I need some help with my printer that is ‘randomly’ stopping extruding during prints and I have tried everything that I can think of with no positive lasting results. I will be printing something and then it will stop extruding, sometimes it happens at the start of the print sometimes 90% through a print. Below image is the latest one that stop just before it was about to do the final few layers.
I have a Makerbot Replicator 2X (4th gen) and I generally only print with ABS, I have covered/sealed the sides and door of the printer to keep the enclosure nice and warm and I also point a lamp directly into it for extra heat. I use 230C for extrusion temp and 120C for bed temp and I found the extra bed temp reduced warping and gave better printing results. As for printer settings I generally run with 10% infill of some type, 2 layers and then the default parameters (extrusion speeds, travel speeds etc) in the Makerware software.
I have changed the extruder tension setup to a constant tension setup (not like the original set screw tension) which was an injection moulded version of this I think http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:79807 3 and I have swapped the thermocouples, heater elements and nozzle. I have adjusted the gap between the filament barrel and the extruder, I have also swapped out the toothed extruder bearing for a different one.
If a print fails I unload the filament and reload it and it works fine so the barrel/ nozzle isn’t jammed.
All of this has produced no consistent improvements, does anyone else have this problem or know what it may be? I just don’t know what to do and the Makerbot support says you have to pay per claim to open a support case?
I have had the same problems. It happening when using PLA and ABS. I found that I had to clean the extruder gears that plastic shards had built up on them. I also found abother time that the heat was to high. Not sure if this helps but best of luck to you! ,CB
I had a similar problem with my older 2X when I moved it to the garage and the temperature changed with the seasons. In the winter I found I had to increase the extruder temp. and during the summer I had to either take the cover off or decrease the extruder temp. Filament color can also have an impact (more so with PLA) on the best temperature to extrude, although I have not yet written a cheat sheet for color vs. temp. Incidentally, I usually run my extruded at 240-245 for ABS to lower the viscosity and to make extrusion easier. Also, I found I do occasionally have to thoroughly clean (or replace) the nozzle even when it was extruding most of the time.
When you remove the filament after one of these events is the a small notch near the end? I have almost a 1000 hours on my 2X and have had that happen many times. The usual cause is the print file requires lots of small little movements and extrusions. This results in the printer feeding and retracting the filament many times over a small length of filament. The extruder gear basically eats a notch in the filament. You can bring the extruder temp up a little to make it easier for the gear and less likely to notch the filament, but that can also cause the filament to get softer near the gear and notch it more… I found that the screw type extruder works well when adjusted properly.
I had this same problem with my rep 2, turned out to be what most people have commented on. Many small steps and movement, this causes the filament to be pushed and pulled back very quickly and the filament drive gear eats away at the filament so it can not move the filament anymore. I ended up replacing the thermal tape around the extruder to prevent heat from going into the feed tube and making the filament soft near the drive wheel and then turning down the extruder temperature by about 5 to 10 degrees depending on the filament that I was using. Hope this helps.
One modification I made to my R2X that has resulted in far fewer print failures (Actually can’t recall any since fitting this) was to move the filament reels from behind the machine to above on a bearing system. Does away with the guide tubes and reduces friction in the feed system. You can see it in this video http://www.chriscameron.co.nz/cc/cc-vlog-01-makerbot-mods/ 7
Heat the tips and make sure they are screwed in all the way. Some tips are not all the way and mushroom inside causing clogs. Also upgrade arms and get rid of the default maker it assembly.
I had a problem with the software not loading on my computer because of an update and they wanted me to pay to open a case so they could tell me how to fix their software. This is why I hate makerbot
Yes it has a notch on it where the extruder gear is eating into it, yeah I tend to agree that it is lots of little movements and extrusions. By screw type extruder you mean the one you can adjust with an allen key to change the tension?
Ok thanks I will try some stuff out and get back to you.
Thats interesting, I found that I had to bump up the bed plate in winter to keep more heat in the enclosure to stop warping. Ok thanks, I will try a few of these suggestions out and get back to you.
Yes I have to say I am less than impressed with their customer service and given the fact that their printers do not seem to be the best (look at Zortrax way outstripping them on the 3D hubs rankings) I don’t know how they think they are going to compete, maybe just flashy marketing. Anyway nice article Joe, thanks for the share.
