Taz 5 Print Jams

Hello, I just got a 2nd hand Taz 5 from a buddy of mine, but no background on it.

I’m having trouble getting either ABS or PLA to print. Both will jam up in the print head and require me to take it apart and manually remove the filament. While I’m getting good at that, I haven’t been able to get anything past a couple very small prints to work.

I’ve done the basic stuff like clean everything out, including the gear that feeds in the filament. I’ve read here and other places that these things have issues with heat creeping up the filament and that seems like it’s probably the issue. I’ve cobbled together another fan to help try and keep the area above the hot end cooler. It’s warm, but never too hot to touch.

Anyway, just wondering if there is something I am missing here or do I just need to try to cool things down more still? I’m using Luzbot ABS and eSUN PLA+

Thanks for any help

The small barrel cooling fan on the stock Taz 5 tends to fail. You may need a new one, or preferentially upgrade to the Taz 6 style or aftermarket style fan which will eliminate that.

Also be aware that PLA and ABS have different melt temperatures. If you get 245c ABS in the nozzle and then try to print 215c PLA through it, the nozzle may never get hot enough to actually push out the last of the ABS.

Good call. The fan is moving so I thought it was working, but now I see that it is barely turning. Augmented it with an external fan and it seems to be doing better now. Thanks for the help.