Extruder making clicking noise

[scottyblue77]

I have a new scenario, i changed the nozle, calibrate again and print a perfect calibration cube from the sd card the one, then i make a stress test, 5 objects with support material. The print runns 3 hours very exact and really good, but the suddenly the filement get out too slow for the fast move of the printer (normal settings like them from ethan) and additional the clicking noise. Hotend was fine by 210 C and i not really now why it happen such adhoc during the print.

The old nozle was nearly burned out, therefore i changed it, the new nozle 0.3 runns fine directly, no clicking nothing, fast extrusion of filament, but now after 3 hours printing the nozle is not able to extrude as fast as before....

[scottyblue77]

Possible the filament humidity was not really good, perhabs to cold ? Or i will try to slow down the second fan for cooling the uppon hotend ?

[mondo]

I've been getting the clicking as well. today tried a few things to investigate. lastvthing a tried was putting in a fresh nozzle. Bingo, back to smooth extrusion. did abit of googling on nozzles and looks like its not uncommon for extrusion printers. over time it seems a buildup of plastic further up the nozzle such that the upper end isnt totally melted starts to increase the friction.

looks like a few remedies suggested
1 take nozzle off (unscrew while hot) and if ABS soak in acetone
2 take nozzle off and heat plastic with blowtorch till plastic chard and remove , repeat as needed then use thin wire or needle to clean out hole, being carefull not to scratch the surface that could itself create more friction
3 ease the pressure of the drive wheel of the filament and manually feed in heated hot end then pull out and repeat to try and pull out the excess blockage.

Havent tried any of these yet as I had a spare 0.4 nozzle. but will give them ago sometime soon.

[bolsoncerrado]

It's weird that just 1 week of use needs nozzles to be replaced already... Im assuming you've been using the PLA supplied with the printer? or another one?

I'm also curious if it would be a good idea to have same size nozzles but for different materials as, for example, there's "food compatible" filaments, UV filaments, wood filaments and even "metal" filaments!

[scottyblue77]

Yes pla supported one, i have now the second nozzle which let slow down the filament flow by 210 C and PLA filament, bed temp 60

[mondo]

I'm using ABS at the moment, supplied with rapide. I don't have any other types at the moment but have a sample set on the way including wood, metal fill and various plastics including flexible. Got them here, http://www.globalfsd.com/. Each sample is 5m so probably not enough to see if it causes blockage but at least can see how they behave.

[Joao]

Hello

I had the same problem and fixed it (temporarily) by changing the parameters:
- head temperature = 220ºC (before 190º)
- max speed = 50 mm/s (before 60)

But this was temporarily only. After 1 hour working perfectly well, it stopped extruding again...

I got my printer yesterday evening and the very first attempt was successful with the lower temperatures.
When starting to print the second time the symptoms were the same as many people on this thread: the extruder is unable to push the filament through the head.

Before testing increasing the temperature I did all the following:
1- straightened the filament because I felt it was too curved and making much attrition in the transparent hose;
2- unscrew and screw the L-arm trying to find an ideal tension;
3- removed the head and verified that the cogwheel was correct aligned (yes, it was);
4- removed the filament and verified that no obstructions in the head (I could even see through pointing to a light spot);

I don't have an IR thermometer but I also believe that the temperature is getting lower over time.
But the software is getting a consistent value from the sensor...

I'm looking forward to see what others are testing to fix this:
1- test other filaments
2- confirm the temperature with IR thermometers

I don't know if there are other options...

[sm0orb]

An idea regarding sinking temp with same reading. Can it be so that the temp reading is not only affected by the temp in the extruder tip but also by the temp in the base. The base will get hotter after some time on, so if there is a reference of some sort there it will give a changed reading. Someone with proper measuring equipment willing to test ?

[Maindog]

Did a bit of googling on this as I've had the same issue - prints fine for the first hour or so and then the extruder begins to struggle with clicking until it finally fails completely - even though the temperature trend in the extruder is fine. Most plausible explanation I've come across is to do with the filament retract settings - if the layout of the object is forcing a lot of retract actions the heated filament is being dragged up the tube, bringing heat with it. After a while the filament entry tube gets too hot and the filament starts to melt higher up the tube than it's supposed to, leading to a 'hydraulic jam'. Apparently this is more likely to occur the faster your retract rate is set to.

You can try disabling retract first to see if that solves the issue, then gradually introduce slower retract settings if you want to retain that function for print quality.

Unfortunately I'm yet to test this myself, as I've (disappointingly ) managed to damage the wires on the hot end thermistor - have to wait until a new one arrives, no telling how long that will take this time of year!

[Broome]

I had the same issues with my extruder, suddenly it stopped working. After hours of fiddeling with the settings without any change. I took it apart and aligned the feedeing wheel as suggested here in the board, and now it works. My feeding wheel was misaligned with appr. 3-4 mm and when aligned properly the filament is really easy to push into the little hole for the hot end. So one thing to check before you take the extruder apart, because it is a pain; is to see if you are able to push the filament into the hot end hole without fiddeling.