might be a combination of speed and switching from slicer 1.0.0RC to 0.9.9 again.

If you have the stock robo 3d profiles from their repetier version try those as well.

 

I've been using CURA to slice and normally keep my speed settings super low. Is it possible to print too slow?

 

Not really no. Just too fast and the filament can't get enough pressure to push through properly and you end up spinning the hobbed bolt on the filament.

Have you looked at your hobbed bolt to see if it's gunked up at all? Use a soft bristle brush to clean it

 

Yep, many times. I've pulled it out, wiped it off and tested slightly different alignments for it over and over again and still no luck.

 

could you take a video of how it looks when you force the filament through and again using the extrude command in cura?

 

Sure, at work at the moment but I'll shoot it tonight.

 

Actually, would you be willing to do skype this eve? Should be home around 7:30/8pm CST.

 

That's fine just shoot me a message. I might be celebrating cause we hit a major mile marker in the project I'm on but I should be around a computer