How Do I Calibrate My Titan Extruder and Test Print?
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Ah, right. Geez. 3D printing is definitely not my forte. I'm an animator and 3D designer. I've been on this technical trip because it gets me creating tangible stuff. And every time I see someone printing finer quality stuff I spent more time and money upgrading.
I took the nozzle off and it's engraved 0.4mm, but I did find Cura had been told the printer has a 0.2mm nozzle as well. I'm sure if that printer management setting finds its way into the print gcode though. What I do is save out the file from Cura and upload it to the Duet, and print it from there.
After 3 hours of running more tests, and having difficulty with over-tightening the extruder to the mount, and cleaning out the hotend, it still stops extruding the filament after the base layer of the test cube. It will test extrude plenty. However, after attempting to print, the filament jams, and the extruder gripping wheel just grinds away on the stuck filament.
I then release the filment clamp and attempt to pull the filament out by hand and it won't budge. The hotend is running a 210c, and feels pretty hot, so I don't get it. There should be nothing restricting the movement. It should be a molten pipe of PLA.
EDIT: I hit unload filament one last time, and it's perpetually 'loading' the filament, which of course is still stuck. So it's unloading in the wrong direction. As of me doing today's tests, somewhere along the way the extruder started going the wrong direction.
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When you slice something, regardless of what slicer you use to do it, the resultant output (gcode file) will be a list of instructions to move the print head so many mm in X, Y (and Z on layer change). Most of these move commands will also include movement of the extruder so that nnn mm of filament gets extruded while it is moving the print head. Now the Duet doesn't "know" what size nozzle you are using. It just has an instruction that "tells it" to move the print head a certain distance, in a certain direction, at certain speed, while at the same time moving the extruder motor a certain amount. It also doesn't "know" what layer width you've chosen.
The slicer settings are what determine how much filament is actually extruded. The slicer calculates this from the nozzle size and/or the layer width you have chosen and the layer height. With that information, it will calculate how much filament the extruder needs to move and this is what goes into the gcode that the Duet will read and act upon. So, you can see that the slicer needs to know what size nozzle you are using. If you tell it that you have a 0.2mm nozzle but you actually use a 0.4mm nozzle it won't know any different so will calculate the extrusion amount based on a 0.2mm nozzle. The Duet doesn't care either. It just reads the gcode file which tells it that it has move the print head a certain distance in X and Y while at the same time moving the extruder and certain distance.
Ref the jamming after the first layer. This is a classic example of molten filament finding its way into the cold zone of the heat sinks and solidifying. It could be for any number of reasons, like too much retraction, or incorrect assembly, or maybe yi are just asking it to extrude too much filament.
So I suggest you sort out you slicer settings then maybe "google" E3D V6 Volcano Blocking" or some such.
I have no idea why your extruder is running the wrong way. About the only thing I can think of that could do that would be if you changed the motor direction in your config.g (M569).
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Thanks for the breakdown. That makes it perfectly clear now.
You're right about the hotend blockage as well. Apparently there's a cold spot that causes the squashed filament to cool enough to form a handle. I pulled the hotend apart and the filament is stuck, and the nozzle won't come off either, so I'm going to have to buy a replacement. The basic hotends I used never had this problem, but I doubt this is a great product volcano anyway.
For what the base layers were, they were pretty good. This is actually the first time I've had the Duet working since I bought it early in the year, so it's good to see some action.
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I found the specific blockage. The screw between the heat sink and the hotend has a gap in it. Somehow the plastic liner wasn't installed properly, or is damaged, and created a gap in the middle of the piece. I'd have to drill it out and put a new liner in, except I don't have either of those solutions. I replaced it with a V6 piece I had, so I didn't have to order a different mount for the V6 type extruder.
It's currently printing and extruding really well, so I'm happy about that. I'll have to look at print/slicer settings, because it appears to be printing with more filament than it should, such as 0.1mm layers but 0.2mm extrusion. It's currently squashing and mashing paths into the previous layer, which is probably too much filament. It says it's at 40%, but the 25mm test cube is only 5mm high….
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More progress which is good - you'll get there in the end.
Ref your last paragraph. It could be over extruding but it sounds to me more like the steps per mm on your Z axis are not correct. That's easy to check - just move the Z axis say 50 mm (away from the bed) and check how far it actually moves.
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You know what, I made a mental note about looking into the Z steps, because I had become convinced it wasn't correct towards the beginning of this process. However, I forgot after the obsession with the printing had kicked in.
