So this morning, on AMS 1 (AMS 2 Pro) we were having feeding issues out of slot 3. I was in the other room when I heard my wife wonder wth was happening. I come in and Filament is just shooting out from behind the AMS. No problem, maybe the PTFE tube had come out (no idea why) but no the PTFE was intact.
I use intact as in, it was locked into place. What was actually happening was a red flag that I am behind on maintenance with that unit. I had been distracted and ignoring it, thinking I’ll get to it at some point.
The PTFE had worn through the tube enough to escape and run amok. No big deal, easy to stop easy to fix. However I felt stupid. This machine doesn’t use any filled filament so I hadn’t given much thought to keep it up with the other AMS’s that do. A mistake I won’t make again. The kicker, I knew the feeding issues we had were from worm ptfe, just didn’t think it was that bad.
Always do your maintenance. Remember PTFE is consumable.
This was the external feeder tube? Or inside the AMS?
Anyone have schedule of some sort (print time, filament used, whatever) they adhere to in terms of replacing tubes? Or just visual inspection mostly? I realize the type of filament will also make a difference… and bend radius and I’m sure other factors. Just curious about ballpark stats.
The AMS wiki maintenance page helpfully suggests “checking regularly” which is well and good for the external tube, but seems a tad less convenient for the internals. Then again I just skimmed the feeder mechanism cleaning procedure while I was in there… I guess convenience isn’t a top priority of the design…
Was the easiest to get to, the run from the AMS to the P1 buffer. I mean, took me more time to dig out the PTFE stores than to cut and change it.
I usually do it around every two weeks when running hard, a month at a time when we are idle. There’s no set time. I really think I often wait until I have a feeding issue before I get off my butt and check them. When I check though I check the whole run.
Probably because the AMS is such a pain to get to the internal. I usually figure if the run out needs to be changed at least one of the internal need it. The AMS 2 is nice, quick. I like that upgrade. When I do the old AMS I usually do the whole nine yards, check motor, all 4 tubes, look for any grinding or whatever. It get’s easier the more you do it.
How many hours do you estimate it took to wear through the PTFE tube?
I ordered spare tube when I bought mine, but I have no idea at all how long it would take to wear though. I’m sure bend radius and other factors come into play, but I’m just curious if you had a guess as to the timeframe.
You know, I don’t think there’s a hard rule for wear. I’d say just check after 150-200 unless using an abrasive blend (CF, GF, Glow) then I’d look sooner. Even then there will be different wear patterns.
For me (I’m sure others, but I’ll speak for me) if I don’t catch it when checking normally I do look when feeding issues start to show up. Like retracting to the AMS issues, unable to feed etc. You eventually get a feel for it. The P1 I just had an issue on has 900+ hours (It’s a 10,000 hr printer) since I last checked. My bad. Started giving issues with unloading the filament.
I have another that’s a new printer with 1050 that I changed at 500. The H2 has already (again, 1200) had the entire run replaced twice, it has all kinds of abrasives through it now.
I think the best thing to do is to check it whenever you change nozzles or some semi regular maintenance like lubing or even just cleaning until you get an idea.
I checked my external tubes last week and I couldn’t see or feel anything, but I wasn’t sure if it typically showed up at 500 hrs. or 5,000 hrs. At least I have a frame of reference now. I appreciate it.
I share @R3d-Five experience regarding the lack of a hard rule. Mine happened after less than 500h. Since then, I changed the set-up to a shorter tube. Wearing thin but still intact 5000h later…
Glad I had to change it though when the H2C arrived to give it space