Cheers
Hmm I think I may get more warping of the part if I print without the enclosure (plus I like to keep the fumes away from me) but I’ll give it a go and let you know my results.
What do you mean by upgrade the arms and default maker it assembly? I’m pretty sure the tips are screwed in all the way, I am running one default tip and one upgraded to compare them and they seem to be the same so far.
Ok thanks for the advice, you don’t happen to have a picture of what you did do you? I don’t quite understand where the thermal tape is around the extruder.
Thanks everyone for the responses, I am going to go through and look at everyone’s advice and then run a few experiments. Then I will post the results so that everyone can see what (hopefully) worked.
I had a similar issue on our reprap, the solution was to slightly increase the printing temperature or slow down your print speed to allow filament time to melt, aswell as increasing retraction length to 5 mm giving the hobbed bolt a little extra filament to work with reducing the amount of chew happening to a particular spot in the filament.
Hey guys, My thermistors (so -called thermocouple) came in and I replaced both of them and still getting print failures. What it turned out to be is where the MotherBoard fan plugs in, or rather where the wires go into the plug. When I jiggled/pushed/pulled on the wires and plug I could get the MB fan to stop. I just had to strip the insulation back on both wires and tighten them both down. While I was in there I added a fan on the right side panel blowing in over the motherboard. Hope I am not premature as my first print is only 47% done at this point but I THINK it’s fixed!
Was every single of your prints failing before you replaced the thermocouples and tightened the wires? I was getting sporadic failures only, could you let me know if you have any failures after you have printed a few more objects? (just to confirm this fixed it)
Andrew, here is a link to show how to replace the thermal tape, in the file there is a view of the print head from underneath, the nozzle is surrounded by kapton tape, this is the thermal tape. You can purchase this from Amazon etc.
I have the same problem, I suspect a temperature problem so I am awaiting Thermistors (Thermocouples as CTC/Wanhao calls them) to be delivered. In the Makerbot program it stops with just a generic “Print Failure” window and with RepG it just stops printing with no change in the program. Any help would sure be appriciated!
-Bill-
UPDATE: Problem Solved. see elsewhere in this discussion.
Actually the thermocouples and fan wires were 2 different problems (lucky me!). The faulty fan wires would allow a 10-15min print job but the thermocouples would throw a temp failure. Both thermocouples went out withen a week of each other and I would continue to print because when 1 went out I set the machine as a single extruder (Tool Count = 1) in the sailfish firmware. Trace your fan wires to the plug on the MB and move them around trying to get the fans to stop. If you can get them to stop, you have a problem. I am, of course refering to the MotherBoard fan and NOT the extruder fans (of which I thermal epoxied alum heatsinks w/fan on the back of the extruder stepper motors).
Ok so I stopped directing the lamp into the enclosure and I also took an old bedsheet off the top of the enclosure (which I was using to keep the heat it) and it seems (don’t wana jinx it) to have fixed it. I have run 9 prints with no stopping extruding including two 4 hour and one 13 hour print. Although now there seems to be a tiny bit less adhesion between layers but I will still keep tinkering with the settings.
Thanks to everyone for the advice and suggestions especially to @bumsarama who suggested running without the lamp.
Cheers
Andrew
EDIT
Ok so the first print I ran after this failed after about 30 mins (typical) but this was using the left nozzle (standard makerbot) and all the other prints that worked were using an upgraded nozzle on the right hand side. So I am going to try the right nozzle with the same print and see if it works
I was just having this same “notch” problem with the replicator 2x as well. Glad to see it has already been addressed. Raised the temp to 240 and am going to try it now. Excited and hopeful. Great site here!!
I seem to have the same problem .The extruder gear is eating off the filament coz of the continuous tiny movements. And it makes a notch and it is not able to extrude further , usually freezes off after 3 to 4 layers(usually the supports). Did changing the thermal sheet in the extruder work? Or reducing the temperature work? I tried to reduce the velocity of the print to 10mm/sec(from 90mm/sec) to reduce the viscosity. It did not quite work for me. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem ?
I found that my fans were installed the wrong way around, they were sucking rather than blowing onto the heatsinks, so I switched these around and also upped the temperature. Upping the temperature seemed to work. I still have the occasional failure but nowhere near as much. Also clean the extruder gear (where it is notching the filament), hopefully this works for you too.
