Just lost a nice two-colour lithophane to a waste chute blockage. Or at least when I checked the machine, which actually said the filament was blocked between the extruder and the AMS, the waste box was full to overflowing and in fact the printer seemed to have lost both its sense of position and dignity and had started pooping directly onto the print bed.
There was indeed an extruder clog, but very small - I think the waste chute had filled, so the nozzle was in contact with “old waste” from previous colour changes. I think this had caused it to |“back up” and thus cause the extruder clog.
I’ve got my own design waste chute on my machine and thought that might be the problem; but it was totally clear, whereas the waste “box” (for want of better word) on the K2 was chock-a-block with little spiral turds.
Are we any closer to getting some idea why this happens and more importantly how to stop it? It makes the idea of leaving a print to run for more than a few hours laughable (this happened after just four hours).
I’ve one topic for discussion - my printer is not on a level surface. I know this is less than ideal, but it’s hard for me to correct, so my printer currently leans forward by maybe a degree or two, no more. This of course means the slope on the waste chute is reduced by the same amount, but also, a “poop” from the nozzle is a fraction closer to the front of the waste box than it would be if it were vertical.
Could it really be that sensitive? I don’t know, so I’m asking for data; please reply with answers to the following;
- Do you find your waste chute gets blocked?
- Is your printer;
a. vertical/level
b. leaning forward slightly
c. leaning backwards slightly
I’m thinking the hitting the front of the waste box issues is more likely a cause of the problem than the reduction in slop of the outlet by a degree or so…but either way I thought it was worth checking.