Still Having Print Problems

[Bigdog]

Hello,

I will try to explain this as brief as I can. I had made several successful prints using the Rapide Lite white 1.75mm Filament. At the beginning of one last week things went bad. Thin wisps of extrusion starting coming out as well as the infill seemed to be skipping lines. I thought clog, tried to fix it, then broke a thermisitor. I have since replaced the thermistor and put on a new nozzle. Replaced the white spool with some Makerbot light gray 1.75mm. I turned up the heat of the extruder and heat bed a little, closer to Makerbot guidelines for their filament. Everything is heating up good, the extrusion through manual control looks good, so I pulled up a small test model from Thingiverse. The same thing happened. I took a screen shot of the printer to show the results and also several screens of my Repetier Host settings. Any thoughts of what could be going wrong would be helpful.

Thanks

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[PRIma]

Not sure but the 2nd screenshot shows that you set an Nozzle diameter of 4mm instead of 0.4mm?

[bolsoncerrado]

Sounds like an unleveled bed to me, specially if you've been messing with the nozzle head.

[BobenhamHotspur]

Not sure but the 2nd screenshot shows that you set an Nozzle diameter of 4mm instead of 0.4mm?

Sure looks like that!

[BobenhamHotspur]

Sorry to bang on about this but I would always recommend using Cura when you start using 3D printers. It might be seen by some as being not advanced enough but it's strength lies in being easy to use and difficult to get it badly wrong whereas in Repetier you can make hundreds of changes and then never find your way back to the same place to modify them, and some changes never seem to get put into action despite many attempts.

I can send you some Cura profiles if you'd like to get you going, that way we can eliminate the software as being the problem.

[Bigdog]

Hello, In response to some of the comments. When this first started it was right after a successful print. Made a print in the morning, a few hours later I had problems. I have since readjusted and leveled the bed with attachment of the new nozzle. I changed the 4mm to .4mm, still no change in the print. I tried Cura with the supplied settings from this forum and ended up with the same results. Still stumped.

[BobenhamHotspur]

Hello, In response to some of the comments. When this first started it was right after a successful print. Made a print in the morning, a few hours later I had problems. I have since readjusted and leveled the bed with attachment of the new nozzle. I changed the 4mm to .4mm, still no change in the print. I tried Cura with the supplied settings from this forum and ended up with the same results. Still stumped.

Ok at least that information indicates that it's probably not a software problem more likely under extrusion. Causes;

Poor feed from extruder - slipping wheel, damaged wiring, badly adjusted feed
Hot-end blockage - Damaged PTFE liner, foreign body, blocked nozzle
Poor quality filament

You'll need to try and eliminate one potential problem at a time. If I was forced to pick one of those I'd probably go for damaged wiring.

[Bigdog]

So the question I have is: if I run a test extrusion length through Repetier Host and it looks fine, does that rule out hot end blockage and poor feed from extruder? Or is the extrusion much different when actually printing.

[BobenhamHotspur]

So the question I have is: if I run a test extrusion length through Repetier Host and it looks fine, does that rule out hot end blockage and poor feed from extruder? Or is the extrusion much different when actually printing.

If it pulls the correct amount of filament into the extruder and the stream is nice and fluid then this would indicate that the wheel is not slipping and that the hot-end is not blocked. When printing the extrusion should be the same however if you have damaged wiring then movement of the head could cause intermittent feeding plus If you have the nozzle too close to the bed this could deform the bead of plastic making it thin and wide or possibly even stopping the flow in severe cases. Do you hear any clicking noises whilst printing?

[Bigdog]

I do not hear in any clicking noises when printing. So I guess now I need to take the extruder apart and start checking the wire connections. Learning so much, hopefully I will find the culprit.