SMOKE !!!!

[lee 2]

I just had smoke pouring out of the printer head !!!

Is this a common occurrence ???

What do I do now?

[illuminarti 18]

TURN IT OFF!! :-)

 

[illuminarti 18]

When you say pouring... was it a lot, or just a few wisps? Sometimes if you let the nozzle sit hot with plastic in it, it can break down chemically, and then when you start extruding again you might get a little puff of smoke.

If it's lots of smoke, then probably something went wrong with the temperature sensor, and the head overheated. What temperature did you have set, and what temp was the printer reporting? Check that the thermocouple wires going into the terminal block on the print head are properly seated, and that the wires connecting our of there back to the electronics are properly connected at both ends of the wires (print head, and under the printer).

If the print head overheated, it's possible that it damaged the peek part and/or the teflon coupler between the bowden tube and the peek. But maybe not... you'll just need to do check it out carefully and figure out what went wrong, and what if any permanent damage was done.

 

[lee 2]

It was pouring out

I tut it off immediately power and usb and still come out for another three mins

I was using 210.

I've loosened everything in the head screw-wise and waited for the thing to cool down. I hadn't changed anything from what I've printed all day.

[illuminarti 18]

Sounds like your thermocouple came loose or shorted out, or something. When it's all cool, probably best take it apart and inspect the peek and teflon pieces for damage.

And then take a look at the thermocouple and try to figure out why it stopped giving an accurate temp reading - check the wires on both ends, look for signs of fraying, etc. And check the screw terminals.

 

[gr5 2,210]

The next time you turn it on, set it for 95C and wait until hit its there but while waiting put some water on the print head and make sure it doesn't quite boil. If it does, and the UM is reporting say 80C or 50C or 20C or 0C, then shut it off before you melt your peek part.

 

[lee 2]

ok .., thanks guys...

i took it apart a cleaned everything with a dremmel. no burn marks on ANYTHING, which is very werid... im heating up now as per GR5 suggestion.i do have an infra red thermometer somewhere too

 

[lee 2]

set it to 90c and left it for 15 mins and stayed at that temp - licked my finger and touched it, it was hot but not scoulding. dropping it to 38c now

i think its ok. but it was alarming to see that amount of smoke.

 

[Daid 306]

Most likely you have a semi-lose wire in the temperature measurement. While it works now, with the head moving it might get in a lose position again. So I advice you to check all the wires and make sure all connections are secure.

Also, PEEK starts to smell before it smokes, so you should be able to smell a strange smell before the real problem hits. I got quite experienced at detecting this smell by troubleshooting a lot of prints.

 

[lee 2]

seems good to go now, all wires in in strong especially the yellow and red / temp wires

 

[schafe 3]

I don't know if this is a helpful programming idea or not:

I work in the food manufacturing industry. We have many temperature controlled systems. Our computers (PLCs) are set up that when they get a bad reading from a temp sensor for a set time they shut down the heaters and create an alarm.

 

[illuminarti 18]

That is how it's supposed to work; there are several checks built into the firmware, for some reason they didn't get triggered in this case. Short of having a redundant temperature monitoring system, and comparing results, its difficult to catch all the cases.