It was definitely out, and is now fixed. It went from Z1600 to Z3200… a minor adjustment
I have a new hotend on the way, hopefully including an additional replacement by Tevo. Only then will my successes and failures continue the saga.
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I finally received my replacement volcano hotend. It's been screwed together thoroughly, and after another test print it's jammed again.
I manged to disassemble the hotend and found melted filament in the nozzle, filling up the liner as well.
This issue's got me beat. The test cube print file includes 0.4mm nozzle setting, and the Duet console says it's running at 210c. The brim and first layers print perfectly, so I doubt the extrusion speed is fast. I can confirm that the joining cylinder between the heat sink and heat block meets up with the nozzle, flush. The PTFE liner in the heat sink meets up with the heat block liner, which meets up with the nozzle as well.
Theoretically, I would think that's it's not hot enough, which means the console is lying to me, or the 210c isn't enough with a volcano hotend…
There's photos of the issue on the Facebook page.
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Maybe worth posting this on the E3D forum?
What retraction settings are you using, and how long is your Bowden tube if you use one? The all metal E3D hot ends are prone to jamming if you use too much retraction, at least when printing PLA.
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I finally received my replacement volcano hotend. It's been screwed together thoroughly, and after another test print it's jammed again.
I manged to disassemble the hotend and found melted filament in the nozzle, filling up the liner as well.
This issue's got me beat. The test cube print file includes 0.4mm nozzle setting, and the Duet console says it's running at 210c. The brim and first layers print perfectly, so I doubt the extrusion speed is fast. I can confirm that the joining cylinder between the heat sink and heat block meets up with the nozzle, flush. The PTFE liner in the heat sink meets up with the heat block liner, which meets up with the nozzle as well.
Theoretically, I would think that's it's not hot enough, which means the console is lying to me, or the 210c isn't enough with a volcano hotend…
There's photos of the issue on the Facebook page.
That sounds like heat creep. As David pointed out, it's more likely an E3D issue than a Duet issue but there are a couple of things "duet wise" to check. Firstly double check that the thermistor values are correct for the thermistor that you are using (M305). Secondly, again as David pointed out, too much retraction can lead to molten filamnet being drawn up above the heat break where it will solidify and cause a blockage.
The Volcano has a larger melt zone so unless you are printing at high volume flow rate (which you won't be using a 0.4 mm nozzle) then you'll find that you can use lower temperatures than you have been used to. So bizarrely as it might seem, using a lower temperature will help (if it is heat creep which I believe it is). Try 190 deg C or even lower if you can get away with it.
I don't have a V6 or volcano myself but if it were me and based on my tests with another hot end, I'd try a larger flow rate fan to shift more air over the heat sinks - especially the lower fins.
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Maybe worth posting this on the E3D forum?
What retraction settings are you using, and how long is your Bowden tube if you use one? The all metal E3D hot ends are prone to jamming if you use too much retraction, at least when printing PLA.
I've posted a thread on the E3D forum, so I'll wait for some ideas there.
I bypassed the extruder and hand fed the hotend, but it still eventually blocks up. That would mean that the retraction setting shouldn't be the issue, considering I never retract the filament, even after waiting several minutes.
The molten filament never goes above the PTFE liner in the middle screw. It just packs up and becomes in penetrable, even with my hand. And this is running the hotend at intervals between 190c and 235c. I'm going to test an E3D hotend with my hand to see if it has the same results.
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Update: the volcano nozzle inner diameter, in the top of it, not the outlet, is visibly larger than the typical E3D nozzle. So the difference between the two nozzles is that they are different lengths, and have different internal capacities. Testing the E3D out yesterday showed no blockages, but two different brands of volcano kits failed the exact same way.
My guess is that the volcanos I've purchased have an inner capacity that causes a backup/congestion of too much filament, as opposed to the E3D, which allows less molten filament to restrict the loading filament.
It maybe a brand/design/supplier fault, and may not be present in the common volcano, or OEM brand volcano. As I mentioned, the E3D works perfectly fine over the same period of time the volcano congests, and it has less nozzle capacity. FYI.
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Only my 2 cent, cause i'm also struggling from switch over my E3d-Hotends for the Chimera (orignal) with it's 12v/40W Heaters against the Volcano-ones with 12V/30W Heatercartriges.
