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After a week of success, now all is failing  

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PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
After a week of success, now all is failing

Hi,

I had a week of great succcess with my new Prusa Mini. Straight out of the box it printed well with a variety of PLA and PETG filaments.

I got a new white Eryone PLA filament (I have 2 other Eryone filaments and they have been good) but this white one caused all kinds of problems. It clogged up the gears in the extruder, caused the machine to star clicking. I had to disassemble it and clean out the extruder pulley. I did a couple of cold pulls to remove any residue.  I'm sending the filament back to Amazon!

This seemed to stop the clicking, and I managed an OK quality print of a buddy, but not as good as before, it has a few lines that are what I think is under extruded. 

But I thought I was back in business with a little tweaking necessary. I just tried another print and it's a total mess, filament everywhere, it even managed to move the steel sheet. I tried to unload the filament but it wont do it.

What steps should I go through to diagnose and fix this issue? 

Thanks in advance.

Paul

Posted : 17/03/2021 9:56 am
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

I get good results with that brand.  Did you try drying it?

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 17/03/2021 10:04 am
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

@cwbullet

No not yet, but my bigger issue is I can't get anything to work now. I just tried again with Prusament filament, it's just not extruding, and I cant unload again.

Paul

 

Posted : 17/03/2021 10:52 am
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

The extruder seems to keep getting blocked, I'm not sure what the cause is, any ideas? I cant unload at all, i'll need to dissasemble the extruder again 

I don't really want the expense of replacing it with the Bondtech one, any ideas?

Thanks

Posted : 17/03/2021 12:54 pm
segaertjonas
(@segaertjonas)
Eminent Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

@paulb

It's not the issue that was very common at the start of their release, with the heat creep in the hot end?

Posted : 17/03/2021 2:41 pm
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

@segaertjonas

I don’t know. This Is something I haven’t tried yet. I will have a go this evening. 
thanks. 

Posted : 17/03/2021 2:43 pm
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

Why do you think it would only fail after a period if time? Loose grub screws, is it likely that this failure is unrelated to the filament?

There certainly was a lot of filament residue in the gears.

Posted : 17/03/2021 3:11 pm
segaertjonas
(@segaertjonas)
Eminent Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

@paulb

This is something to replace as well. The original hot end grub screws were hell for me to loosen/tighten because my standard 1,5 allen key had no grip whatsoever. I actually ruined a printbed because of the printhead coming loose during the first layer and massaging the bed... :/

If you can get some of these, don't hesitate: https://www.prolech.nl/webshop/ijzerwaren/bevestiging/inbusbouten/detail/2907/m3-inbusbout---3-x-4mm---klasse-88---gegalvaniseerd---metrisch---din-912.html

Posted : 17/03/2021 3:37 pm
draeh
(@draeh)
Active Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

Luckily I had a good set of small metric allen head drivers from the R/C hobby.

Like this set: https://www.rcsuperstore.com/dynamite-machined-metric-hex-allen-driver-set/

 

Posted : 17/03/2021 5:29 pm
Turro75
(@turro75)
Estimable Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

@paulb

Probably the nozzle is clogged , easy as switching from pla to petg then back to pla and so can cause some residual in the nozzle. When the nozzle is clogged it is hard to push out the whole amount of filament coming from the extruder which starts sliding getting worse over time.

Usually when the extruder pushes more filament than the nozzle can flow out can pushing down the heatbreak from the heatsink (keep in position by the 3 lock screws) creating a gap in the ptfe tube which leads on poor quality print, underextrusion. Etc...

Do at least a cold pull or deep clean and reassembly of the hotend.

Posted : 17/03/2021 6:27 pm
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

So I undid the 3 screws, and pushed the hot end up a fair way, checked the small PTFE tube, and that seems ok, which is good because I don't have a spare as some people mention, should I have one? I redid the super pinda position, redid the height adjustment.

Anyway, it seems to be printing now, I have heard one-click but no more yet. Lets see how this print goes.

As for the PTFE tube, I did try to add some to my order, but they only saw my email after the item had been packed for shipment. Maybe I need to order a few. What other items are likely to need replacing, what else should I add?

 

 

Posted : 17/03/2021 7:48 pm
draeh
(@draeh)
Active Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

From the factory (at least in my case) you can still get a click from the extruder whenever it has to reverse directions quickly. Its slop in the mesh of the gears. It can be corrected by reassembling the extruder and paying particular attention to holding the gears closer together during assembly. Don't make it too tight or you will get some icky gear whine if the gears become bound.

This post was modified 3 years ago by draeh
Posted : 17/03/2021 7:55 pm
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

I have four and have had limited clicks.  When I do, it is because the nozzle is partially clogged.  

One of my MK3S often clicks.  

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 17/03/2021 8:36 pm
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

So it seems it was that issue, its printed fine this evening except the filament sensor didn't detect the end of the filament. I was printing the sheep as a test print, using one of the short sample coils, and it didn't stop when it ran out of filament. It's set to on in the settings menu. Any ideas?

 

 

Posted : 17/03/2021 9:47 pm
PaulB
(@paulb)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: After a week of success, now all is failing

So, it's working now, sort of (aside from the filament sensor not detecting the lack of filament).

But the quality of the prints is not even close to what it was.

Have a look at the attached photos. The item on the left is a new one after my problems, the lovely smooth one on the right is how it used to be!

Any ideas?

 

Posted : 18/03/2021 9:24 am
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