First I'd like to say thanks to everyone for looking at these posts and trying to help, and sorry to anyone who may be annoyed. Trust me, I'm not happy either.
I'm jumping back and forth between making this write up and recreating the clog by hand feeding filament into the hotend. This test was already performed earlier today and I got the same clog as I have been, so the extruder can be removed from the list of possible culprits. Anyways, here's the steps I'm following:
1. Verify temperatures are within acceptable range
This is my temp chart upon starting the printer. I used a thermal laser to test both nozzle and bed and they were within the range of accuracy of the laser. The laser is not accurate enough to get a good reading on the heat block; however, a few drops of water on the heat block boils within seconds when the temp is set to 100C, whereas at 90C it does nothing, so the nozzle is accurate at least to this temp.
2. Assemble hot end
This is what my hotend assembly looks like without the nozzle or bowden tube. It should be noted that my printer has been modified such that the bowden tube going from the extruder is fed all the way through the heat sink to the nozzle, rather than having a fixed tube inside the heat break. I understand that this modification itself could introduce the issue I'm facing, but the issue started before the mod was done, so I don't think it is the cause.
Nozzle cleaned with blow torch and wire brush.
Underside of the heat block. The picture makes the threads look a lot worse than they actually are, in the photo it looks like some sort of gunk or shavings are at the end but after inspecting the block and scrubbing it with a wire brush there isn't anything there. The nozzle also threads in without any issue.
With the heat block at 100C, I first loosely attach the nozzle, then insert the Bowden tube so its against the nozzle. Since I'm hand feeding filament, I'm only using ~10cm of tubing. For photographing purposes, I put a small notch on the tube at the top of the coupling (not visible in this photo). Then, with the coupling depressed, I finger tighten the nozzle, pushing the tube out slightly.
Here you can see that the nozzle is not getting tightened against the heat block (the small gap between the face of the nozzle and block); this verifies the nozzle is flush against the heat break.
I've circled the notch mentioned previously - this shows that the nozzle was indeed pushing the tube out of the coupling, and should verify that there is no space in between the bowden tube and the nozzle inside the heat break. With all this verified, I use a wrench to tighten the nozzle ~1/4 of a turn without depressing the tube coupling. This should ensure a tight mate between the tube and nozzle. I also put another mark on the tube at the coupling to make sure it does not move during the test, and reinstalled the fan shroud.
3. Hand feed filament
I'm quite frustrated because at the time of typing this I've repeated the above steps twice now, because when I went to hand feed the filament it instantly became clogged and I was not able to get any good data, but finally on the third attempt I've got a solid clog. I'm waiting for the hotend to cool off so I can remove it and get some pictures. Meanwhile, I'll explain that the hotend was heated to 200C and I hand fed some filament through it. As stated, the first two times it clogged instantly, but even when I was able to get filament to run on the third try it was incredibly difficult, when it has always been very easy to hand feed PLA at this temp. (When I did this test earlier, I tried increasing the temp to 240C, which made it a little easier to feed and prolonged the clogging slightly, but ultimately ended the same.) Eventually, it got to the point where I was almost breaking the filament trying to force it through, until I couldn't get any more to go at all. I'd guess this was maybe 20cm of filament.
Hotend is cooled off, I managed to removed the nozzle, clog, and bowden tube all in one piece so that is awesome. This is exactly what I've been experiencing over and over again:
A clog forming between the nozzle and bowden tube, filling the diameter of the heat break.
The Bowden tube has been pushed out of the coupling by about the thickness of the clog. It should be noted that the coupling was actually replaced a few weeks prior to the problem starting, but I've since tested both another new coupling as well as the one that was originally replaced, and all three behave the same. I can also support most of the printer's weight by pulling up on the Bowden tube. Thus, I believe the slipping coupling to be a symptom rather than the cause.
This is what my heat block looks like after I repeated the test with some gray PLA. (A different nozzle as well as a different coupling was used for this test.) I noticed when putting the nozzle back on that it was really difficult to do so, and it seems like this could be why: filament making its way into the threads during the clog. (I guess my previous statement of the block being cleaner than it looked was probably false...) During earlier testing, I've soaked and torched the heat block to make sure this buildup wasn't causing the clogging, but again it seems to be a symptom rather than the cause.
