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TMcMaker
(@tmcmaker)
New Member
Failed Print Fouling Nozzle/Calibration

Hi

I'm been madly printing PPE headbands with no problems in PETG (until I ran out) and PLA. Our local fire department put out a call for CPAP converter adapters which I started to print in ABS. I printed about 25 with no problems.

On the 26th run, I started the job and went to make some dinner. When I came back, the part and skirt had left the bed and were clinging to the nozzle. It looked like some strange worm or cocoon was nesting on the extruder. At this point the blob was ~20mm wide and 30mm long and 25mm high. I pulled the blob off the bottom of the extruder, raised the extruder, and scraped off a surprising amount of goo from the bottom of the still hot extruder bottom and nozzle.

I went to do a quick test print to insure all was ok after the failed job. It stopped at the third point (front right hand corner) with an error saying there might be debris on the nozzle. I again raised the extruder up to maximal z so I could get a good look at it. It looked "mostly" clear, but there was some black goo (the previous filament was white) on the bottom. I took some time to remove as much of the goo as I could and tried again.

I got the same error at the same place. I looked through the forums and saw that maybe a new calibration was in order, so I went through the xyz recalibation. That process asked that I place a piece of paper on the bed sans PEI sheet. It warned to stop the process if the nozzle caught the paper. Of course it did. It caught and moved the paper in the back right hand corner of the bed. I turned the machine off.

Immediately before this job, I had been printing reusable face shield headbands in purple and then blue PETG. Between those jobs, i was clearing a string of PETG that hung from the nozzle after each print was over.

Now I don't know if I have a nozzle/hot end problem or a leveling problem, so I am not sure what are my next steps. Can anyone here shed some light on what my next steps should be?

Posted : 18/04/2020 4:48 pm
Peter M
(@peter-m)
Noble Member
RE: Failed Print Fouling Nozzle/Calibration

After a crash, do a z-calibration, the xyz is not needed.

Move the z-axis to the top, see if both sides hit the top.

Do a z-calibration, and see if you can print. Her also check if both hit at the same time the top.

If not try xyz calibration again.

 

Posted : 18/04/2020 7:08 pm
TMcMaker
(@tmcmaker)
New Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Failed Print Fouling Nozzle/Calibration

@peter-m26

Thanks for the reply, actually I did just the z calibration first and that was what gave me the "possible debris on nozzle error." When that was unsuccessful, I did the xyz which also failed. Sorry I wasn't clearer at first.

Posted : 18/04/2020 8:41 pm
Peter M
(@peter-m)
Noble Member
RE: Failed Print Fouling Nozzle/Calibration

Check your pinda height, set it as in the manual, or do a little higher or lower.

Posted : 19/04/2020 6:34 am
TMcMaker
(@tmcmaker)
New Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Failed Print Fouling Nozzle/Calibration

So, here's the follow up.

The pre-print Z calibration failed because the X calibration was off and the printer was trying to calibrate on a point off the bed. Doing the Z calibration alone worked until it tried the 9 point Z calibration. Clearly that wasn't going to work.

I re-did the XYZ which was scary because I bought the assembled version rather than the kit. I had to spend a lot of time on the first layer calibration (a lot of time). But since I have gotten a good result with those settings, the printer is back to cranking out reusable PPE headbands in ABS. Whew!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

Posted : 26/04/2020 3:03 pm
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