Extruder stepper motors failing

I have an issue that seems to be related to the extruder steppers motor. I see another post in the forum from Daniel about stepper motor replacements and it taking BL some time to deliver them. Wonderful :frowning:. I am having the same issue with a grinding noise from the extruder and it not pushing filament. Apparently replacing the motor fixes this. I do have a ticket opened. My question for BL is, if there are issues with the extruder stepper motors then has BL updated the source for better/improved motors?
Thanks.

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Hello mkblack13,

Some filaments can clog the extruder and some filaments can build up filament on the extruder teeth by chance did you take your extruder apart to inspect maybe you will get lucky and just need to clean it out.

Remove the clog in extruder

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Is it possible to make a short video of your problem, I may noticed something similar. Would appreciate it. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the reply. It is not a clog from the filament. What happens is when I load the filament into the extruder the extruder starts making a grinding noise and no filament comes out - it is not advancing the filament, just grinding away. On one print the machine kept going and the toolhead was printing nothing into thin air. I replaced the hot end with a new one out of the box and same thing. I found a thread on the BL Official FB page where someone had the same issue and BL said it was an issue with the extruder stepper motor. There were also others mentioning issues of corrosion in the motor. Also, when I took the extruder apart there was a very fine rust colored build up that is not filament residue because I had not used filament that color. The extruder teeth look fine to me. I’ve attached pics.
So anyway, I’m suspecting stepper motor because of the exact same issue that someone else had and was fixed by replacing it. My concern is if BL is using the same vendor source for the motor then can I expect that to happen again? Or have they changed to a better source?


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I would but it’s hard to hear the grinding that I’m experiencing. Check out this thread from the BL FB page, it has a video of the exact issue I am having.

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This is a photo of a new extruder gear the photo looks like the teeth have filament in them but maybe it’s just the photo image ?

Rust and corrosion in the motor that’s not good news :scream:

I don’t have Facebook but I hope you are up and running again soon :v:

I dont understand, if your filament is grinded the motor is fine no ?

Do you still have the yellow gear ball bearing ?

Agreed. The hot end is not getting hot or the route from the extruder gear to the hot end is obstructed or misaligned.

This happening with two different hot ends fresh out of the box.

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Yes, I have the yellow extruder gear. See pic above.

As I stated above, others have had this same issue and it was the extruder stepper motor. It’s not a clog or the nozzle not getting hot enough. Either of those things would be obvious. Especially if it’s happening on TWO BRAND NEW NOZZLES.
I just want to know if BL is going to ship another ■■■■ motor or if they’ve sourced a non-■■■■ motor vendor.
Waiting for someone from BL to respond.

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I talk about the ball bearing not the gear…

It is not in your picture

Clog does not always come from nozzle

Hi, I have the same problem, opened the extruder and can’t see any problem, replaced the Hotend and the problem persist, I tried to extrude without the Hotend and after a few inches I heard the clicking sound, pushed the filament and it extruded again for a few inches and started clicking again.

2 days old printer, one medium print and this happened. Do you know what kind of motor they use? I can’t wait for bl to fix it

Thanje

Open a ticket with BL. I did and they are sending me a new stepper motor. They might suggest you apply some grease to the hardened steel gears in the extruder unit so go ahead and do that anyway before you open the ticket and note in the ticket whether that worked or not (it will NOT). I suspect they have some bad extruder stepper motors. The motor they use is not available on the market. I have looked. It uses a helical gear and all other after-market motors I have found do not have that. You will have to get it from BL. I would love to find another source but I doubt there is one. I’ll attach pics.

Hey mkblack13,

Thanks for the photos and information let us all know when you are up and running again and working.

If they don’t want the old part back maybe you can take the motor apart and see what’s going on or if any good parts can be salvaged to another stepper motor for a backup.

Have a good one :v:

mkblack13, did you notice a temperature correlation? I’m having a similar issue where it’s failing at the same time in each print when it seems to reach a high temperature. My hotend is 280C and bed temp is 110C.

It looks like they are Creativity brand, same as this but with helical gear.

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I ran some more tests on my end to eliminate the AMS and other items as variables. It seems my extruder stops extruding correctly around 55-60C. For now I am turning on the chamber fan to keep running but it seems clear that I need to replace the extruder and probably improve cooling to it for longevity.

Did you try to reduce its current intensity a bit to see if that help, it should heat less.

Not yet. How do I go about changing it? I also considered reducing tension some but don’t want to modify much.