So what does one do with a failing hotend? I feel like I can get a print out, with a lot of work on leveling the plate before starting, if it’s a small one. But a large one, eventually it fails, and usually I end up with a ground-down filament at the extruder. I think I am going to upgrade to a dual gear extruder, i feel like that is a big step up.
I do really wish I had a 3D printer that could auto-level the plate. I feel like that’s a big part of my problems. Because I Very often get poor base level outcomes. I finally put a mark on the dials for leveling the plate, and immediately after the first run I noticed one of them had moved by one notch. Maybe there’s 60 notches so that’s a 1 minute or 2% movement over the course of 1 run. Frustrating, but that should help me keep an eye on it.
Ok, time to drop back 10 and punt. The whole problem couls be a clog or partial clog. Try this;
1.Heat up the print head
2.Remove the nozzle
3.Remove the bowden tube
4.With the hotend still hot, push the bowden tube ALL the way through the hotend
This should knock out any clogs. It will also lean out any residual filament. Next;
1.Reinstall the nozzle
2.Loosen the nozzle 1/4 turn
3.Reinstall the bowden tube making SURE it is touching the nozzle.
4.Tighten the nozzle and BAM! No more clogs.
Your extruder will no longer grind the filament trying to push it through the clog. I sincerely hope this helps.
1 Like
I will try that Noway_Jose - just an update before that, a week ago I started a SUPER slow dragon, which took 48 hours but succeeded. Well… almost. It failed at the very top few layers, so the top of the head above the eyes is cut off. And a few of the spines don’t reach the top. But again, weird. It rain for 47 hours and failed on the last hour.
Since then I have tried a few more, simple jobs, with total failures again. Most of the time I end up with a GIANT glob of hardened and soft of course filament clogged around the nozzle and inside the soft cover. I will try what noway_jose suggests next.
Have you checked the bowden tube? With my Ender 3V2 I have to pull the tube every so often and cut it down past the little notch that is left from the fitting on the hot end side. You can usually get away with this twice before the tube gets too short to use. As the tube and fitting heat up it will often cause a narrowing in tube right where the fitting compresses against the tube. Once the tubing gets hot it expands and restricts the filament just enough to to cause the extruder gears to slip. This usually occurs some time into the print because the fitting is away from the heater cartridge and the tubing itself is an insulator.
I couldn’t find the exact video I was thinking of but this one covers it well enough to get my point across.
Thanks. I wondered about the bowden tube but haven’t touched it yet. I just bought a new one and plan to install it shortly. Quick install so I’m going to try that before I installed the dual gear extruder that I also bought.
If raises the question - if you replace every plank of wood on a boat, when done, is it still the same boat?