First, I've a massive Problem with the Flowrate. I've done the usual things first, like Autotune the Heaters with a P-Value of 0.7 (otherwise the Warning of Duet will say it will be overpowered),trying to crank up the Temperature (20-30°C higher as normal) but everything leads to open gaps, a massive Underextrusion happens at Print-Speeds higher as 10-15mm/s
One interesting thing was, that my dasfilament.de PLA with a rated Temperature of 215°C has massive problems with the flow. My Prima-PLA-Filament (rated to 210°C) was without any problems! It flows even with a Extruder-Rate of 60mm/s. The same block, same Heater, same nozzle (0.6mm).
After that, i've run the Autotuning for the Heater-Cartridges with a Value of P1.0 even with the Warning, which helps to make the dasfilament-de PLA flow more consitenly. Now, i've reached a flowrate of about 34-40mm/s.
Another test indicates that these kind of Filament needs lower temps of around 190-195°C to flow better. Now i'm around a flowrate of 50mm/s which is not as high as the prima-PLA but it may worth to try it out. The same has deckingman in mind and i can confirm this at least for my PLA-Tests so far.
Good luck
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It maybe a brand/design/supplier fault, and may not be present in the common volcano, or OEM brand volcano..................
Yes, almost definitely the cause of your problems if they are clones rather than genuine E3D parts. One thing to try if you don't want to pay for all the genuine parts, at least would be the genuine E3D heat breaks.
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I struggled to believe the genuine parts are any different to the clones. Normally, I know the difference, but there's not much in a hotend that I can see.
My last attempt is to unscrew the nozzle a bit, so it's set lower, but seeing that the thermistor runs the full length of the nozzle as it is, I can't see there being an improvement. I really just think it's a bad clone, and I'll have to drop $100+ to get a genuine one here.
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I struggled to believe the genuine parts are any different to the clones. Normally, I know the difference, but there's not much in a hotend that I can see.
I think the main difference between a genuine hot end and a clone is the heat break - hence my suggestion that you try a genuine heat break which will be a lot cheaper than the entire assembly. The heat break on a genuine part is very narrow which means that there is a sharp transition between the hot zone and the cold zone. Getting that right is difficult to machine and if the quality of the steel is less than optimum, it can can make the part fragile and easy to break. So the clone manufacturers tend to make the heat break thicker which prevents it from doing it's job and too much heat gets transferred from the hot zone to the cold zone.
Edit. Or you could try my other suggestion and fit a higher flow rate fan to shift more air over the heat sink. Having just thought about that, it could also be that the clone has a thicket "tube" section to the heat sink which will retain more heat so maybe you need the genuine heat sink as well as a genuine heat break…......
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I struggled to believe the genuine parts are any different to the clones. Normally, I know the difference, but there's not much in a hotend that I can see.
I think the main difference between a genuine hot end and a clone is the heat break - hence my suggestion that you try a genuine heat break which will be a lot cheaper than the entire assembly. The heat break on a genuine part is very narrow which means that there is a sharp transition between the hot zone and the cold zone. Getting that right is difficult to machine and if the quality of the steel is less than optimum, it can can make the part fragile and easy to break. So the clone manufacturers tend to make the heat break thicker which prevents it from doing it's job and too much heat gets transferred from the hot zone to the cold zone.
And possibly the nozzle geometry which is tightly controlled in an original E3D One
Doug
ps this seems like to good to be true but I have 2 in the post to me https://www.reprap.me/v6-heat-break-titanium.html £6.21 for a titanium V6 Heatbreak seems like a bargain to me hopefully it is just a mistake on the price and the parts will be genuine we will see when they arrive.
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Doug
ps this seems like to good to be true but I have 2 in the post to me https://www.reprap.me/v6-heat-break-titanium.html £6.21 for a titanium V6 Heatbreak seems like a bargain to me hopefully it is just a mistake on the price and the parts will be genuine we will see when they arrive.
Doug,
That does seem like a bargain and RepRap.me are official resellers for E3D https://e3d-online.com/resellers
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Doug
ps this seems like to good to be true but I have 2 in the post to me https://www.reprap.me/v6-heat-break-titanium.html £6.21 for a titanium V6 Heatbreak seems like a bargain to me hopefully it is just a mistake on the price and the parts will be genuine we will see when they arrive.
Doug,
That does seem like a bargain and RepRap.me are official resellers for E3D https://e3d-online.com/resellers
Ian
That's exactly why I was willing to take the risk.
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If this price is real and that are really Titanium - HB's i would say: Buy at much as you can.
If you went over to Filastruder you will pay around 50€ for one.
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yep well I expect mine to land either tomorrow or Monday and it should be fairly easy to tell if there Genuine Titanium or not and I don't think the Chinese would try to clone them TBF 2 have cost me around $20 shipped.
