I’ve been working with my P1S for about 9 months now. Over that time I have had an increasing number of instances where filament will stop extruding part way through a print. Sometimes jammed filament in the extruder gears, sometimes a clog in the nozzle, and sometimes there doesn’t appear to be any issue when I disassemble these parts and go to clean them. A few of my friends have the exact same printer with the same parts and run into this nowhere near as often. It happens with Silk, Matte, and standard PLA. It also happens with PETG ( though I print a lot less PETG so it’s unclear if it happens more or less with that material).
It happens with .4 nozzles (stainless steel and hardened steel) and with .6 nozzles. I got a hardened steel nozzle and the gear set to go with it because it seemed like a reasonable upgrade. I have not been experiencing this problem less since the upgrade. Maybe more.
It’s getting to the point where I’ll have a ruined print 3-4 times a week due to this. They aren’t complicated, they are pushing normal amounts of filament. I’m using default print profiles (other than the infil). Mostly .2 layer height.
I’ve tried changing nozzles, gears, filament. I’ve tried opening the door so the heat doesn’t build as much, or letting it out the top. I’ve tried keeping it closed. I don’t know what else to do. I don’t want to print anything that takes more than 3 hours at this point because there’s such a high likelihood of failure. I have 2 AMS units which seems like the stupidest thing I’ve ever purchased in my life at this point. I don’t feel like I should bother with multicolored prints since they take longer and use extra filament. I weighed it and I’ve gone through more than 2kg of lost projects because of this exact reason.
Please help me makerworld community - your me only hope.
It sounds like you have done significant tests and even changed hardware.
I haven’t experienced the level of problems you have, so, I can’t offer any solid suggestions you haven’t already done.
I would recommend two things though:
Create a ticket, provide evidence and see if BL will have any good ideas.
Wait for someone else with better ideas to chip in, this community has many great people with different levels of exposure to the issues you have experienced.
Take a look at the lengths of PTFE tubing. If they haven’t been changed in 9 months then they could be worn. This will cause problems when loading etc and could lead to jams.
Thanks for the suggestion! Is there a good method for determining if ptfe tubing is damaged other than just looking at it and seeing if anything looks weird? I did change it out when I installed my second AMS a little over a month ago but I’ll look again.
Though I’ve not had anywhere near that many problems it seems that in most cases where I have what I perceive to be a jam it’s really a piece of broken filament. I recently lost a 38 hour print at hour 33 when the filament spool ran out and had to change to a new one - and as it did so the very tip of the new filament snapped as it entered the extruder. From there it did a layer of air printing and ruined the whole thing.
Of course it took me quite some time of trying to clear what I thought was a clog in the nozzle before I finally found the piece of filament in the extruder. And it still baffles me why the filament behind it can’t just push it right on through when that happens. Especially considering that it’s always still perfectly aligned and some of the time I can simply give the filament a bit of a push myself as the extruder turns and it does push it through.
That said, I do currently have a nozzle jam that has me totally baffled. I had a print bite it about a week ago with what is definitely a nozzle jam. Brand new nozzle with not even 10 hours of print time. On that one it would randomly stop extruding then start back randomly. Overall it would extrude for maybe 10-15 seconds perfectly normally then stop for about that long before starting back. I completely disassembled my extruder, loaded multiple different filaments, tried a new spool of the original filament (Sunlu PETG CF), did about 20 cold pulls, etc. Then as soon as I tried putting my old nozzle back on the problem was gone. And after several more combined hours I still cannot clear that jam from that nozzle and it still spurts out filament just like normal, instantly stops and then starts back when it’s ready to.
As far as the PTFE tubing in my experience, I had a slight kink at some point in one of my lines that I never even noticed before it was unkinked, though examining it made it obvious what had happened as it had the clearly distinct white distortion in the tube where the kink had been. PLA was working fine but when I changed to PETG it wouldn’t extrude well at all. In the process of elimination I found that if I manually pushed the filament through the tube it would get noticabely “snug” feeling when it reached a certain spot in the tube - and that’s when I found the telltale signs of the prior kink. Of course I blamed the cat for kinking it, but it may well have really been me.
Thank you for the insight, and helping me identify potential ptfe tube issues.
I’ve had bits of filament broken off in the extruder as well. Now every time I go to clear a nozzle jam I also disassemble the extruder to check. That specific issues has only happened 2-3 times over the last several months.
I frequently end up with what you are describing as a layer of air printing (or several). That’s the most common result of these jams. Once that starts though it almost never go back to extruding filament again. Once it stops working - it stops. I have to disassemble everything, do a cold pull, then I clean out the remaining filament with a nozzle needle or just heat it up and let it drip out.
No, not really. It’s easy to overshoot and over diagnose something like that. I suggesst taking off the piece that runs to the hotend and looking at the inner diameter. If it’s enlongated or the walls are very thin, replace it.
Always troubleshoot the easiest thing first. If your PTFE is fine, then try drying filament. There’s no image to go off of so it could be that. If filament is dry, then I’d check for debris in the extruder. A lot of dust builds up inside and periodically needs to be cleaned out with canned air or break down and clean everything.
Another easy thing is heat creep. If you’re printing with th etop closed and the door closed this could be the culprit. Would show up during medium to long prints. Open both when printing PLA or PETG.
Good places to start. Don’t replace parts (other than PTFE) until after doing these first.
Thanks. I’ve tried opening and closing the top and the door and no combination of those things has made enough of a difference to be noticeable over time. I checked ever section of the ptfe tubing and could find no signs of damage or wear. They all look pretty much the same as the brand new tube I have. I didn’t mention this before but I always dry my filament. I’ve blasted compressed air through the extruder and on the individual pieces after disassembly.
These are all great suggestions, and I’ve done them all.
As far as what it looks like I guess I’ll try to figure out how to get a useful picture the next time it happens. The prints look perfect and then no more filament comes out so you get exposed infill and no top. The stuff that finishes almost always looks exactly how I want it to.
There is a guy reported that he had a loosen extruder motor connector. Yours maybe the same. Probably reseat the connector, put a bit of glue to help it stay.
Anyhow, video and sound will tell a tale much better than pictures.
Just like how mechanic would detect car engine problem by just hear it.
It sounds normal, and looks normal except for the lack of filament coming out. Imagine if the filament ran out and the printer didn’t stop. That’s what it looks like.
The motor connect is in snugly. Gluing it in place is not something I’m going to do - as I need to be able to remove it for maintenance.
I’m either completely misunderstanding which part you are talking about gluing - or I’m incredibly confused as to how you’d easily remove it when you need to take it off.
Everything in my p1s print head that is removable needs to be so that parts can be changed. Everything that doesn’t need to be able to be removed is already securely in place.
The inside of your your X1C isn’t comparable with the inside of my P1S based on this picture and what mine looks like. I’m confused.
I just steal a picture from the internet to make example that: those JST connector like that one MUST be glued when used in vibrating environment. Glueing or bolting down connector is common practice and glue is cheaper than having bolts to hold connector in place.
Anyhow. This is the correct connector I am talking about the extruder motor connector (pink arrow)
Any updates of this issue? I’m eliminating the same behaviour with my machine. Just a randrom clogs. Change ptfe, nozzle, extruder motor, dry filament. I don’t know what to do. The symptoms almost the same with yours.