3DR/Delta PLA not moving towards hot end

Hello,

I have finally completed my 3DR, all seems to be working correctly, levelled the bed, so far so good.

I have hit a problem with printing. When I print everything looks fine, it heats up then starts to print, the extruder motor starts and pushed PLA through. But the PLA doesn't go into the hot end, it just starts collecting at the other side of the extruder. If I manually add a little force to the pla towards to hot end it starts to ooze fine, but as soon as I stop it doesn't push itself through.

Am I missing something, any help would be appreciated. What is the usual mechanism for pushing the pla from the extruder end to the hot end (with a gregs extruder setup)?

You might not have enough tension on the PLA. I know on my Printrbot the PLA needs a good bit of tension.

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greghoge.com

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I thought it might be something to do with that.

Do you have any tips?

Is the best thing to do to heat it up, and let it flow for a while before starting the print? Also, if its too close to the bed does it cause problems?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2014 06:41PM by gaweph.

I like to heat my extruder and run a few hundred millimeters through to make sure everything is running smoothly. Make sure you bring your hotend up off the build plate (i usually go 20-30 mm).

My suggestion is to just raise your hotend and use your slicer to extrude some filament. Adjust the tension on the PLA as it is extruding until you start to get a smooth stream coming out. You might also want to make sure you nozzle isn't clogged up in.

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greghoge.com

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What do you mean by adjust the tension on the PLA? Do you mean the amount available between the output of the extruder and the intake of the hot end?

It was flowing really nicely, until I started trying to print (it just stopped flowing unless I pushed it through myself). Perhaps I didn't leave it flow for long enough. Will try tonight,. thanks for the reply.

Think I figured it out, RichRap has a length of PTFE going from extruder exit to the hot end input. This should mean that the PLA has nowhere to go but into the hot end. I will try this later tonight. Thanks for the help Greg, I'll let you know how I get on.

The tube can be seen here: [4.bp.blogspot.com]

OH, I didnt realize you didn't that your bowden tube connected. Yea that is definitely the problem. You need that tube to constrain the filament to a set path/distance since the extruder is not immediately before the hotend.

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greghoge.com

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I think what happened is that the person I got my parts from inverted the extruder, so the fillament comes out of the non Pneumatic fitting end. I will invert the extruder motor and re upload Marlin. Fingers crossed this will work

WOrks yay. Now I have a steady stream.

I now have to work out why it isnt quite working. Currently my hot end is picking up all of the pla and it just ends up in a mess around my hot end.

Hmmm, wish me luck!

Sounds like a partial nozzle clog. Can sometimes be fix by extruding a bunch of filament and pulling it away from the hotend manually. Worse case you will have to take your nozzle off, heat it up, and scrap out the molten PLA.

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greghoge.com

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Yeah was a total nozzle clog. It started coming out the wrong end of the metal part of the JHead. Took it apart, cleaned it up and seems ok no