Nothing enrages me more than the sound of the skipping hobbed bolt in the extruder. Especially when everything should be working fine.
Time for a better printer.
Maybe you can just fix the hobbed bolt issue?
@Greg_son you don’t think I’ve tried? I’ve changed everything on that hot end that I was able to replace. It’s a direct drive, .4mm nozzle. I know one of the issues is the heatbrake and the heat sink being really short with an ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE heat sink along with a PTFE liner which causes heat to travel up the brake and start melting filament in the break. I’ve started working on additional cooling of the break because of that with minimal results. The whole extruder setup is a weak design. I’m just waiting for my E3D V6 to show up so I can complete my Bowden style retro-fit.
I just hear that skipping noise so much it drives me nuts.
I was just trying to help, thats what people on this group do right?
The E3Dv6 is the way to go, I’ve used it since it was introduced with allmost no issues.
There’s so many variables that I understand it is very frustrating. I had spent months trying to fix what were really fundamentally flawed products.
The hot end seems to be the culprit in most cases. If you’re using one from a hot end cloner, then switching to a genuine made by the designer should help, at least in the case of J-Head and E3D designs. Often times, the cloner leaves something out or doesn’t do the job right, to cut costs.
hey chris the extruder on the RL200 is rather fiddly you need to back off the screw on the left totally and the screw on the right back that off and screw it in and just as it catches the filament stop manually extrude out 100mm and if it clicks let the right screw out/loosen it 1/4 turn then extrude again if it clicks adjust loosen out again until it does’nt click. this is a pain but once its in the sweet spot your laughing. mines fine just took a bit of getting used to it.
Be careful with the thermistor on that E3Dv6. I took mine out to test it and broke the legs like 4 times. At least the replacement isn’t too expensive.
@Dianne_Fontayne which is one of the many reasons I’m going to convert mine to a Bowden style extruder. I have to adjust those every time I switch from PLA to PETG as the latter is much softer and the pinch wheel needs to be adjusted.
@Mark_Rehorst it’s the bolt skipping against the filament. The culprit is definitely heat creeping up the heatbrake and melting filament to melt/re harden causing a jam.
@Greg_son no worries. I’m just frustrated.
@Rob_Russell . Thanks for the heads up. Although it’s been almost a month stuck in customers for some reason.
I have no idea what the problem is, I’ve run extra fans, adjusted the bolt, bolt tension, etc… It happens when it’s filling an area. My Slic3r settings are set to 3 top and bottom shells, by the third shell, it’s clicking away and not exctruding a thing. I wish customs would just hurry up and release the E3D. it’s been 3 weeks now, what are you hoping to find!!!
@Mark_Rehorst I’ve been working on retrofitting my printer to a bowden style extruder, and it looks like the motor’s the culprit. When attempting to extrude, the shank skips back, it seems there isn’t enough torque to rotate, My stepper drivers are hard-wired on the board, I’m not sure if/how I can adjust the current. Any suggestions.
I had the same problem when i converted my Printrbot Simple (Makers edition 2013) to bowden. I ended up using a Wades gear (from thngiverse) with a hobbeled bolt (in my case from Poland). Since then I have enougth torque to push the bowden tube out of the push fitting…
@Bjorn_Ringholm I’m just running through a test print, and it looks like the bowden is running MUCH better! I have to wait and see how the full print goes, but so far it’s working very well.
@Mark_Rehorst It’s a proprietary board - Rapide Lite 200. It is running the RUMBA platform. I’ve never adjusted the current, do you have any tips/suggestions?
Thanks for the suggestions. Let’s see if I can make a point to most of your tips. The main change between now and then is board replacement. The chipset controlling USB connection died, so the manufacturers sent out a replacement. As for filament types, I have different Slicer settings for the different types of filament. 190 for my eSun, 205 for some left over makerbot, and 240 for my PETG.
Just yesterday i switched my setup to Bowden style setup and things seem to be going better. I’m pretty sure I still have to adjust the current. However aside from having to re-adjust my steps/mm and my retraction, things are definitely better.
The last suggestion about buying extra drivers - I can’t. The stepper drivers are hard wired on the board, so unfortunately I’m stuck with what I’ve got. I did buy a completely separate RUMBA board though in case this one dies again.
Thanks again for the help, I’ll fiddle with the pot setting on the board to get that little bit extra torque I need.