Can high temperatures cause the printhead to clog then?
Sometimes when the plastic starts melting too high up and so it's too soft to push against. I can't think of what else could be causing your problem other than what you've already tried so it's worth a shot.
Thanks Owen.
I'm now printing the same object with 210 degrees. Hoping it'll finish the job completely.
Keep ya posted!
Hey baphi, I feel your pain. I think the test Owen has you doing is your best option at this point. It seems likely that printing at 245c could cause issues if you aren't printing fairly fast as the heat transfers up the plastic. If you are still having issues after this last test, the only other things I can think of that you might try would be to print either geohagens or Scott's alternate filiment drives. Or if it is an issue with the hot end you could try my fix. I'm still testing it but things have been going much smoother. I'd be happy to fill you in on how I made it work since I haven't posted all of the results yet.
So far, the problem still occurred, but now, on 1/3rd of the total process.
I examined the the filament and hobbed bolt and will post pictures of them. The bolt was quitte full with PLA residu and the filament has several bolt-marked spots on it.
**Update** here are two pictures:
What's going wrong here. The print was done with 210 degrees.
@Tom: which filament drives are you referring to? Would you be so kind to inform me about the hot end fix?
The filiment drives I am referring to are these:
It's hard to tell, is the bulging end the side that would have been on the hot end of the printer? Your issues look very similar to my own.
Thx Tom.
I have downloaded the redesign of geo hagen and will start printing it tomorrow. also have I contacted Tristan from fabberworld for a quotation to send me the metal parts needed for this redesign.
I think this is something on which the ultimaker team should work on to improve their machine... So far, no word from them unfortunately :roll:
Will call them tomorrod to address the problem.
Thx for the support so far!
If there someone with another good suggestion or solution, please add your comments!
My issue was solved by accident. I had broken my peek while taking apart the hot end to clean everything. I ended up purchasing this
http://www.makergear.com/products/groovemounts
and making it fit. Since then I haven't had any issues. I even went so far as to make stls of the peices I used so that if others want to try it they won't have to do quite so much sanding.
That groove mount looks pretty good. One other thing I noticed Baphi is that you're using 5D firmware. I think if you move on to Marlin you'll get less temperature variation. It's far better firmware in either case, it prints much smoother. It's a bit involved getting it on there but it's worth it. I used Daid's tool, Build Me Marlin last time to set up the settings before uploading it to the UM and it is great.
@Tom: I'll first start fixing the problem with the geohagen kit. Hope this will solve the extrusion issue.
@owen: the reason for me not to use an experimental firmware, is that I don't slice the files with RepG. I do all the prepwork in NetFabb and then leave the printing to RepG. Or will the Marlin firmware also improve the printing as well? It's worth giving it a shot ;-)
@Tom: I'll first start fixing the problem with the geohagen kit. Hope this will solve the extrusion issue.@owen: the reason for me not to use an experimental firmware, is that I don't slice the files with RepG. I do all the prepwork in NetFabb and then leave the printing to RepG. Or will the Marlin firmware also improve the printing as well? It's worth giving it a shot ;-)
I've only ever used Netfabb and always export to RepG unless the file is too big. Marlin is heaps good with Netfabb generated code. Not that it probably makes much difference what program generates the code.
Marlin is definately the firmware to go with. Its far superior in my opinion, and I print 99% of my items with netfabb generated code.
Alright! But which Marlin firmware to use...
1. Marlin Experimental build 1
2. Marlin Experimental build 2
3. Marlin Experimental build 3 by Bernhard Kubicek
I'm now in the middle of printiing the geohagen parts...
Hope all goed well today. :-|
**edit**
I'm having some other problems as well:
1. after starting a print job in RepG it takes appr. 5 min before the actual print starts
2. when printing starts, the platform is way too far from the nozzle away (3mm at least) which I have to adjust manually each print.
What could be the cause of these problems?
I'll post these problems in a new subject if needed.
