Extruder making clicking noise

[Joao]

The extruder was working well since a few days ago when I did those changes: placed reel above (@joelcwe I will post photos later), removed plastic tube, head temp 220C.

Today the extruder stopped working again!

When I went to bed last night I left the printer doing a job. It was already 4mm high with 0.1mm each layer and everything was running smoothly.
I wake up and I found the printer still working but nothing coming out of the extruder and it had stopped at around the same 4mm high when I left.
The only thing that I did before leaving the room was to turn off the room heating.
The room went from 21C down to 10C.
I don't know if this was a coincidence or not but I have a feeling that the head is not hot or strong enough to compensate the filament ambient temperature.
I will run some more tests later evening.

Did anyone noticed any problem related with the room temperature influencing the extrusion?

[BobenhamHotspur]

@Broome - novel solution you found there! It is possible to adjust the screw but you would need to disassemble the print head more in order to reach it. I hope your solution works over the long run as options are always good.

[Broome]

@BobenhamHotspur I have completely disassembled the extruder three times. But now I opted for the solution of flipping the pulley. It seems to me that since when flipped and levelled with the shaft; it perfectly aligns with the hole for the hot end, this is the way it is supposed to be assembled. Could it be that they made made a mistake when designing the plate?

try it!

[joelcwe]

The extruder was working well since a few days ago when I did those changes: placed reel above (@joelcwe I will post photos later), removed plastic tube, head temp 220C.

Today the extruder stopped working again!

When I went to bed last night I left the printer doing a job. It was already 4mm high with 0.1mm each layer and everything was running smoothly.
I wake up and I found the printer still working but nothing coming out of the extruder and it had stopped at around the same 4mm high when I left.
The only thing that I did before leaving the room was to turn off the room heating.
The room went from 21C down to 10C.
I don't know if this was a coincidence or not but I have a feeling that the head is not hot or strong enough to compensate the filament ambient temperature.
I will run some more tests later evening.

Did anyone noticed any problem related with the room temperature influencing the extrusion?

Tropical climate here. room temperature is relatively constant so I cant really comment on that.
Anyway, I tried with the spool laying down on its side and let it unravel by itself. Seems to be working rather well as the filament skipping is gone. Might be a good idea if your spool is still full.Tried this with make: 2015 retraction test(fine_positive_features.stl) http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:533472/, and it prints beautifully. Will try higher prints tomorrow.

[BobenhamHotspur]

i had print issues as well. It prints fine for the first few centimeters where there is slack between the extruder and spool. However, once the slack finishes, the extruder starts skipping and plastic does not get extruded smoothly.

Can someone post pics on how you set up your printer and spool holder? @Joao, some pics on the location of your spool with respect to your printer would be helpful.
Thanks.

Maybe you could make this to help with feeding the filament
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:508896

[bolsoncerrado]

What escapes from any understanding is how can Rapide print continuously for 7 days with 10 printers and ours have so many extruding problems... and even requiring building and inverting pieces here and there.... Something is wrong somewhere....

[Joao]

More information about the extruder clicking sound.

I was very frustrated today about a large failed print.
Because of that I decided to investigate every single possible detail.
I thought it was going to take longer but I managed to replicate immediately the problem, and it is not related with the heating head as it was assumed many times!

I did the following:
1- Detached the head from the XZ wing;
2- Opened the cover of the wheel;
3- Triggered the extruder motor to work.

The motor started working normally.
But when I picked up the head while it was moving, the motor stopped suddenly.
I triggered the extrude command again and it didn't start.
Restarted the printer (turned off, waited a few seconds, then on again) and connected.
The extruding command worked again.
But now the motor started doing the same ticking sound moving quickly back and forward, without anything touching it.

This is definitely a factory fault of the motor or the controller.

I'm going to send an email to support@rapide-3d.com with the video, this explanation, and pointing to this forum thread showing that many people are also facing the same issue.

You can see the video here:
https://plus.google.com/112766494507...ts/QPLvtG2u47F

[BobenhamHotspur]

Wow, that video seems clear cut, there's definitely a fault in there somewhere.

[synthius]

Joao, Can you move the motor by hand? is there any uneven resistance? I hope the bearings have not gone bad already.

[Joao]

Yes I can move the wheel by hand when the motor is off and it gives some resistance, the same resistance like the other motors of the X and Y axis.