OlIie
1
Hi so I’m a complete newbie to 3d printing… I got the Wanhao i3 as my first printer yesterday and set it up. Really happy with how my first few prints came out, and used the entire sample that came with the printer.
So I used a big roll of PLA filament a friend gave me. Everything was going fine until right before completion I had a complete blockage, so I looked through the manual and did the method described in there and even did a “cold pull” eventually dislodging the blockage.
Figuring it was the cheap PLA my friend gave me, I then changed to a sample from rigid.ink and everything was going well, until I started to have the same problem again at the same height! There was no spaghetti left anywhere, it just gets blocked and continues trying to print.
Is there some other problem afoot here? Any kind of help would be hugely appreciated…
I took a photo of my problem, next to a nice complete one.
1 Like
OlIie
2
I’d also like to point out I used the reccomended temperature settings for the rigid.ink sample.
It would be interesting to check if you can manually push through the filament when the print fails. If you select Sd-card/pause print when it happens the printer will keep the temperature. If you at that point can push filament through by hand you know it is not a temp issue. I can’t really tell from the photo but it looks overheated though? My printer displays temp very inaccurately (printing PLA at 250° which would guarantee a clogged nozzle if the temp was correct. I have ordered a replacement thermistor but in the meantime, I just learned in which temp interval it works). If it is not a temp issue it is most likely your extruder gear slipping/digging into the filament. There is a recommended upgrade for the gear: “MK8 extruder gear” that I would recommend anyway. http://m.banggood.com/2Pcs-MK7-MK8-Extruder-Driver-Feeder-Gear-Wheel-40Teeth-11mm-Bore-5mm-For-3D-Printer-p-1036149.html Also, I have ever only had one Nozzle clog bad enough that I had to take it apart and fix it with fire and needle, it was because of a small brass burr/chip from the nozzle itself! Other “softer” nozzle clogs has been because of either to low layer height (results in more retraction moves on the same piece of filament), printing to cold or bad retraction settings. Since you are printing the demo file I would rule out retraction settings and layer height. About the issue happening on the same height; are the fan and heat sink properly tightened? If cooling is insufficient you get heat creep, causing filament to melt further up the barrel eventually causing a clog. Whenever you have an issue with 3D-printing, keep in mind that there may be multiple parameters that help the issue (or disguise it) even if there is only one root cause. Always try only one possible solution at a time or you end up fixing issues whiteout knowing how you did it. Wow this turned out longer than intended and possibly a bit unclear. Let me know how it goes and do ask if you need more help.
any resolution to this? mine starts the print out well and fails about half way through. Looks like your green one.
Nothing has changed, same PLA and settings.
