Some issues with new MakerFarm Prusa 8 i3v

[TehStranger]

Thanks to everyone for replying. I've been busy so I haven't read anyone's posts yet but I will after this. I noticed the hot end is VERY loose and i noticed theres filament leaking from the top of the hexagon nozzle. I will post a video.

[printbus]

Thanks to everyone for replying. I've been busy so I haven't read anyone's posts yet but I will after this. I noticed the hot end is VERY loose and i noticed theres filament leaking from the top of the hexagon nozzle. I will post a video.

My hex hot end tip was loose as well and needed to be tightened. More thoughts -

The hobbed bolt pushes the cold filament up against a bearing that must rotate freely. I had to work at the bearing mount quite a bit to get the bearing to rotate freely. That could be hanging things up.

It's easy for the hobbed bolt to dig into the filament. Once that has happened, you need to retract the filament out and re-feed the filament after cutting off the worn part. I can't say this is part of what is going on, but figured you should know.

Don't try to use the manual LCD control to drive the extruder. I haven't had good results with that. Either disable the steppers as Roxy said or use Pronterface.

[TehStranger]

I haven't had time to cut and convert the vid so sorry guys I might do it in the next hour. @printbus I tried tightening it but it's impossible because I think the melted filament clogged it up and it's impossible to move when it dries. @roxy I did that but it didn't help. I levelled the bed and the results are much better but still curls after a few seconds and the whole print gets stuck to the nozzle, dries up and moves around with it.

[Roxy]

I levelled the bed and the results are much better but still curls after a few seconds and the whole print gets stuck to the nozzle, dries up and moves around with it.

This may not help you. But I got a roll of cheap PLA. If I let it sit in the nozzle too long with the heat on, it clogs the nozzle and I get that curling you are talking about.

Here is what I noticed on the front end of dealing with the issues it was causing. If I manually retracted the filament by hand so I could change to another roll, the end of it would stretch. The very end of it would have a clear, crisp shell and not much plastic inside of it. But there was a clear crisp shell on the outside sort of pulled to a point. So of course, I turned the heat way up and tried to push the remains out the nozzle. No luck. That clear crisp layer just didn't want to melt and extrude. I ended up having to take the nozzle off and clean it up.

Since then, I can print fine with that cheap roll of PLA but if I let it sit in the nozzle too long with the heat on, I see that curling behavior start. If I don't let it get too bad, it will clear out. But it seems like there is a point of no return on that PLA roll.

It might be interesting to heat up your nozzle and pull the plastic out and see if you see something like what I ran into.

[TehStranger]

@roxy Yeah I got cheap PLA too and I saw that clear shell also. I took off the nozzle and theres was nothing inside of it but I cleaned it anyway and its still doing the same thing. I will try what you said though. Also, How do I tighten my Hot end? I tried turning it but it doesn't tighten and there isn't a nut i can hold with a wrench like in the build guide :S

Edit: I also mentioned the nozzle is leaking before, could that be the problem? if so how do I fix it? It's already tightened really good.