FlashForge Creator Pro Printing Issues 9/16/18

Hey Guys,

First time poster here. I've had my Creator Pro for about 4 months now and it's been great. I did a ton of research on printers for beginners - mid range, good build volume, etc. Anyways, about a month ago I broke a couple fins off the right fan. I was a little overzealous and didn't want to wait for it to spin down while clearing a jam and I slipped with the allen wrench. So it sounded terrible after I reassembled it but it at least would print for a while until jamming about an hour in Makes sense because it wasn't cooling properly. It would get a little ways into a print and then just stop feeding. Took me about a month of dealing with other personal stuff but I've finally replaced the fan courtesy of a replacement from Flashforge.

But I'm still running into printing issues. It can't even print the base layer anymore. It'll get a few passes in and then the layers get really spotty as if it's just slowly running out of filament. I read releveling the bed would be a possible fix but it's still running into issues. My guess is the motor or the nozzle as the next thing to fix. When I load the left extruder the filament is nice and thick and smooth. When I load the right - with some FF PLA blue filament (shiny-translucent) - the filament is spotty with bubbles and it's very thin. My next test is going to be marking the motor to see if it's actually feeding slower than the left one. We'll see.

I primarily use FF PLA filament and I keep the sides on it with the top cover on and the door closed. I've been using a few other Filaments from Matterhackers and Hatchbox but haven't really had any issues with those. It still has the factory nozzles and I'm not sure how many hours I've put on them but I've basically been running it non-stop since I got it so it's probably between 1600-2000 hours.

If any of you veterans have any advice I'm all ears.. or eyes in this case lol Thanks for any advice you guys have.


Thanks,

T.

Try taking the stepper motor off and cleaning the gear that grabs the filament. If it's clogged it won't be able to properly feed the filament in to the extruder. There's a great video on youtube that will show you how to do it, just do a quick search and you'll see it.

Also, you should open the door and take the top off while printing PLA. You want it to cool quickly. You'd usually keep the top on and door closed while printing ABS so it has more time to cool and reduce warping.

So I fixed the jamming issue. Turns out my nozzles were just clogged up. Apparently clearing the filament after a jam doesn't really clear ALL the filament out. I ended up purchasing some Plated Nozzles and swapped out the Blue print card and it's printing like a dream again. I've since changed the way I switch filament. I now just snip it at the top of the stepper motor and feed the new filament in after the old. Works MUCH better.

In terms of warping, I've found that my prints warp much more when the sides are off rather than leaving everything closed in. So far I haven't had any warping when everything is closed in. I print at 200C with a bed at 60C. We have a makerbot at work that barely gets used because they guy who bought it no longer works with us, but I couldn't ever get good prints off of it.

If I'm missing something I'll take any advice I can get. Thanks, T.