Can the filament spool move freely, or is it caught on something? Yep.
Is the filament feed tube allowing the filament to move through freely with no restriction (spcifically are the zip ties holding the tube in place too tight?) Yep, I was able to pull out more to feed it in when I tried to get it working.
Is the filament binding where the idler filament guide contacts the upper extruder body? (If so, sand some material away until it is able to move freely. No it quit working a third of the way thru the print. If it was binding it should have been an issue from the beginning.
Is the hobbed bolt grinding chunks out of your filliament? Yes but it it did half way thru the print and I cleaned out the teeth and sprayed with some compressed air to clear the chunks
A. If yes, you have either a temperature or force issue for feeding. Why would the temperature fail part way thru the print though.
B. If no, your small gear on your NEMA motor isn’t tightened at the set screw all the way or your main gear is installed on the hobbled bolt incorrectly. I will check but I doubt this is the issue. I am wondering if the heat sink is over heating that why it is failing part way thru the print. Hench I my idea of putting a fan on it. I do not want to take it apart again as it seems like every time I do I break something.
Can the PTFE tubing where out from all the heat cycles?
I will try dismounting the hot end and running the filament thru. I will also try hooking up a stand alone thermocouple with an alligator clip attachment. Then I will be able to set alarms for high and low temperatures and it can record highs and lows.
If it is stopping mid print, I’d guess that the heater cartridge has a short (or maybe the thermistor) and is losing connectivity at some point in it’s range of motion that is causing the extruder temperature to drop below 230. it doesn’t take much below 230 to cause the plastic to resolidify to the point where it will not pass through the nozzle at all. That would cause an immediate jam situation. It would only need to be shorted out for a few seconds to cause BAD THINGS to occur.
You’ll also want to check for breaks/intermittent connections for the hot end:
With the printer turned off and unplugged disconnect the hot end from the wiring harness and test hot end for the proper resistance. The smaller orange wires are for the thermistor and should read ~100k at room temperature. The larger red wires are connected to the heater resistor and should read between ~4-7 Ohm. Try to see if you detect fluctuation when moving the wires. Make sure that the hot end connector is fully seated and that the pins are fully seated within the connector housing.
You’ll also want to turn on the option “Monitor Printer”. Look at the temperature graph if the print fails again and note what is displayed if the print fails again.
Feel free to send a message to Support@LulzBot.com if you’d like any help troubleshooting this.
One other thought too, what layer size are you trying to print at? If you are attempting a really really tiny layer, you can encounter situations similar to the first layer “too close to to the bed pressure backup filliament grinding issue”
So…
I checked the thermistor and it was pretty close to the recommended range of 100k. I did not check the resistor because I switched over to heater cartilage when my resistor broke.
I had to take the extruder off because the filament snapped when it was worn down but the hobbled bolt, as I was trying to pull it out. I heated the nozzle with my heat gun and used that to loosen the filament. On a side note this seam like a much more effective way to pull out a clog because it heats the nozzle from the outside and you don’t get the semi liqud state in between the heater block and the nozzle. I checked the the filament could easily pass through the extruder and down through the aluminum extrusion all the way to the nozzle without much friction resistance. I inspected the nozzle and the print head and seem like it was a another clog/partial obstruction.
I also did a test config with the Lulzbot Green. The filament is noticeably smoother than the other stuff I have used. Though does anyone what the diameter is suppoed to be? I measured the end and it was like 2.80mm but then I was geting a lot of over extrusion when I did my first test print. Is there a calibration step for this? Also is there a recommended extrusion temp for the Lulzbot Green?
True to my typical modus operandi. I did manage to break something when i was putting it back together. I snapped the plastic that holds one of the nuts to tighten down the extruder. So now I guess I get to print a whole new extruder body… yay… Any tips? I was thinking of doing 100% infill with and then do the acetone hardening. Thoughts?
Diameter on a bunch of filliament out there is 2.80 - 2.85mm, not the 3.00mm that would be ideal. There is a setting to adjust for that inside of repetier host, it may be part of slicer as well. check and see if you have a filliament tab and input the diameter of the filliament accordingly. That should ease the overextrusion. If it’s still doing it you can repeat the filliament extrusion length calibration steps.
The extruder temperature should be pretty much right on 230 for most forms of ABS.
If you are getting actual debris plugging your nozzle, I would honestly throw that other filliament out and send whoever sent it to you a really nasty letter or something. Debris clogging nozzles is almost unheard of.
As a temporary fix for your extruder, use a zip tie to hold the isler shut while you print another one. Higher density is good. I’d also reccommend grabbing the extruder latch and idler from this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:224242 as they are improvements over the AO-100. You will need longer bolts to use the extruder latch, but it really makes opening the idler chamber much easier. No more having to reset the tension once you get it right. The filliament guide in the other idler helps prevent the tube from getting pinched. The belt one itself is also nice, but i’m still testing it and the parts are somewhat difficult to come by still.
No, That belted extruder body as designed is for belts only. it’s also a quickfit mount. But the idler and the latch will work with a standard wades extruder. You want the budaschnozzle compatable Johnaskhuling’s Wade reloaded extruder from the lulzbot download section (probably the one from the Taz 3 folder) for the extruder body itself.
I’ve never tried the Acetone hardening. It should work, especially if you get the vapor bath setup. Might make your dimensions off too though for getting a good flat 0 degree extruder nozzle position.
I think figured out what the issue was it is the over extrusion setting for the first layer. I think it just wasn’t as noticeable with the black plastic.
Still fine tuning the filament diameter though. I only had time for two prints because some how my slice config file got corrupted and tried push the nozzle through the board… not fun.
