Extruding Problem

[Kelador]

Thanks for that Dave. It explains why i cant find details in that then hahaha

Sorry, no tension adjustments on the stock QiDi extruders .

[Kelador]

I will try the thermistor thing and try and get some new nozzles.

Qidi have advised to replace the motor line which i thought was pointless???

Most likely a clogged nozzle. I never bother with cleaning nozzles, I just throw them away and use a new one as I buy them wholesale from Aliexpress at dirt cheap prices. No rocket science there, just a piece of machined brass or steel.

Another more difficult problem can be the thermistor which is used to measure and regulate the hot end temperature. I serviced a printer once which also had these weird problems. It turned out that the thermistor leads were making contact at certain movements of the extruder head. This results in a short which appears as the maximum temperature to the motherboard (300 C in this case). The motherboard then stops heating the hotend in order to cool of. However, as the hotend was the correct 230 C at that point, it cooled down and the plastic solidified in the nozzle. After tweaking things around, the short would disappear and the printer would work normally again, until the next times the leads shorted again, etc.

I finally found that one by monitoring the temperature in the control software, and jiggling the lead of the thermistor around. I could then see the temperature 'jumping up' to 300C at certain movements. Replaced the leads and problem solved.

[DaveB]

It sounds like the filament feed process is getting hung up somehow. The common causes already mentioned include tangled/criss-crossed filament, jammed nozzle due to shmutz or too low a temperature.

I would like to add another one: Misalignment in the filament feed path. Check that the hole in the manifold plate on top of the extruder is actually lined up with the filament feed hole in the top of the extruder carriage release lever.

You might also check that the aforementioned manifold plate is not being pulled down by its forward mounting screw such that it depresses the filament release lever. Stress there can cause the lever to release the filament. I put a spacer on the top of the fan heatsinks to give the manifold plate something to be drawn down against, and shifted the mechanism downward when tightening the two fan / heatsink bolts that hold it in place.

[Kelador]

Soooooooooooooo I have narrowed it down to a faulty nozzle. How I don't know as it looks clean as a whistle. I swapped the nozzles over, low and behold swapped the issue over with it.

QIDI's Excellent customer service are sending 2 new nozzles.

The issue i now have if anyone can help. On the left nozzle I have printed 10 things 2 PLA in QIDI FILAMENT and 8 in ABS of 4 USE 3D filament.
Of the 2 PLA 1 failed and 1 had an odd discrepancy part way through
Of the ABS 3 are perfect but since the clicking 5 have stopped part way through. Same settings on heat and bed as the 3 perfect ones

Could it be a filament quality issue or a fan cooling issue. I have a piece that i printed 3 times, twice stopped in same place the third time i upped the temp and it printed a bit more but after where it had stopped previous but consistency was different and then still stopped

[wirlybird]

You really don't need the fan for ABS, I don't use it.

If the extruder is clicking then it seems it can't feed at the rate being asked for. Could be printing to fast, temp to low, some kind of obstruction or a problem with the filament. Some thoughts.

Soooooooooooooo I have narrowed it down to a faulty nozzle. How I don't know as it looks clean as a whistle. I swapped the nozzles over, low and behold swapped the issue over with it.

QIDI's Excellent customer service are sending 2 new nozzles.

The issue i now have if anyone can help. On the left nozzle I have printed 10 things 2 PLA in QIDI FILAMENT and 8 in ABS of 4 USE 3D filament.
Of the 2 PLA 1 failed and 1 had an odd discrepancy part way through
Of the ABS 3 are perfect but since the clicking 5 have stopped part way through. Same settings on heat and bed as the 3 perfect ones

Could it be a filament quality issue or a fan cooling issue. I have a piece that i printed 3 times, twice stopped in same place the third time i upped the temp and it printed a bit more but after where it had stopped previous but consistency was different and then still stopped

[Kelador]

Cheers wirlybird

Im using S3D and im sure fan is set to zero. I have sorted clicking its faulty nozzle. but now no clicking just ghost printing at part way through. Very odd.

You really don't need the fan for ABS, I don't use it.

If the extruder is clicking then it seems it can't feed at the rate being asked for. Could be printing to fast, temp to low, some kind of obstruction or a problem with the filament. Some thoughts.

[wirlybird]

Yea, S3D should zero the fan for ABS.

I wonder if the PTFE tube has a crimp in it that is hindering the movement of the filament? I wonder if it just takes that amount of time for it to back up?

Maybe slow the print speed way down and see if it gets any farther in the print. Just kind of guessing at this point.

Cheers wirlybird

Im using S3D and im sure fan is set to zero. I have sorted clicking its faulty nozzle. but now no clicking just ghost printing at part way through. Very odd.

[Kelador]

Cheers for that I have bought some more filament just in case but i hate chucking things away so i will endeavour with what i have till it arrives. So we will see. I will post my results.

Have you ever seen a filament change colour part way through by the way

[Kelador]

Soooooooo I have replacement nozzles and cleaned the old ones out all hunky dory. So far so good got some good prints done. I have now got rid of the clicking problem. The miscellaneous pausing during printing on the other hand did return but i think i know why.

During an 8 hour print I had it pause 1/4 of the way through . I put this down to a partial lift of the print and maybe a jammed nozzle. Same as before it had stopped as if was finished but nozzle was still in position still hot but not extruding.
So I checked my levels blockages all was fine so i applied more glue and tried a reprint. The same again exact same spot same layer to the millimetre.

I then went back to S3D and noticed an error box which i vaguely remember seeing before say something about the gcode. So i re sliced the model and saved to hard drive had some food then transferred to sd card and started the print for a third time. This time it worked pretty much to a tee aside from some weird curl/separation issues on some thin edges which i think is due to print speed??? and some odd under extrusion in small areas which i think is retraction issue. But as im so fresh at this im still working that out. Just happy it printed regardless of some faults.

So in conclusion I have found clicking motor is a jam in my case caused i believe by bad filament and maybe a miss formed nozzle. But the printer pausing part way through print i believe was caused when saving straight to memory card being too eager and removing too soon even though it looked like it was finished. So as a precaution I save to hard drive now first then save to memory card then click to eject the memory card just to make sure it is all done.

I hope this helps others as every one i have spoken too so far has been very helpful.

[cncartist]

Thanks for the update and I'm glad to hear you were able to figure out a lot of the issues!