$2600 Makerbot 5th Generation Hot End failing

This is an interesting post about MB hot end failing. I think MB is going to have to make new molds, redesign the hot end, and issue a recall. I'm curious how many people are using the 5th gen hot end on long duration prints. I bet after the redesign MB will apply for a new hot end patent for the fix, who want's to take that bet.

Makerbot 5-th gen constant jams due to overheated path that filament go through.
20~30 minute printing is okay, but if I make the machine work over several hours, the temperature is slowly going up
eventually, the filament is meted before extruded.
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Hi Tiffany,
Why is the makerbot customer service so, so slow?
I couldn't understand that it takes more than 4 business days.

Also, I think there are lots of extruder problem for experienced users (I have used Cube, Cubify, several reprap-like printers. At least I have 5 machines).
This is not a customer problem obviously.

The filament is melting before extrusion. <= this is very big problem.

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We've struggled with our series 5 for weeks. We've had the new extruder with 6 fins but it basically behaved exactly the same as the previous 2 extruders we had.

So it printed ok for a day, however as soon as we ramped up printing either upping the quantity or the quality in any way we ran in to problems and eventually got the dreaded clicking sound where no amount of work could get filament loaded.

So the new extruder does not work for us. So far we have not managed 24 hours of total print time with the series 5.

We're waiting for feedback and next steps.

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I apologize for the delay in our support staff's response. I alerted them today about your case, so XXXX should reach out shortly with a solution.

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[groups.google.com]

A review of MB 5-th gen hot end
[intentional3d.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2014 04:20AM by A2.

I really enjoy seeing the modified filament path. A company that makes and sells rapid prototying machines did not have enough brainpower to prototype the extruder before producing molds and find that filament will not bend at a 45 or whatever degree angle and then wrap around a little drive gear without issue. I intended to do something similar a while back with an extruder I was working on to get more contact area with the filament and tossed that idea just holding some filament and a drive gear in my hand...

Makerbot really looks like they have their act together...

[groups.google.com]

Since my academy bought a Replicator I've become anti-makerbot

I've designed and built a couple extruders for 3-D printers there is one point have been trying to get across for a while now nobody seems to listen. In my opinion the main problem with it not having enough traction on the filament is the size of the drive wheel. And it looks like they have made the same mistake a very small drive wheel on the ones I made its pretty much impossible to chew the filament it has a remarkable positive drive haven't measured the pull but it is incredible. The ones I made the use serrated drive wheel from a mig welder it is over 1 inch in diameter this allows more teeth to be engaged when directly on the centerline with maximum indentation on the filament it's still making indentation of the teeth above and below the center line and with leaving no room for it to buckle on the push side going into the hot end. I think if you had one of the J hands or plastic hot ends and didn't have it hot enough with my extruder I haven't tested it but I suspect you could actually break the hot end push the threads out. Because of the large diameter you need to use a large gear ratio I use 100 to 1. With 1600 micro steps this comes out to 3200 pulses per millimeter here are couple pictures of what I'm talking about

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2014 11:29AM by cnc dick.

I bet the just put a fan on a heat sink and call it a day. But only after they apply for a patent.

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