Would anyone in the community be willing to send/rent (or sell) me a working hotend and extruder for a couple of weeks.

I would like to solve a few issues with my own extruder and would like a working (plug and play) version to begin trials from.

I am using gen6 electronics and 3mm abs (some pla kicking about too).

The main issue I am trying to solve is that my hobbled bolt is chewing up the abs, creating a groove and then turning fairly freely without applying the required pressure to the hot end. I would like to bowl out if this is a hot end issue with heat transfer not man enough to melt the plastic quick enough or some other friction in the system. When fed by hand I do need to put a bit of pressure on the abs to extrude at any decent speed. Messing about with e steps per mm etc has not done anything.

Since the frame is calibrated nicely I would be grateful if some helpful person would provide a hotend/extruder known to work so that I can compare settings and forces at work.

I am based in Glasgow, but will pay for postage from wherever.

Pm if interested.

Thanks Griz

Try this before you do anything else:

1. Run the extruder cold, with filament loaded.
2. If the filament strips (it should, right?), replace with a new piece, and back way off on the current to the stepper driver. Command the extruder to move a long length and begin turning up the current until the motor starts stalling (the big wheel tries to turn, but lashes back). From this point, turn the current up slowly until the motor overcomes the friction force on the filament, and strips it. This is where your extrusion force limit is. Back off just a bit on the current.

-Wildseyed-

Also, your hobbed bolt stripping your filament can be caused by your idler tension being wrong. You need tension in a specific range to grip reliably, and that range is different for different plastics (definitely different between ABS and PLA, and I'm finding different between ABS from different suppliers). Also once its stripped filament, the grooves in your both are probably clogged up with plastic, reducing its grip for the future. Take out your bolt and clean out the teeth before trying to extrude again.

I have a working hotend but I'm in Canada.....?

Thanks for the info folks,

I can confirm that there is alot of plastic in the teeth, so will work that out and test the tension.

Thanks
Griz