Quick update. I used one of our other printers to print out the latch jig mentioned in this thread and adjusted the latch screws accordingly. I’m not sure of how much this will help, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Next: if there’s a clog, like my professor suspects, it’s either inconsistent in its cloggery, or just enough to screw up prints sometimes. And pull after pull, the hobbed bolt only seems to be digging in so much! Just enough to push the filament, that’s what it looks like to me, if a bit tense. And of course, when it purges after loading a filament…
That looks normal! That’s what baffles me about all of this, is that parts of it work that you wouldn’t expect to work. The things that don’t fail are the things we’d normally look at when a printer isn’t behaving correctly. And the things that do fail almost feel like they have no rhyme or reason to their failure, unless it’s a needlessly complex problem or a super simple one that we’re overlooking.
Edit: I screwed up in the slicer, disregard prior images
I’m nearing my wit’s end… not saying I’m giving up, but man this machine is driving me nuts. I’m close to just taking a video of it and seeing if anything can possibly be diagnosed from that.