Inconsistent extruding from nozzle

[noiseboy72]

While the hot end appears to be all metal, I'm not sure that's an e3d v6.

In my case, Certainly my E3d v6 was genuine and it was not fitted with ptfe tubing or a liner. The Bowden tube must run all the way down to the heat break. In my case, I inserted a shorter length into the extruder to make removing the Bowden easier when clearing jams.

Appreciate that direct drive extruders will require just a short length within the extruder, but it's important that the tube is a fairly tight fit as it has a tendency to move with retraction and leaves enough of a gap for soft filament to spread and jam.

[printbus]

Reaping miner, I'm still not sure what you have for a hot end. The Orballo website only shows one printer - is that the one you have? The description doesn't say anything about using an E3D-brand hot end (did I miss it?), and it describes the hot end as generically being a "V5". You say you can't fit a PTFE liner in your heatsink, but all E3D v6 hot ends for 1.75mm filament have a PTFE liner that passes through the heatsink and into the top end of the heat break. Assuming you might have an E3D v5, I believe even those had a PTFE liner that went partway into the heatsink. So, without more pictures it's impossible to understand what you have.

EDIT: Bowden extruders use the PTFE tube in a different way. The extruder motor is located a ways from the extruder, typically mounted on the fixed frame of the printer. Having a short section of PTFE tubing in the hot end anywhere does NOT mean you have a Bowden extruder. This does confuse people, especially since the same material used for a Bowden tube is typically used for the PTFE liner.

Regardless... If the heat break tube is now stuck in the heatsink, you possibly had melted filament get way up in the heatsink where it shouldn't have been and melted filament got into the threads between the heat break and the heat sink. This could happen if you let the printer sit at too high of a temperature for too long, and/or have inadequate cooling airflow for the hot end heatsink. If so, you likely now have a partially clogged heat break tube (and possibly heatsink) that occasionally binds with the filament, leading to what you are seeing.

[noiseboy72]

Sorry, I may have confused you with my post! It's not my machine that is suffering and I was passing on my experience of the E3Ds, not the OPs!

[printbus]

Yeah, that led to some confusion on my part. I should have paid more attention to the user name. Thanks for clarifying.

[Reaping miner]

Managed to remove the barrel from the heatsink. (I used the method i linked before, by locking 2 nuts together on the hotend block threads of the barrel, followed by torching the heatsink using a creme brulee torch, and using the locked nuts to unscrew from the heatsink (counter clockwise)).

I will swap it for the ptfe lined barrel, more results soon i hope.

[Reaping miner]

Works a lot better, but still an occassional pop. Will report back after some testing.

[Alibert]

Printbus: I was referring to a ptfe liner inside the heatbreak, not the tube feeding the filament into the top of the cooling body. According to the first post it was an all-metal E3D, so therefor my question.

As reaping miner posted, it seems to have solved at least part of the problem

As to the 'pop', when you extrude a length into mid air, does it feel nice and smooth when you run your finger over it, or does it have rough spots? If the latter, then you need to dry your filament.

[Reaping miner]

Printbus: I was referring to a ptfe liner inside the heatbreak, not the tube feeding the filament into the top of the cooling body. According to the first post it was an all-metal E3D, so therefor my question.

As reaping miner posted, it seems to have solved at least part of the problem

As to the 'pop', when you extrude a length into mid air, does it feel nice and smooth when you run your finger over it, or does it have rough spots? If the latter, then you need to dry your filament.

So i have been printing for a while now using a PTFE lined barrel (Friends E3D V6) and no more extrusion problems! (Well i do have one "under extrusion" problem. But i do not believe this is related to the hotend.)

I suspect the pop might have been some chloroform residue in the nozzle and/or some trapped air in the melt zone. I have cleaned my nozzles the day before. The extruded plastic is generally a smooth line after the hotend is primed at the start of the print.

I do have a different problem now which i will describe in a different topic as i believe this is unrelated.

Thank you guys!