Flexy extruder extruding Painfully slow!

Just got the flexy extruder today and it was extruding and retracting VERY SLOW. It took me about 10 mins just to get the filament out of the extruder.Is it suppose to be like this because of the flexible material? Any help would be very appreciated.

I have used one and it’s capable of the same speeds as the normal extruder, though I wouldn’t recommend that for flexible filament printing. I don’t notice any difference in speeds while loading/unloading filament. Have you checked the set screw on the small gear that attaches to the stepper motor? If that were loose, it could do that.

If you suspect software, try setting Cura to the default profile and just use the control panel to extrude/retract. Or even use gcode commands to extrude with the speed setting so you can use whatever speed you wish. For example… .

G1 E12 F200

That should extrude 12mm of filament at 200 mm/min. That’s not a particularly fast speed, but it sounds faster than what you are describing. You can adjust the speed and see how it changes things.

Flexible filament melts and cools VERY slowly! So you have to print very slow due to this. Otherwise you run the risk of pushing too much into the hot end and then the filament will tend to come out the back of the flexistruder.

Thanks I will have to try that and also now everytime I try to print everything heats up fine until I press print and it goes to Z home and it lines up with the flush mount limit switch.Then heats to the correct temp and then starts to move and the bed comes all the way forward unlining the extruder and flush mount limit switch and the extruder comes all the way down and crashes into the very top left of the print bed.Any tips on how to recalibrate my xyz axis. Something got messed up and I cant print anymore. :cry:

Contact the support team by sending an email to Support@LulzBot.com. Make sure you’re using the latest version of Cura LulzBot Edition, from LulzBot.com/Cura. Include information on which quickprint profile are you using.

Thanks I will have to try that and also now everytime I try to print everything heats up fine until I press print and it goes to Z home and it lines up with the flush mount limit switch.Then heats to the correct temp and then starts to move and the bed comes all the way forward unlining the extruder and flush mount limit switch and the extruder comes all the way down and crashes into the very top left of the print bed.Any tips on how to recalibrate my xyz axis. Something got messed up and I cant print anymore. :cry:

Oh figured it out nvm thanks for the help everyone!

Would you mind sharing what the issue was? I just bought a LulzBot Mini and a Flexystruder. I would appreciate knowing the problems, and solutions, prior to attempting my own prints.

I never really figured out why is was so slow, but then I learn that you can use you hand to turn the gear and then once the filment in you can extrude.