The two clogs on the left are from earlier tests using the printer's extruder, the two on the right are from tonight's hand fed tests; note the difference in thickness of the clogs, the extruder is much more capable of pushing through the clog than I am which results in the clog getting much larger before failure. It should be reinstated that this exact result is prevalent across multiple filaments and nozzles. I was not able to get such clear results of what was happening when I had the all metal heat break(s) installed, and unfortunately I don't have the time tonight to swap one in, but it was clogging with more or less the same behavior, so I'd have to assume it was clogging between the Bowden tube and heat break. Before the hotend was modified, all of the common steps were taken to verify the internal bowden tube was functioning properly, and the bowden tube installed now is probably the third one that I've cut off of a brand new Capricorn tube since this problem began. I'm considering re-modifying the hotend to work how it did stock, but again it was clogging when it was set up the original way so I don't think this is the issue. I'll probably try it out tomorrow if nothing else gets me anywhere,
I have to go to bed before I can continue any more testing, but I'll get back to any comments or advice as soon as I can tomorrow. Yesterday was the first day I managed to pull one of those perfect clogs out, now that they've been coming out consistently like that I feel I'm much closer to finding the problem than before. Please let me know if anything needs to be clarified or if I missed anything, my hope is this thread (and my suffering) might help someone with a similar issue.
Hi all. This is an update to this post. I don't know what else the community can do to help, but I figured I'd throw some more content up there and give something bored people to look at.
Since the last update on that post, I tried working on the printer in freezing temperatures (not really but it's cold in this house) with extremely precise practices on assembling the hot end (the same hot end I had haphazardly assembled dozens of times and printed with zero issues) and yielded zero progress. Today, I tried a brand new PTFE lined heat break, along with a brand new Capricorn Bowden tube (I already had one but I needed more tubing for the heat break). Clogging in the same exact way in roughly the same amount of time as every other attempt. It's as if I've not tried anything, literally nothing is effecting the results.
I considered ordering a fancy micro-swiss or ed3 hot end, but at this point, including the stock hardware, I've gone through 6 heat breaks, 3 heat blocks, a half dozen nozzles and a foot of Bowden tubing, none of which did anything to fix my problem (or even make it worse). I would look to the extruder, but I outlined in the previous post the testing I did to rule that out (able to run >1m of filament at high and low speeds through the Bowden tube).
I'm at the end of my wits. Perfectly good printer cranking out multiple high detail prints a day, now completely useless over something so stupid as clogging. Where the hell else can I look? Could it possibly be some sort of software/firmware issue, where Klipper isn't sending or receiving the right commands or something? I know my slicer settings are at least good enough because I've tried both prints that have completed dozens of times as well as new prints with drastically reduced retraction. Do steppers need to be tuned over time? I don't think it makes sense that after a year it'd suddenly become so uncalibrated it's unusable, and when I tried calibrating it before I was just unknowingly calibrating against mild clogs, but I don't know where else to look.
Hi everyone, I'm having constant clogging issues with my printer that sprung up out of nowhere. I'm running out of things to test.
The printer had been running several prints a day for several days when I decided to change nozzles for one print. Ever since then (~2 weeks ago) i have not completed a single print, due to clogging. I have tried:
Replacing the PTFE tubing in my hotend.
Replacing the nozzle. (I've used a handful of nozzles, all with the same results)
Trying different filament.
Replacing the hot end with an all metal hot end, trying three different heat breaks from two manufacturers.
Removing the printer from its enclosure to ensure proper cooling.
Adjusting extrusion tensioner.
All the other basic obvious stuff like making sure there's no blockages anywhere (whole hot end and nozzles have been soaked in acetone, torched, brushed etc).
The printer will seem to work fine for a little while before either slowly failing to extrude until it completely jams, or it completely jams all at once. I don't think it's heat creep, because I tried setting the nozzle to printing temp, letting it sit for half an hour or so and running filament through it and it had no issue, whereas prints usually start to fail within the first 10 minutes. It also doesn't have anything to do with my print settings because I'm able to get it to clog sometimes by just running the extrude command.
I'm completely at a loss here. I don't know what else to try. Does anyone have anywhere else for me to look?
Update: I tried detaching the heat block from the rest of the printer and running filament through the (cold) heat break, and it got clogged. There was a small bit of filament adhered to the inside of the heat break. So it's apparent that's where the clog is forming, it's just a matter of finding out why it's happening. Everything seems to point towards heat creep, but even when I intentionally try to heighten the conditions that to cause heat creep I can't intentionally replicate the clog. I'll keep experimenting down that route, though.
Update 2: After clearing that clog, I noticed the short piece of Bowden tube between the top of the heat break and the top of the heat sink was slightly too short. I modified the heat sink to bypass this short piece altogether; the Bowden tube now goes directly from the extruder into the heat sink to the top of the heat break. I also applied a thin layer of thermal paste to the outside of the heat break to ensure good contact/ heat transfer with the heat sink.
