TAZ5 Flexystruder Fail

Hi,

Since I bought the Flexystruder, I tried it for my first time. And impossible to print something…

Second try, third,…, always with the ini profile but I reduced the speed to 8 for all the print (like the first bottom layer) => bad. I reduced the speed manually to very very slow and add amount of extrusion to 140%, ok for the first few seconds the print seems to be better then rapidly everything becomes bad again.

as you can see (right to left)
http://hpics.li/23b5636

What happens ?

I see the wheel of the extruder " jump" (or comes back) very quickly and all the times, even if the print is in straight line (so no filament retraction needed…)
I’ve made a video of the wheel :

https://youtu.be/adEYfTLzqR8


If anyone can help me…

Thanks.
G.

Make sure the small gear on the extruder stepper is not slipping on the stepper motor shaft.

Also, that first layer looks really close to the bed, although it may just look that way.

I had the same problem.

I sent it back and it returned to me “repaired”, but still doing the same thing.
Main gear was “jumping” after print started.
The filament was binding up so bad, it broke the plastic frame eventually.
I finally decided to get full hands-on with the problem and discovered the head itself was assembled wrong… too many washers on the main shaft.
This made the gnarled indentation on the main shaft that grips and feeds the filament misaligned with the feed hole in the frame, so the filament was “twisting” tighter and tighter as it was fed.

twisting a stretchable material with a motor can store a surprising amount of kinetic energy! I did notify Lulz of the issue, they would not warranty the cracked frame since I dismantled the unit myself. :frowning: I made it work though… after a hot mess of super glue and patience.

Apparently not…

Oh, great, interesting explanation, it make sense.
However I did not understand everything with washers and grip relationship.
How did you realize that there were too many washers? Do you have assembly plans?
And why a hot mess of super glue ? (In my mind you have disassembly the main shaft and remove some washers…)
Perhaps can you explain me the different steps ?

Thanks you.

G.