Issues with ender 3

Ender Series
1

Hi. I have an ender 3. About 18 months old. Has been ok off and on but recently has been giving me a lot of trouble. I have new filament, a new hotend and tube but still have issues with the extruded stepping, failed prints and poor flow.
I have the temp set at 220. Often I can get the thing to get started after a bit of cleaning but it usual fails about 10-15mm up the print. Any thoughts?

2

Hi.

Do you have the original plastic extruder,

  1. if so, Check if it has a grove jamming the filament.
  2. The drive gear has worn out and needs replacing.
  3. the tension on the drive gear need adjusting.

Bill

3

Hi Bill
Thanks for this. I hadn’t really suspected the extruder. I assumed that it was an issue with getting filament out of the hot end rather than the gears pushing it down.
The cruder hadn’t got adjustment- is there an upgrade one you can recommend that does? I know you can get some 2 gear ones which presumably help.
Guy

4

I was looking at

https://amzn.eu/d/2Dm02Um
You can get new stepper motors as well- not sure if that might be an issue
Guy

5

Hi Guy
Aliexpress has the duel drive extruders for the ender 3

Upgrade Kit Dual Gear Extruder with Two Washers Metal Drive Feeder For Creality Ender 3 V2 Pro,Ender 3 Neo CR10 3D Printer - AliExpress 7

The motor is rarely the problem. if it is, may be only low current generally about 680 to 750 mA

6

Thanks Bill
I’ll try that. I need a new motor as the shaft isn’t long enough to take the dual gear- only 16mm. I struggled with this a bit before so I’ll get one with a longer one.
Thanks
Guy

7

Hi bill
I replaced the extruded with a direct drive dual motor BmG extruded and all is well.
Thanks for your help
Guy