**edit2**
Uploaded Marlin Experimental 2 en started printing and the problems described above (in **edit**) are gone now 
The Marlin Experimentals from the Ultimaker RepG are a bit old already. Marlin moved quite fast, using the "Build-Me-Marlin" tool gives a newer version which fixes a few issues. You would need to set some configuration options right, like the baudrate and disabling software endstops.
Question: the PLA thread keeps balling up on the tip of the nozzle and not being deposited cleanly on the growing piece;
I imagine three variable are relevant: feed rate, flow rate, and temperature.
Anyone have any experience solving this problem? how about cleaning and care of the brass nozzle any suggestions?
Secondly, I bought and installed ball bearing races for the PLA spool to minimize friction and let the bolt work on feeding the PLA tubing.
***Update***
A week ago I visited the UltiMaker "headquarters" in order to have the issues solved as mentioned above in earlier posts.
Martijn was so kind to do some modifications on my Ulti and to diagnose the problem. (thx for that Martijn!)
This is what has been changed:
- the bowden tube is now fixed on two positions in the printhead (to prevent the tube from moving out of the peek)
- the lower part of the printhead was disassembled and checked, cleaned and the reassembled correctly
- the PLA spool was organized (could have caused an extrusion block)
After these small modifications I was able to do print without problems with the red PLA!
But recently I swapped the red PLA for silvergrey PLA and now I'm having exactly the same issues as before...
What temps should I be using for silvergrey PLA as compared to red PLA?
What temps should I be using for silvergrey PLA as compared to red PLA?
It could be more or less see what temperature you can easily push it through by hand.
The strange thing is that there doesn't seem te be a consistant flow through the heater. In other words: sometimes I can easily push the filament through, but a few moments later it feels completely stuck... :(
Temperatures don't make much of a difference (tried from 200 - 245 degrees).
Rather disappointing, this...
**edit**
After writing the above, I decided to take the printhead apart and there I found a big melted PLA in the end of the bowden tube. Not good.
What can I do to prevent this? As this doesn't seem to be an extruder problem but more a printhead problem...
I am experiencing the exact same thing. After a couple of layers the feeder mechanism can not push the filament further and I need to help it before gets its grip on the filament back. The bolt also gets dirty in my case i.e. the grooves are filled a bit with filament. In fact, it seems that the feeder bolt carves a repetitive series of dents in the filament where the distance between the dents is somewhat constant (e.g. 1cm). Thus it extrudes nicely for 1cm and then it gets stuck and after a short while it can extrude again for 1cm and so on...
I have tried different temperatures (210-250) and different material multipliers (50-100-150). I also tried different pressures on the filament in the feeder.
Now, my ultimaker arrived with a spool of white FLEXIBLE PLA. Maybe this is also the kind that you are using? I can imagine that the flexible PLA has completely different characteristics compared with regular PLA.
Hi guys
Baphi you just need to clear out any pla plug etc. and then reasemble your print head according to the Wiki. The important part being you have a nise square end on the Bowden tube and it fully enters the Peek block and butts up against it inside.
toonhuysmans there is a good chance you have the same issue as Baphi.
I'll try and get my solution using the groovemount up on thingiverse tomorrow. If you are still getting the plug it should help. I'll post back in this topic when the file and instructions are uploaded.
I cleaned the extrusion nozzle and brass pipe. There was PLA till just above the brass pipe. No plug in my case. reassembled and tested again. Same problem: filament starts slipping very often. I will await the non-flexible PLA that I ordered for further testing.
I've uploaded the stls I used to allow the groovemount to fit.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18983
I'm not to great at providing technical instructions so I understand if it needs clarification.
I just received the normal PLA. No issues now, great quality prints! Flexible PLA is not really printable with the current filament feeder, at least not with the settings I used.
The concept of heat traveling up the hot end could be causing some of these problems. Here is a blog page about troubles in designing the hot end for an extruder.
. Pretty interesting and not a long read.
ArunC posted a topic in UltiMaker Cura,
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Dustin posted a topic in Firmware,
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Sometimes when the plastic starts melting too high up and so it's too soft to push against. I can't think of what else could be causing your problem other than what you've already tried so it's worth a shot.
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