Titan Extruder Grinds Filament Mid Print

Hello,

I have been having this issue for a while and it's driving me crazy. I start a print and the first few layers are fine as you can see in the picture. Then usually around the same point the extruder stops extruding. After stopping the print and taking the filament out I see the extruder has been grinding through the filament. I have experimented with various idler tensions, print speeds and hot end temperatures but nothing has worked.

One thing I have noticed is every time I clean the hot end my next print gets better. This leads me to believe I have a clogging issue however I don't know how to fix it.

My printer is one that I built myself, currently using an E3D Titan extruder, PLA filament, pronterface and slic3r.

Really appreciate the help.

The extruder should never grind a divot into the filament. The motor should slip before that happens. That is primarily a function of the pinch roller pressure.

What kind of hot-end do you have? Prints starting fine then jamming after a while is usually a heat-creep problem. If your hot-end has a cooling fan make sure it working. If it doesn't have a cooling fan, you need a different hot-end.

Dust doesn't jam extruders, at least not typical 0.25 mm or larger nozzles. OTOH, if you store your filament under the exhaust vent from a coal mine and then put it on your printer, who knows?

Does the extruder have a pancake motor, or a more normal size motor?

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the reply digital dentist.
I have an E3D V6 direct hotend with a fan attached. Extruder has a normal 34mm stepper motor. Nozzle is 0.4mm

Did you install the teflon tube inside the heatbreak?

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Yup. You mentioned heat creep which seems to be a common issue I didn't know about. After briefly researching this issue people seem to be saying increase print speed. How would you recommend combating heat creep?

With that hot end you shouldn't have a heat-creep problem. Are you running the fan at full speed all the time and does it have unobstructed air flow?

is the extruder motor getting hot? If so it may be softening/melting the filament at the drive gear...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2017 05:06PM by the_digital_dentist.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Extruder fan is running full speed all the time. Motor gets warm but I don't think hot enough to soften the filament

Are you running a print cooling fan? Is it blowing on the heater block?

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

A bad assambled E3D hotend can have severe issues with heat creep.
Is there a gap between the hotend and the heatsink?

Sorry wrong extruder pic, but the gap-issue is the same.


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2017 03:28AM by o_lampe.

I'm assuming its a print cooling fan because it's the one I got from E3D. The picture shows the hotend and heatsink

No, that's the hot-end cooling fan. How much retraction are you using? It should be about 1 mm, at 30-40 mm/sec. If you're using long retraction you may be pulling the soft filament up into the heatbreak.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Make sure the thermistor has a good contact with the hotend. Otherwise the real temp would be much higher than the reading.

BTW: The gap I mentioned earlier looks good in your pic.

Yes I think that was it digital dentist! I've been printing at 30mm/s with 0.8mm retraction with no issues. Thank you both for the help!

was having huge heat creep issues until I put in my water cooled hot end. I was printing in my garage and the temps were up to 100f, and the hot air was not cooling my cold end. Once I put on the water cooled cool end, all my issues went away.

I posted a video on utube
[www.youtube.com]


I am so happy this solved my issue.

Eric