Davinci xyz anything higher than 5mm starts to click and will not extrude, not a clog, not bed level

zonerobotics

Hello All,
  I just got a brand new extrude head from xyz for the hefty price of $100 which I thought would solve all of my issues, sadly this is not the case. I wonder if anyone could give me some general tips to help because I've been working on this forever and seem to be getting no where.

Issue Details.
Cant make it through any large print
When the height of the print gets to about 5-8mm the extruder starts clicking and it prints garbage.
I have tried pla and abs filament from two different manufactures
I did not have this issue with the stock filament before I upgraded to repetier, but I also ran out of stock filament at the same time
I have a brand new nozzle/extruder from xyz, after cleaning my original hundreds of times in all different ways
I do not have the old connector that comes disconnected
I have tried tempatures between 195 and 210 all with abs, same issue varying results

I'm thinking it is a problem that accumulates after each layer, like for instance if the zlevel is just a little off each layer once you get higher and higher eventually it will be so close to the nozzle that it pushes on it and causes clicking. But this is just my latest guess.

After it clicks a little it seems to bunch up the filament where it goes into the extruder, making a sort of "head" that will cause it to not go through the extruder. So this means every time this happens I have to pull out the filament and cut then reinsert to remove the head.

Any ideas would be great before I mess up my new extruder. I think this may be more of a general problem with something i'm doing or my settings rather than XYZ or Repetier.

Thanks you !

Repetier

I had the same problem with my extruders. Works at the beginning and stops working once they are more heated up and the filament went up inside the nozzle. Solution for me was to print with lower temperature.

Since you switched from original firmware it may be that temperature curves are not identical. So same set temperatures would lead to different internal temperatures.

I would try finding out from which temperature on you can extrude fast enough for the print or just try with e.g. 10°C lower and see if you can still print and how long it lasts. This also depends on vendor and color. I have a black PLA vendor A I print with 210°C and white vendor B clogs still at 200°C and melts much earlier.

zonerobotics

Thanks Repetier,
  I have never tried to lower my temperature. Everything I read made me believe I should make it go higher. I started at 195c and just tried a print recently at 220c, it failed horribly just like the others.

  It is red PLA and I have tried most temperatures between 195 and 220. I also tried ABS at the standard 230c, but it failed the same.

  I will try a lower temperature like 190/185 and see what happens.

zonerobotics

Uhgh, not a lot of luck.

I tried 90c and the print looked perfect but before it even got through the first layer it was clicking/stuck. So I thought maybe if I just slow it down it will at least work. I made everything go at 10mm/s as per my slicer config, it did not even finish the first layer and it is now stuck clicking.

I also note it starts to be much less responsive, sometimes I get communication timeout and have to wait a very long time for the unit to "kill print" before I can do anything.

These are the things I think could be wrong ?

Filament path issues:
 There is never much tension but maybe having to pull the filament in from my home made filament holder is causing issues.

Power Supply issues:
  Maybe the power supply is intermittently failing causing the heater to go on/off

I'm going to setup and try again at 180 to see if that changes anything, and just to get closure that it is not a temperature range thing.

zonerobotics

I have hope again, looks like this might help me !

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:433113

zonerobotics

Successfully printed two things out of ABS without issue. These printers are tricky because like other complex things they can have more than one thing wrong at a time, so you rule out one thing when in fact you should not have.

I dont know how many people are using pla on this printer with repetier but it works only to a point. I think there are serious issues with the feed line getting too hot and the filament expanding there. That is really the only thing that makes sense after testing all the other stuff. So if you are using pla it is good for short quick prints with the default printer, but if you are printing for a long time you will more than likely get to a point where the filament expands in the exturder feeding tube and then starts clicking.

Good news is sounds like it can be fixed with additional cooling on the feeder tube, this guy has figured it all out

it involves adding some heat sinks and a fan shroud.

3d printing is awesome but my time is always short so I will stick with ABS for the time being I need to get some prints out to test some more of my invention.

Thanks for your help, After I print the fan shroud I may again try PLA, I will post my results back here when I do. Hope this is useful to somone, I spent a few weeks bugging with this !

Repetier

You may also try printing PETG which melts a bit higher and cools earlier so should be easier to print like PLA with your setup and does not warp like ABS and also does not have toxic fumes.

zonerobotics

I'm going to swtich back to pla I just need to add the fan shroud and extra heat sinks. But now the stupid wiring harnas has failed on my x stepper motor, going to ohm out the lines and fix that before I can print the fan shroud and such. I'm really wary of the toxic fumes.

Thanks for the recommendation, next spool I get I'll look into PETG ! And I'll post back here after I implement fan shroud and stuff.

zonerobotics

Update. I printed the "fan shroud" and switched the fan so that it pulls heat away instead of pushing air towards the heat sink on the extruder. I also retrofitted another heat sink around the tube where the extrude goes in. After all that I get pretty much the same issues. I switch back to ABS and it works fine. So this is an issue with PLA only, but PLA prints much nicer than ABS. I've got other issues with ABS related to shrinkage but at least it works.

Not sure if I can use PETG on my davinci xyz (modded). Guess I'm stuck with ABS for now. Having other issues with the printer too, the cables that go into the x axis servo are breaking and causing headaches now. Got a couple of good prints.

Repetier

You could try polymaker PolyPlus filament. They have a jamfree technology that might be good enough for your printer. Essentially it increases melting point I think to get a smaller melting zone like with abs which is why abs works for you and what the fan should improve. Anyhow for my it gives superb results. Only drawback is the heavy price, but it is worth the price.