After taking apart the SL Tool head to get some stuck filament out of it, we have been having issues with the tool head extruding while loading the filament.
In a nutshell, we had some older filament snap inside the tool head while it was being unloaded (it didn’t unload fully so the staff member using the machine at the time couldn’t get it out and that was when it snapped). We did get the stuck filament out after taking apart that section of the tool head but now we seem to be having issues with loading the filament.
The tool head has been taken apart several times at this point to see if there was any thing going on with the gears and the motor (found that the screw holding the step motor was a little loose), but we didn’t seen anything with that area offhand. Nozzle isn’t clogged as we were able to get some extrusion and we did manage to get a full extrusion before the clicking started again (the clicking at that point happened at unloading when it had to extrude a little before unloading the filament).
We have played around with the tension but the only time it stops clicking is when it’s set to little or no tension but doesn’t extrude and grinds the filament. All other attempts of setting the tension results in clicking. So we are at a point that we are not sure what else to even poke at to see what could be the problem.
We did get a recording of the clicking (not as bad as it has been)
Video of gears clicking
Image of the tension screw while filament is loaded
A little more information would be useful…
What filament are you attempting to load? What is the temperature set at?
I think you still have a clog. Have you used different filaments that require higher temperatures before? For example, ABS in the past and now attempting to use PLA?
I don’t have that specific toolhead for my TAZ 6 but I do have an Aerostruder which uses the same Titan Aero hot end and extruder from E3D. I can shine a flashlight in the top of the toolhead and see light in the nozzle (if mounted on the printer, I use a mirror to look up through the nozzle). I’ve also carefully used an “accupunture needle” to check for (and clear) clogs as well.
You can also clear clogs using cold pulls and cleaning filament. IMO, this is the best method for keeping tool heads in tip top shape.
The filament that is being loaded for testing in the video is PolyMaker PolyMax PLA Green. We use mostly PLA on these machines with only one instant of ABS a few months ago on another machine (not the one that is giving us problems right now).
The filament that broke in the machine was Gizmodorks PLA Dark Brown. Polymaker PolyLight Black was used as another tester for the extrusion. PolyMaker PolyTerra Orange was another tester and was the only one that did a full extrusion with some clicking at unloading.
The loading and unloading temps are 200°C, using the onboard screen (no tethering).
The only reason why I think there isn’t a clog is because the PolyTerra did extrude and only caused the clicking at unloading but other PLAs are causing more clicking.
The nozzle on the SL is extra small, so even a tiny amount of scorched filament in it can cause a clog.
Completely de-tension the pathway and try and push filament by hand. If you can’t push it yourself with the nozzle at 220c, you’ve got a clog. If you can push it by hand, and it comes out like in a spiral instead of a straight line, there’s a partial clog, which a cold pull may fix, but if it isn’t clear after 3-4 cold pulls, it’s going to require disassembly to clean the nozzle out. The work to clean it is almost certainly not worth the effort when you can just buy a new nozzle.
If it pushes through easily by hand, but the gears can’t push it, you may have assembled the Titan Aero wrong. It’s a terrible design to work on, in general, but there are plenty of guides to follow to make sure it’s right.
We’ll take another look at trying to get it to do a cold pull. But my next question would be if we buy a new nozzle (we have yet to replace just a nozzle on these printers) is if we can swap the nozzle to a 0.5 nozzle instead of a 0.25 we would only need to change that in the machine settings in CuraLE and flash?
You should be running the Universal firmware on your Taz6, so all you should need to do is use the toolhead menu to select it as the SE 0.5.
Any time you remove the nozzle, it is required to be heat-tightened in steps to ensure it’s snug against the heatbreak, or jams and leakage can occur.
1 Like