bizarre problem w/Creator. Suddenly won't print to certain area of the bed.

[roykirk]

One of my Creators (my oldest one) has developed a sudden and perplexing problem. When it gets anywhere near the left third of the print bed, the extruder starts "chattering" and it stops extruding filament. Once it moves back towards the right side of the bed, the chattering goes away and the filament starts extruding again. I did a test where I put it in "load filament" mode so I could move the extruder around freely while filament was spooling on the print bed (with the print bed fully retracted to make sure I didn't have a leveling problem). Sure enough, when I would slide the assembly over to the left side, extruder starts doing the same thing and the filament stops. I've never seen anything like this, and it's especially bizarre considering that it started suddenly. I've checked to make sure the filament isn't binding on the spool for some reason when it gets over to the left side. No problem there as it is coming off the spool easily. Anything else I can try as I continue to troubleshoot this?

[Sebastian Finke]

You don't say which Creator or how old it is. Can it be that your extruder cable are being to get worn? Sounds unlikely to me but worth a check.

More likely the filament is catching somewhere on the far left side. The spool might spin freely but it could be something in guide tube or the guide tube itself. Recheck it.

[roykirk]

It's a FF Creator Dual Head. Purchased about 3 years ago and it has nearly 4,000 hours on it. However, the entire dual print head (and all cables) were replaced about 6 months ago, so they should be good. The only thing I've done recently was to replace the main extruder belt, but that was a week ago and I've run dozens of prints through it since that time (but just to be sure, I checked the belt and it's not binding anyway. regardless, movement isn't the issue). I pulled the guide tube completely off to check if there's something wrong there. No change, the filament simply stops feeding as it reaches the left side and the extruder starts chattering again. Maybe I'll try to shoot a short video and upload to youtube so it can be seen exactly what's going on.

[roykirk]

Here's a short video clip I've uploaded that shows the problem a bit better: https://youtu.be/PjKVwhcy28s

[roykirk]

Sebastian - You had it nailed! The problem was with some wires. They weren't rubbed through or anything, but part of the wiring harness was catching on a bolt, and this was putting just enough tension on the right extruder wiring that it was causing the connector to pull just a little bit askew...enough to make it start chattering when it got to the far left. I found this out rather by accident as I've been going nuts all morning trying to troubleshoot. While watching the carriage move to the left for about the 15th time, I noticed the wiring harness would momentarily grab that bolt when it went to the left. I lifted it up on the next pass and it printed fine. I've now secured it up and out of the way better. Thanks, Sebastian!

[Sebastian Finke]

Glad you got it sorted