kris 28 Report post Posted July 6, 2015 in Cooling the feeder Hi Has anybody considered cooling the feeder? Tried several prints during the weekend. All prints failed fairly early on; at first material flow was OK. After a while every print experience underextrusion that would culminate in 0% material flow. As usual I suspected a clogged nozzle. Cleaned it...several times. Didn't help. Finally I realized that the PLA filament had been flattened by the feeder. The feeder could still grab on to it, but with the new shape the filament would cause significant friction in the tube. No chance for the feeder to able to push it to the hotend. I had previously notice on my UM2's that the feeder wheel would get very warm because it is directly connected to the stepper motor. In addition, due to the climate we had close to 30°C in the room. I then put a fan behind one of the printers to help cool the feeder. Problem solved. I am no considering placing small fans to the rear of the prnter to help keep the feeder/ filament cool. What do you guys think? Any similar experiences? Cheers, Kris Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IRobertI 428 Report post Posted July 6, 2015 in Cooling the feeder I haven't done it myself but I've heard of others who had your exact problem and fixed it by adding a small fan back there. I'd say go for it. Especially with the heat wave going on right now it's not a bad idea to help the printer cope. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
francfalco 37 Report post Posted July 6, 2015 in Cooling the feeder Same here - i had the feeder wheel 'flatten' the filament before it got into the Bowden tube. Must have been the v hot weather we had in the UK recently - that won't last but a cooling fan on that feeder stepper motor does sound interesting... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gr5 900 Report post Posted July 7, 2015 in Cooling the feeder I wish Ultimaker had provided a layer of insulation between the feeder shaft and the knurled sleeve somehow. They are in netherlands and if the temp reaches 25C they act like they are going to die of the heat, lol. They probably rarely run the machine that hot. I have had the inside of my machine at 40C but only when printing ABS which doesn't get soft until around 100c. There was a woman in brazil on the forums who had the same issue at 30C. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kris 28 Report post Posted July 9, 2015 in Cooling the feeder I have purchased two 60mm fans and designed a printable fan mount. My UM2's are all enclosed with acrylic and I will simple cut out a piece of the acrylic and mount the fan to blow directly onto the feeder. I guess it cannot hurt to cool PLA even below 30C. I have noticed that there is a small deformation of the filament even below that temperature. That causes unnecessary friction in the bowden. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kris 28 Report post Posted July 9, 2015 in Cooling the feeder By the way; does anyone know if I can run an additional fan (12V) from the mainboard? It has got a 3Pin Molex connector. If not I'll just use an external power supply. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ultiarjan 1,081 Report post Posted July 9, 2015 in Cooling the feeder I mounted my 2 feeders (dual head) at the back of the machine and made a bracket with an old 60mm coollermaster pc fan, I run the 12V fan at 5Volt... it's super silent and still does a good job. https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker2-rail-system-u2rs @gr5 we had almost 40c last week and I'm still alive Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gr5 900 Report post Posted July 9, 2015 in Cooling the feeder @gr5 we had almost 40c last week and I'm still alive That's pretty hot! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kris 28 Report post Posted July 13, 2015 in Cooling the feeder Indeed, this solved the problem. Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ultiarjan 1,081 Report post Posted July 13, 2015 in Cooling the feeder Nice, here's a pic of my setup; 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
neone 40 Report post Posted September 1, 2015 in Cooling the feeder same issue here (my first after a few prints). I thought it was a nozzle prob so I tried changing filament, but it didn't move. Then I noticed the filament was jammed in the feeder. ps it's 22C here right now so that can't be the issue I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
