E3D causing jams after 1-3 hours of printing. PLA

[carmamir 0]

I have huge problem with E3D hotend, it's keep jamming, always I couldn't print anything bigger as ALWAYS it will jam. No matter what I'm printing, no matter what speed, it will jam. It's happening after 2-3hours of printing.

Any idea ? Very annoying.

 

[nick-foley 4]

Yeah, it's tough. I struggled with this for as long as I used the E3D. Others haven't had as bad of an experience. I could only use XT or ABS filament without clogging, because it's less sticky when molten. I ended up swapping out the E3D last week because I was tired of hearing that cooling fan and wanted to be able to print in PLA again. Put in the UBIS hotend, no more problems...

Reaming out the aluminum heatsink to be a few tenths of a mm larger in ID might help, as well as making sure the stainless steel tube has a nice clean chamfer where the PLA enters. Cutting down your retraction distance to 1mm mostly solves the problem, but then your print quality may suffer, depending on the part.

 

[am001 0]

I agree with Nick,

I reamed out the aluminium, and added more chamfer to my E3D, primarily to use slightly oversize nylon strimmer filament, but this stopped any jamming. It is also key not to over retract, you don't want to remove the molten material from the head, just remove the pressure.

Andy

 

[chopmeister 0]

I read a lot about the E3D jamming with PLA, but I must say I haven't had that problem. But I suppose it is because I use it with a head mounted extruder and I use 0.8 or 1mm retraction just like Nick said. That being said I'm also on the lookout for alternative hotends, because that fan is soooo irritating.

But my point is, if you do use smaller retraction you will most probably have no jamming.

 

[tommyph1208 55]

Couldn't you just replace the fan with a more expensive silent one? There are like a billion of them around...

 

[nick-foley 4]

No fan as silent as no fan at all! Also, having looked, I think there are significantly less than a billion fans that are the same size as the E3D fan... And even fewer - maybe none - with any indication that they might be quiter than the stock fan.

 

[chopmeister 0]

Oh there are better and quieter fans out there, in that size and even smaller. What would make me happy is a box of Micronel fans. Too bad that they cost like they're made of gold. There was an auction on ebay and a guy was selling I think 50 of those for cheap. Never forgave myself for not buying them. But that's beside the point. I'm not irritated as much by the noise, as by the fact it has to be there at all.

The hotend with the fan+mounting block ends up being really big. And what I'm trying to do is make a very very small and light head-mounted extruder. And that bloody fan gets in the way all the time. If I were to return to my bowden setup, I wouldn't be bothered by it as much, but right now it annoys me. :twisted: