CTC i3 Pro B Extruder Feeder

I have one of these printers, it has been up in the attic since I first got it as I couldn't get it to work and was losing days of my life trying to get it to work. Recently my son has been asking if we can get a 3D printer as he is doing 3D printing at school. Ta daaa, I produce our printer from the attic and blow the dust off.

After literally days of messing with it, copious youtube videos, a replacement extruder motor and some tears I got it printing. I was really pleased.

So I started making things. Then I got a bit bolder and decided on a project. Literally on my last piece I need to print it has stopped working. Specifically it is the filament feeder. Click click click.

I also noticed the nozzle was getting gummed up. So I decided to put some cleaning filament through. Nope. It cleans it, but it gums up soon after printing the first or second layers. The print bed is level, I am using the same PLA as always and the printer settings haven't changed.

So I decide to replace the nozzle and the throat. Click click click.

The standard extruder feeder that comes with the printer is pretty crappy so I thought I would replace / upgrade it.

I am now in a whole world of pain as none of the extruder feeders look like mine, or if they do when I get them in the post they are the wrong way round or don't fit in some other exotic and frustrating way.

Of course not knowing what it is called exactly doesn't help. Is it an Anet MK8 extruder feeder? Or what?

This looks like mine, except that is has a spring loader. I like the idea of the spring loader so I ordered one.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114985079....c100290.m3507

This comes in 2 flavours, left and right. No clue what that means, or from which perspective you view the part to establish left or right so I took a punt and bought a left. Not so much a punt as the right was out of stock.

Guess what? It's the wrong one. Yay.

So there are other types of extruder but they don't fit with my bracket, which has a cast aluminum block that has a grub screw that takes the throat. An extruder feeder that fills the whole face of the stepper motor won't fit, it needs to be one of these half face ones.

That said there are kits that come with a bracket for the extruder motor, and a full face feeder but again these don't come with instructions and are not intuitive.

I cannot find a half face feeder anywhere, so am now just at the point of putting the printer back in the attic again.

Can anyone give me a steer please?

sounds like the heater is either not owrking properly, or might have worked loose.

I too have a ctc i3 pro b on a tall shelf :-)
The difference is I bought it to play with and don't actually need it.

But sounds like yours is not coming to temp properly to me.

Check the heater cartridge, they can work loose over time.
Mine did on the sapphire.

If I had not glanced over and spotted this red hot glowing cylinder behind the print carriage - things could have got nasty !

Also check the thermistor is working properly and also has not worked loose.

Impressed that your son is at a school sensible enough to have 3d printers.
That's pretty cool :-)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by curious aardvark

sounds like the heater is either not owrking properly, or might have worked loose.

I too have a ctc i3 pro b on a tall shelf :-)
The difference is I bought it to play with and don't actually need it.

But sounds like yours is not coming to temp properly to me.

Check the heater cartridge, they can work loose over time.
Mine did on the sapphire.

If I had not glanced over and spotted this red hot glowing cylinder behind the print carriage - things could have got nasty !

Also check the thermistor is working properly and also has not worked loose.

Impressed that your son is at a school sensible enough to have 3d printers.
That's pretty cool :-)

---

Hi Buddy, yeah it's a good school, and in Luton too :eek:

So I can get back to winning ways, and get back to the problem of how well the heater is working I first need to get the extruder setup back together.

If you look at the OP you'll see a list of things I have tried, and the problems that I have faced.

Where do you get your extruder setups from? What setup do you use?

yep, and you did not mention either the thermistor or the heater cartridge in your original post.

Just the extruder, not the hot end.

As for what the extruder is.
I doubt it has an official designation, it's the cheapest bit of junk I've ever seen.
But works surprisingly well, and I'm againt changing anything that works.

It's the only extruder I've ever seen that isn't spring loaded.

See what I'd probably do if I were to change it, would be to print a different carriage to mount the new one on, with one of my other printers.
But with it being your only printer - you're a bit stuck in that respect.

if you design something to match an extruder you actually have, I can print one off for you and post it.