Follow these steps and test after each to see if your extrusion is fixed
1. Make sure you have Printrbot’s .ini profile file for your specific maching loaded into Cura. Using Cura’s default setting can cause this problem.
2. Check the tension on the extruder.
3. Attempt to clean out the hot end with some fishing wire or a long needle.
4. Increase the extrusion multiplier in Cura.
5. UPDATE US. This is important, nobody who posts topics ever seems to reply saying that their issue has been resolved
Also are you printing directly from your computer through USB or are you using a host like Octopi? Sometimes the host for sending the Gcode commands can be too slow and can cause this problem. Try printing directly from Cura through USB.
To me looking at the photo it almost looks like the nozzle is too close to the print bed causing the nozzle to drag across the print and lifting what has already been put down.
Don’t mess with the wires that’s a good way to wreak the stepper driver But it is a good possibility that the driver is already damaged. test the wires with a meter then Maybe swap the driver with another one
Is the wooden version with the wood extruder? Because it has a lot of issues, make sure that your nozzle is clean and do some extrusions test before each print, try to change the extruder head for a alu head because it works better for pushing the plastic. If nothing works, check all the electronics, maybe something doesnt work well.
Good luck, i have a printrbot simple, i always have something new to learn about these machines lol!
Interesting…! My motor doesn’t click - it only moves too slowly. But that could be related to the hot end of course… I think I’m going to take my hot end apart and completely clean it. I live in Europe so ordering a new one from the US is somewhat expensive - but a good plan B Thanks for sharing!
Curious that the cleaning the old (removing debris) one didn’t had an effect, but buying a new one had. What do you think is the reason for that? Didn’t your hot end got hot enough?
Oh, forgot to tell; I got the Alu upgrade. I bought it in the hope it would resolve the same issue I had back than. It did, but only till now ^^
I think I’g going to clean out the hot end and nozzle again.
I have my Printrbot quite some time now and I’ve to say that Printrbot doesn’t seem to stand for sustainability and reliability but it’s perfect for a ongoing hobby project (what also could be fun ^^)
I’ve some knowledge of electronics. I have’t meshed with the wires. It there would be a faulty connection the motor would not rotate (completely) and I would see this happening when It retracts (witch it does how it should) or when I extrude manually.
okay, if this is PLA, you should be using Blue Tape… If it’s ABS, is the bed hot enough? Not directly related, I know, but just to clarify.
This looks like the Jr V2 with the Aluminium Extruder upgrade and I have worked with one of these for ages and they’re quite stable. Have you tried different sliced models? do you have some previously sliced GCODE that you can try and print with?
The first layer does normally print slower, but parts of the print look okay, apart from a little squashed and not sticking particularly well (which is why I asked the first question).
Run the GCODE command M503 and check the line beginning M92. The value for E should be in the 93-96 region. If it is, then the motor should be turning as it should.
Physically, check the screw is not overtight and the temperature not too cold. I normally make sure there is enough tension to provide friction, but not overly tight as the drive gear will start to dig into the filament.
A few ideas there, you may find more answers on help.printrbot.com 2 or by opening a support ticket if you get really stuck
Yeah, it still could be the issue even if your motor doesn’t tick. The ticking is from heavy resistance that overpowers the motor.
I’m still not sure what the exact cause was. I’m leaning towards temperature issues though because it’s as if the melt zone never reached the tip anymore. I cleaned the crap out of that thing and it still jammed so I can’t think of what else it would have been.
When it got to it’s worst, there was a weird symptom when it got jammed. I wouldn’t be able to feed it by hand unless I pulled the filament out, trimmed it flush and reinserted it. That made me thing the tip wasn’t getting hot enough anymore and the filament was solidifying at the tip. So when printing rafts and simple parts, it would print fine because the flow was constant. The jams would start when there was constant retracting in the print process - so the filament at the tip just sat there and solidified.
My issues started when I used a new spool of filament that I just so happened to buy on eBay. I can’t prove it was the cause and it might have only been a coincidence. Needless to say, I threw that spool out just in case. With that spool, I had a bad print which somehow caused the print to detach and stick to my nozzle. This saturated the fiberglass sock with plastic and may have contributed to my issue. I tried flipping it around to see if the heat was being released too fast, but it didn’t help. It’s possible some plastic got up to the thermistor but I haven’t checked yet. One person in another thread suggested that I hadn’t screwed the tip on all the way. Thing is my issues started before ever messing with the tip. I could have made it worse by doing that though. Also, when you disassemble, make sure you have some spare ptfe tape for the tip. They use it on the threads.
