oldmans

Thank you for the advice and response and want to say again that tech support has been excellent, extrodinarily patient and helpful both with time and advice even in the midst very bad weather. With regard to the tension setting when we received the printer the white indicator on the side of the feeder mechanism, if referring to the same thing you are, was at the very top of the range, we were advised to reduce that setting as you described and did so, it took a number of turns before it responded. I appreciate your explanation with regard to grinding, and want to clarify, most of time the filament has a gash to the point were when using the Change filament function the filament cannot be backed out and is removed manually. In this case as you described we should decrease the tension to somewhere in the area of the second guide line.

Bagel, I have uploaded images of the fractured casing if you would like to view them.

Bagel, I have no idea how the fractures/ cracks were caused, if there is a way to post pictures on this thread I would be glad to do so in an effort find out. The fractures are on the lower part of the black casing which encloses the bearing for the Y axis. I was told by tech support in the US that perhaps the thumb screws were to tight, after the temp sensor was replaced, however I do not think they were. We are not completely new to 3D printing but we are still learning the ins and outs. We have been experiencing many of the same issues with regard to the feeder expressed on the forums. It appears that with heavy retractions the filament grinds down as you describe, we also have noticed that when that happens and we use the change filament function on the machine and reinsert the filament that the feeder grinds down almost immediately on the filament. We have adjusted the tension on the feeder, it was on its tightest setting when we received the printer, so that's where it is.

Hal, I would agree I do believe the machine is solid, my boys did a lot of research on the available printers in this price range and the UTM was their choice. We did talk to you via phone a few weeks ago from Arizona about the issues we were having with the printer. At this point the temp sensor and the rest are performing so that hurdle has been crossed, the fractured casing is another issue which I would like to know what that may have happened, I do not believe the four screws were too tight after the temp sensor replacement. All that aside, the feeder mechanism is the issue for us at this point, as it appears to be for others as well, Labern I appreciate the link I had looked at that option as well and thank you for suggesting it as well. Hal we did reseat the Bowden after we replaced the temp sensor although will look at it again to verify that it is in place. With regard to the knurled bolt I have noticed flecks of filament build up within the mechanism and have attempted to clear that out, are methods for doing so, canned air perhaps. We have also tried unrolling the filament and re-rolling the the filament more loosely, that was mentioned on one of the forums. So that is where we are at this point, appreciate the advice.

Apologize my last post went through before done. I will say at the beginning that tech support at FBRC8 has been very helpful and responsive. In any event after receiving our printer on February 10 we have had issue after issue starting with a temp sensor error within the first hour of turning the printer on. We ended up replacing the sensor, along with the set screw on the block, it was misaligned during assembly in Tennessee, the Teflon coupler, and nozzle block all within the first week. We have since been having many problems with the Bowden drive, which after a lot of reading on the forums appears to be an issue, with the grinding of filament and failed prints, after a lot of back and forth with tech support and many adjustments the issues remain. Now we have fractures on both the front and back side of the lower black casing on the extruder assembly. Yes I am complaining, after spending $2500 on the printer I would have thought it would work for a least a while before having to take apart the entire extruder twice in less than a month for repairs. Frustration has set in, we have spent more time trying to trouble shoot the printer then we have actually printed. The Bowden drive is eating up our filament, does anyone know which fixes on youmagine work the best or can one expect UTM design a fix for the drive. Looking for reason to keep the printer.