Help! noob in over his head with new ("used") Tenlog TL-D3-pro setup :-(

[minneapolis-matt]

God...

I thought I'd be done soon. I tried to level it but after leveling when I tried to tighten the "fixed" screw that must be loosened to adjust the nut that raises or lowers the E2 nozzle all I could get the damn thing to do was endlessly spin without the slightest hint of threading in or otherwise tightening. It looks and feels as if it is spinning and the tool seems to have a good fit...it just doesn't thread. I definitely don't recall seeing a nut or a space for one anywhere in there but I guess there's nothing for it now but to basically start over and tear the thing down from scratch again so I can try to figure out why the "fixed" screw won't thread. Clogs suck.

[minneapolis-matt]

Looking back at this thread and the Monoprice voxel thread I started the last few weeks, someone might be forgiven for thinking that I have had a great deal of trouble from my Tenlog TL-D3 Pro and even question my decision to return my Voxel to buy (for a similar price) the D3.I hope I can dispel that conclusion. The Voxel was indeed essentially problem free out of the box and the only issue it really gave me apart from the limitations of its lower specifications was a need to print on a raft anywhere on the bed away from the center. Its rafts were always trivial to remove in one piece and always guaranteed the print would stay on the bed until I removed it. I have yet to match its level of detail and smoothness with my new prints. But for all of that the Voxel had no room to grow. Its advantages seemed to come from its very finely tuned slicer and perhaps some firmware tweaks but it would always be a single extruder small build volume printer tied to a somewhat limited and proprietary slicer. My D3 may have had multiple issues but it was purchased at open box deep discount and so far none of it hardware issue have been too much for a noob to try to tackle (with help) and increasingly it's starting to look as if these things really are relatively robust machines in many respects. At this point I hope I have neither scared anyone away from the voxel or the D3. If you hate tinkering and just want to do your own spontaneous in-house occasional prints with minimal investment in time and money and excellent detail the voxel may still be a good fit for you. If you want an affordable idex that a noob can service and repair (as I did) I say a D3 looks great.

[minneapolis-matt]

Do you see what the retraction test prints in the failed prints picture below all have in common? That's right. Practically everything. They could all pass as twins. However, what they do not have in common are cura retraction settings, or even extruder temperatures. The tests began after the de-clogging and thorough cleaning and leveling of the d3 and despite tweaking across a large range of allowable retraction distances (up to 7mm from 1mm!), speeds (20 to 70!), travel speeds (30 to 180!), and even extruder temps from 220C down to 190C, there just is hardly any ooze variation on these extruders across any of these settings.There has been rain and thunderstorms for 3 days and my PLA is constantly exposed to ambient so I decided to risk making a possibly oozy set of dry box parts so I would have some place to put oven dried PLA in case moisture were to prove to be the culprit. I can't see the slightest hint of ooze or strings on these dry box parts. That's wonderful, but could someone help me understand what is going on here? Thank you!https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:909901/files