Occasional Click Printing PLA?

[GamerDarling]

I'm noticing a click while printing PLA, it's about 1 every 30-60 seconds. I'm not sure if it's actually the motor feeding the filament, or if it's something on the roll or something else totally unrelated.

How concerned do I need to be about this, and how would I know if it was the stepper click issue I've heard so much about?

[GOC]

- #1 Are you 100% positive its a click, or is it more of a snap/pop noise? If its a snap/pop it is more than likely a small amount of moisture that is trapped in the filament reacting to the heat of the 'hot-end'.

- If it is a true click & its near the filament stepper/gear, it may be trying to feed more material to the hot-end than it can take at that extrusion rate.

[GamerDarling]

1- I'm not entirely sure...I'll have to listen when I get home tonight. It could easily have been a pop.

2- If it is that is there a way to slow that down, or do I just need to increase the feedrate? I had dropped it slightly because I was doing a higher res print.

[GOC]

...
2- If it is that is there a way to slow that down, or do I just need to increase the feedrate? I had dropped it slightly because I was doing a higher res print.

- If it is situation #2 there are a couple ways to go about it depending on the issue:

#1 - If the issue is that the Hot-End can't melt the material as fast as the stepper is feeding it then decrease the printing feedrate and/or increase the Hot-End temp.

#2 - If the issue is that it's over-extruding material then you will want to increase your filament diameter variable slightly so that it calculates a slower extrusion rate.

[Marm]

I've had clicking issues before too, my bed was so out of calibration that it was preventing the filament from feeding out, hence the stepper was feeding faster than it was extruding. Make sure it is actually extruding when it clicks, and is it in the same location each time?

Other than my one off scenario, GOC's got some good suggestions.

[GamerDarling]

It's a very faint noise, and I can't be sure were it's coming from...and I'm not entirely clear on the difference between a click and a pop. >.< I uploaded a video to youtube:
You can hear it between the 1 and 2 second mark on the video.

It has been several prints since I last aligned, but it seems to be extruding just fine, though it would be hard to tell the difference since the clicking is very intermittent. Single click/pop every thirty seconds or so. Location during click seems to be random, but I was going to realign on the next one anyway. I've also upped the temp back to 115 and the speed is lower than it was when I wasn't having the issue, and I'm still getting it at the same frequency.

Thanks for all your help and advice guys, it's much appreciated.

[curious aardvark]

I get plenty of clicks from the filament as it comes off the reel.
You sure it's not that ?

[Marm]

I think it may boil down to "If it's not broke, don't fix it". If you aren't seeing any problems with the print, there shouldn't be much concern. If you are aware of a potential issue with your stepper, then you may need to replace it either way, so you might as well not do anything about it till it becomes an actual problem.

[GamerDarling]

I get plenty of clicks from the filament as it comes off the reel.
You sure it's not that ?

I had been thinking it might be that actually, but it seemed like that would be more of a rustle. But hey, if that's all it is for you, I'll cross my fingers and hope that's all it is for me too.

[GamerDarling]

I think it may boil down to "If it's not broke, don't fix it". If you aren't seeing any problems with the print, there shouldn't be much concern. If you are aware of a potential issue with your stepper, then you may need to replace it either way, so you might as well not do anything about it till it becomes an actual problem.

My prints have been somewhat stringy and sometimes there's more variation in thickness than there should be, but I'm not sure that's what a stepper issue print would look like. Hopefully you're right and I'm being overly nervous. It's just such an expensive piece of equipment that I'm having trouble not jumping at every little thing. lol