Nothing but clicks and clogs
Got the Mk3S (kit) in december and started right off with the silver filament that came with it. several nice prints and 1 failure due to belts loosening. After the silver I mounted a spool of Additive Heroes and wasn't able to get a decent print due to clogs. So i ordered some prusa filament (army green) hoping to get the quality back from the beginning. cleaned the hotend & replaced the tubing and even managed a 32 hours print (building floor for wargaming terain.) Howevern the next floor didn't make it to the top due to... clog. I was able to pull the filament out and reload perfectly. started a small print and after 1-1.5 hrs the clicking started. resliced the model with different infill, speed and temperatures without improvement. Did some cold pulls and tried again... no dice. problem persists. I read somewhere that the heatbreak causes the extruder motor to overheat however when I pause a print and leave it standing for and hour everything cools down except the extruder stepper motor. So, if anyone could point me in the right direction that be great cause it's starting to get on my nerve (even more so because I bought this machine to get better results than my cheap Ender-3 that is turning out decent prints as we speak) 😯
RE: Nothing but clicks and clogs
I suggest disassembling the extruder and putting some heatsink compount on the heatbreak threads that go into the heatsink (NOT the threads that screw into the heater block). This solve my clogging issue.
If you still have trouble, then you can try replacing the the heatbreak with a standard E3D instead of the custom Prusa one which has a 2.2mm diameter increase that has been reported by some people to cause clogs.
Also, if you're printing in an enclosure, open the door.
RE: Nothing but clicks and clogs
@mdaneman
changed the heatbreak and everything seems to work fine now (only did some 2hr prints for now.) However I'm still confused about the heating up of the extruder motor even when standing idle for almost an hour. (and no, no enclosure) Anyway, I'll have to check when I do some 20-30 hours prints and see if this problem really is gone.
Thanks for your answer!
RE: Nothing but clicks and clogs
I was just recently have a similar issue. I was having problems with under extrusion and feed stoppages. The extruder was grinding up the filament and sometimes even stalling the extruder motor. I was going to disassemble the extruder but decided to try a cold pull first. This has seemed to solve any extrusion problems I was having. No clicks, pops, or under extrusion. I will be adding this to my maintenance routine.
RE: Nothing but clicks and clogs
No dice 😖
Did a couple of small prints (1.5-2.5 hrs) and everything seemed fine.
Today i did several, one after the other and the third one started showing problems (couple of layers not entirely fused). Unloaded filament and reloaded it. started another print which also started showed the same problem. While I'll be able to use those pieces for their intended purpose it's safe to say things start to unnerve me. Since the roll is nearing it's end I decided to print the Talon blade holder. Print started out fine - again - to end in a not so beautiful surface. Again the extruder stepper is piping hot (despite the Mk3 heatbreak). Did a cold pull and can't see any problem there.
inserting a photo doesn't seem to work but here's a link to it : http://imgur.com/cHbzjx5