How do you know when you have the right calibration. I included an image but it is hard to see. the 2.87 is slightly smoother and the bumps where it changes layer are smaller.
Calibration is the art of trying to get your extruder to reproduce exactly what you told it to reproduce. On a belt drive machine there isn’t much you can do on the X and Y aspect if they are set correctly from the factory. If you parts measure correctly with the calipers after they print in the X and Y direction (a 50mm cube is 50mm wide, a 2.14mm wall is 214mm thick, etc. You know that aspect is probably ok… Z height calibration mainly consists of ensuring that your layer height is going up the amount it should be, which usually means making sure your couplers are intact and not flexing too much or too little, and starting layer issues. You can spend hours perfecting your Z height, but for overall part quality it’s not nearly as important as extruder calibration. Extruder calibration at it’s simplest is ensuring that when you tell the extruder to extrude 10mm worth of filliament, the filliament moves exactly 10mm, that the filliament measures exactly 2.80145mm in diameter (or whatever) and that setting is in Slicer exactly. A perfectly aligned and calibrated extrusion would exactly line up with the layer below it, and will not have any extra lunps or voids. The calibration steps for the filliament are here:
Looking at your pictures, I can see that you have some minimal Z axis banding occurring. If you look at the corners and you see that there is a bit of a wavey pattern, that height matches up exactly with the thickness of your threaded rod threads, and occurs as the threaded rod shifts from side to side inside the acme nut. There isn’t much you can do about it in the stock configuration short of upgrading things, though I can tell you yours look better than my AO-100 started out looking like so you probably don’t have a bent rod like I do so you shouldn’t need to compensate for it as much in your hardware. Under or over extreusion will tend to magnify the layer change banding. It’s still present the same amount either way, the material over or under extrusion just makes it look worse.
Piercet,
Thanks for the guide. It was very useful. With a little help from the Reprap IRC (I didn’t know how to access the steps with the Arduino but they showed me how to do with the G-code,) I was able to update my steps. If my measurements were correct I was off 5 steps but I didn’t have time to do a test print.
Where do I do the drop in nuts? How do I do that? Do I need to pause?
I don’t need to generate support material, right? Based on the STL I saw it looks like it has support material already built in. I was just concerned about some of the gaps for the nuts.
Sorry for all the questions, I am just trying to baby the extruder along and don’t want to have to print several of them via trial and error.
With regards to 3D printing, I understand what Albert Einstien meant when he said:
“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
I would like to do some of your upgrades once I figure out how to get what I have working well and some what reliably. I have all the parts for the 60mm height increase printed and on my desk.
You’re welcome, glad it was helpful! And I have no problem answering questions heh.
Yes, you are correct, the extruder main body already has the support material built into it, it’s basically a print and go, though I like to print them with a brim so the base doesn’t lift off the bed since sideways it is long and skinny.
Once you have the main body printed, you drill out the material left where the center hobbed bolt will go, drill out the mounting locations for the NEMA motor, and by hand using your fingers run a drill bit through the filliament hole itslef to make sure it is round to tolerance. After that, you drop two nuts into the top tower of the extruder body above where the hobbed bolt goes, in between where the Idler closes and the NEMA motor. once they are in, the idler bolts screw into them from the side. The nut chamber is supposed to allow the bolt to pivot up and down to allow the bolts to engage or disengage the idler itself. Those are the bolts you want to swap out for longer ones if you use the extruder idler latch, which makes that whole process much much easier because then the damned springs and washers aren’t getting hung up on everything when you try to latch the latch.
The base is where the two larger nuts sit for the bolts that attach the nozzle itself. The only other tricky one is the nut that goes in the idler, which is a press fit into the inside usually. If that one strips the nut chamber, it can make removing your existing idler really really fun.
So just a follow up on this. Been printing Lulzbot Green for a while and no jams!
I sent Makergeeks an email about the problems I was having with there filament and they sent me out a new roll for free. The problem is within a day of going back to thier filament is I have had two clogged nozzles. (Very frustrating) So to my Lulzbot brethren and sistren, I would not recommend the Makergeeks ABS.
I’ve noticed that some poorer quality filliament seems to have particles of filler in it. mabye ground plaster or wood dust? I’ve never figured out what it actually is, but its grainy and makes for bad prints whatever it is. Those are the ones that seem to print poorly for me. I had one memorable roll of ebay special blue 3mm filliament that I don’t think I ever got anything to print correctly off of.
I’ll snag a really good deal on wierd source filliament from time to time, but buying the good stuff from lulzbot usually pays off better in terms of quality. I’ve never actually jammed an extruder all the way, but I can see how it could happen with the bad stuff.
So after replacing a fried thermistor and checking the bed calibration while it was cold with a sheet of paper. I then ran a calibration test and the peek liner broke.
I’d buy a new peek isolator since they are cheap, get that one working again, then print a mount for an E3DV6 or a Hexagon hotend. If you decide to go crazy with the mods, my new ballscrew one converts the AO-10x into a TAZ X carriage, so you can use the existing TAZ mounts (and the dual extruder)
Piercet,
Do you know where I can source some additional PEEK insulators? I founds some knockoffs but they don’t say which version they are for and I emailed sales at Lulzbot and the response I got left me with the impression that it will be awhile before they have any more (if ever.) I used my last peek insulator.
On a more positive note. I have been getting great consistency on my prints recently now that I am using good filament and have all the bugs worked out.
I snapped the plastic that holds one of the nuts to tighten down the extruder. So now I guess I get to print a whole new extruder body… yay… Any tips? I was thinking of doing 100% infill with and then do the acetone hardening. Thoughts?
.
I used my last peek insulator.