After doing all of this, I ran a PID tune and, with my AC set to lower than average, started extruding filament. After extruding ~300mm of filament, I tried a few nozzle and filament swaps using very careful techniques to avoid leaving any residue. I'm able to pull the filament out in a solid piece to where I can see light through the nozzle afterwards. Then, finally, out of the blue, the clicking returns. Another clog. I wasn't able to remove the filament as cleanly this time to inspect the clog, but I'm strongly suspecting heat creep at this point, despite going above and beyond to mitigate it. It's quite late though and I've got work tomorrow so it'll have to wait until then.
Hi guys, I've dove into the klipper scene with my Neptune 3 and am having a really odd issue.
When I first got klipper/ Fluidd set up, I tried loading the interface in my browser (Chrome) and got an all white screen. At first I thought it just failed to connect, or the process wasn't running, but then noticed the tab was named "Fluidd". I spent an hour or two reinstalling things over and over before I decided to try a different browser (Edge). It loaded up just fine. I pulled it up in Firefox and spent a while configuring it. I had to reinstall the Pi's OS a few times, but each time Fluidd came up in Firefox without issue but failed to load in chrome.
Now, suddenly, it is failing to load in Firefox, but continues to load in Edge. Below is a screenshot from my PC with all three browsers with the same address typed into the bar, with only Edge loading for some reason... Does anyone have any clue what could be causing this? It also loads on the Chrome app on my phone.
Hi all. Yesterday, my printer stopped responding to commands from the touch screen, so I shut the printer off and turned it back on. Now, the printer and screen turn on (power fan spins and screen backlight comes on), but the screen does not display anything, and the printer cannot be reached via USB. Multiple power outlets and cables have been tried, and all cables inside the main chassis are securely connected except for the Z- cable (which has been replaced by a BLTouch). There is a single red LED on the motherboard that lights up when the machine is powered on. Does anyone have any ideas how I can try to diagnose this? I've sent an email to elegoo, but I've heard it can take weeks to get a response, and I'm trying to get things ready for a DnD campaign starting this weekend.. thanks for any tips.
Edit: for anyone finding this post looking for help, you're SOL. Elegoo responded to me, and after sending them a couple pictures, they've determined my motherboard to be dead, and are not willing to provide a free replacement since I'm just outside of warranty. Now I'm torn between getting a new motherboard (waiting on a quote from them) or just saving for a better printer.
Edit 2: after some very light complaining, Elegoo is making right and sending me a new motherboard free of charge.
When clicking on links in comments, I wish that instead of opening the link immediately it would give a sort of context menu so you can at least see where the link goes to or maybe copy/ share the link.
It's incredibly annoying clicking on embedded links to YouTube/ other apps, getting yanked out of Boost and having to close the video, back out of YouTube, reopen Lemmy... All for a link I never would've opened had I been able to see it.
Noticed this the other day, if you upvote a post without opening it, it will be marked as read on a refresh. I upvote posts in c/asklemmy that have an interesting question, but not many comments, so that I'll remember to open them later, but I noticed posts I never opened were being flagged as read when I went looking for these posts.
After ~450 hours in the game, I realized something that I'd been wanting was in the game the whole time, just not explicitly: a way to put your items into "folders".
I often wondered what the purpose was of placing empty backpacks and pouches throughout the game and making them show up in the alt-view. I figured they had items in them at different difficulties or previous versions, or they were simply there for aesthetics (I think most likely option). It only just occurred to me that I could pick them up and store items in them to sort out my stupid long inventory lists.
Gale has a backpack with all his little scrolls. Lae'zel has a backpack that somehow holds 20 daggers, 12 javelins and a spear. And astarion has a pouch with with enough magical arrows to make the Fat Man look like a firecracker. Now the stuff I actually plan on using is much easier to find.
Hello, this is a small QOL change that I think would be useful.
Right now, if someone responds to a post or comment, I will get a notification. When you open the app via the notification, it takes you to your inbox, but defaults to the second tab, "mentions", rather than the primary tab "replies" (where most of my notifications come from).
I think it would be great if opening the notification would take you to the corresponding tab. Of course there's the issue of having responses in multiple tabs; maybe the app could take you to the tab of the most recent or the oldest notification, or there could be a setting to choose which tab is displayed by default.
I'm enjoying the app so far, keep up the good work!
@papalonian
@lemmy.world