Anyone into 3D printing?
- Thread starter Mouse
- Start date
Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
My printer has been acting up, prints have lost consistency and have weak spots in them. Tried printing the spool I modeled for Unstuck and it looks like this before it stopped printing... Listening to the printer it sounds like the filament is stuck like a clogged nozzle, I switched out the nozzle and it doesn't seem to help.
In this print the bottom is honeycombed then in the middle it acts solid before it goes back to honeycomb and spongy before it stopped printing. The printer is over 5 years old (ender 3). Hot end issue? Filament issue? Power supply issue? What would you do at this point?
In this print the bottom is honeycombed then in the middle it acts solid before it goes back to honeycomb and spongy before it stopped printing. The printer is over 5 years old (ender 3). Hot end issue? Filament issue? Power supply issue? What would you do at this point?
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Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
I replaced the feeder gear, old one was a bit worn but new hasn't changed printing.
Crunchy prints for us on the ender 3 were 90% of the time bowden tube. 10% fan issue.
I probably went through a metric mile of bowden tube on those printers over the last 4-5 years. I'd always just swap the nozzle at the same time, so probably 500 nozzles. When we switched to the ender v3 direct drive (think ke is the current one), problems vanished. Those printers almost never had an issue. 2 years on the same nozzle and fans, and no bowden tubes. They are 100x more reliable.
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Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
Ya, probably. Or just $10 worth of capricorn bowden tube. If you haven't replaced it, it's easy. Make sure the end that goes into the extruder is cut very square. Heat the hot end up, pull out the old tube and take out the nozzle. Push the new tube through to clear out any gunk..repeat until gunk free. Put in nozzle until snug, then back off 1/4 turn. Push in bowden tube until it hits the nozzle, then tighten the nozzle down so it really seats against the bowden tube.
I've heard the retrofitted direct drive hot ends need to run slower due to the weight of the assembly being greater than the machine was engineered for.
My experience is different since I was spending 10 hours per week working on printers, but the newer units, for us, were so much more reliable that I wouldn't put any time or money into the old ones. $30 and an hour of time to upgrade an old machine, or $169.99 for a brand new machine with direct drive and a lot of other built in upgrades. There was no fun in working on machines for me, so the choice would be easy.
Honestly, I have a couple of these newer direct drive units mothballed here if you wanted to borrow one to see how she feels.
I've heard the retrofitted direct drive hot ends need to run slower due to the weight of the assembly being greater than the machine was engineered for.
My experience is different since I was spending 10 hours per week working on printers, but the newer units, for us, were so much more reliable that I wouldn't put any time or money into the old ones. $30 and an hour of time to upgrade an old machine, or $169.99 for a brand new machine with direct drive and a lot of other built in upgrades. There was no fun in working on machines for me, so the choice would be easy.
Honestly, I have a couple of these newer direct drive units mothballed here if you wanted to borrow one to see how she feels.
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Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
Thanks Cody, I swapped out the bowden tube and nozzle and I'm back to printing like it should. The end of the tube that goes to nozzle had a small hole in it and the end looks like it's been hot.
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
I had a quadlock mount printed and glued it to a strong magnet so I can stick my phone to my tool box in the shop.
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
