Hexagon Hot End Jamming with PLA?

Having issues similar to what other have described and have tried a number of suggestions from the thread. The Mini seems to be good for about an hour and then the filament jams and gets chewed by the Hobbed Bolt. Before this happens the filament begins to extrude in a patchy manner. None of the suggestions from this thread have seemed to fix it. I took some photos of the filament that I backed out after the last jam. I have not seen anyone posting anything like the first shot. It looks like the plastic has been extruded out leaving a clear husk. No idea what would cause that. Anything else to try or anyone know what this image might be indicating? Thanks.



Most of my prints are in ABS and nylon so I was unaware of the PLA jamming issue with the Hexagon HE. I was introduced after accepting a job for a large PLA print and have not been able to complete the job. I noticed that Lulzbot added the cooling fan upgrade for the heat sink at the heat break of the hot end on the Taz 6 tool head. I’m assuming this was done to mitigate the heat creep issue we are experiencing. I understand that and have no issue with performing the upgrade on my stock Taz 5 tool head. However, I’ve recently purchased the Flexydually V2 tool head and noticed that the cooling issue has not been addressed as the current design of the Flexydually V2 uses the same method for cooling the hot end heat sink as the Taz 5. I have just about used up a 1kg role of PLA trying to solve this issue and I own two Taz 5, a Delta Rostock, and have been printing for 3 years :frowning:

I am working on designing a fan shroud in Solidworks for the flexydually to replace the stock micro blower with a 25mm fan. However, there is not much room, and the Flexydually surely doesn’t need any more weight added. Luckily, I am in the process of upgrading the X axis rods with aluminum extrusions to increase rigidity, which will allow for a little more weight.

I’m at a loss as to why Lulzbot has not addressed the issue on the current Flexydually V2 design.

I wanted to pass on my experience. I had been pulling my hair out with PLA. I have it in a shop where we do other things so I built a cubical for it to sit in. I figured the cubical would insulate the print from air movement in the shop. I believe my thought process was backwards.

I theorized my problems may be coming from the cooling fans not having a cool source of air. The bed heats the print environment which makes the fans not near as effective.

So, I added a simple fan (like a full size box fan). I set it about 5 feet away and put it on low and pointed it at the printer. The goal was NOT to cool anything off. The goal was to provide the fans with a cooler source of air to work from.

Suddenly, I am getting successful long PLA prints and I am getting less shrinkage.

I just wanted to pass it on.