Titan grinding through pla

Discussion in 'Calibration, Help, and Troubleshooting' started by npm1, Aug 6, 2017.

  1. npm1

    npm1 Member

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    Hiya,
    I made the leap and purchased the titan extruder atleast a month ago, I 've gotten rid of all other variables but couldn't seem to iron the issue i was having with the titan, i.e. the extruder eventually grinding through the filament as in pixie dust, i resolved this by changing the tightness of the dial, to the point of no grinding, from this point another issue becomes aparent whereby the first layers are great until it speeds up to the next layer, where there are large gaps within the layer.
    I can only amend this by pushing the filament through, after which i could literally leave the printing alone, becuase of this i also had reduce the printing speed from 60mm/s, to 45mm/s.

    Please help since i am sure that this shouldn't be an issue with a £60 extruder.

    I did resolve the problem by buying a cheap £10 extruder, which I do not fancy using long term, shamefully speaking i could start the print and leave it.
     
  2. Old_Tafr

    Old_Tafr Well-Known Member

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    There used to be an issue with earlier Titan where the hobbed wheel wasn't machined properly (causing the filament to be ground up) but that was some time ago, but it may be worth searching the forum for these earlier posts.
     
    #2 Old_Tafr, Aug 7, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2017
  3. kazik

    kazik Member

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    Have the same issue. Tried everything and now I'm completely lost. I've changed nozzles, ptfe pipes, name it what else. Titan is still eating the filament. There is no rule when. It can be 3rd layer and almost in the end of the print.

    Below you can see how my filament looks afterwards. My question is if are there some direct print settings for Titan and v6 to ensure successful printing, or this is just the problem with the extruder itself and I should stop spending my money on it?

    Currently I'm so frustrated and disappointed with this extruder.

    Any ideas how solve this?
    [​IMG]
     
  4. synergy41

    synergy41 Member

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  5. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    That looks exactly like I'd expect my filament to look if the was a problem actually extruding. If the filament can't escape, the hobbed bolt eats the filament and it ends up looking like this. A guess another possibility might be setting the spring to strong to grip the filament.

    It's easy enough to loosen the spring a little. Figuring out what wrong in the hotend might take a little more effort. Perhaps more heat is required. Can you extrude my manually springing the wheel on the Titan? Can you extrude my just submitting an extrude GCODE command. If that all works, then observe what's happening during the print. Are you trying to extrude to cold? To much filament for the height of the nozzle?
     
  6. kazik

    kazik Member

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    I tried all of it:
    - printed with different spring tension,
    - different nozzle temps,
    - extruding manually or by gcode,
    - looking for 2 hours on printing process,
    and no clue ;-((

    Print looks just fine, no symptoms of possible issues and then all of the sudden it stops extruding. Like I said it can be in the beginning or almost in the end of the print. So much $$$ spent on E3D...
     
  7. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    What material are you printing? Bowden or direct? Are you using a Titan? 3mm or 1.75mm? Did you buy direct from E3D or a reseller? (if so give them a call as they can often help and it might be easier and faster if it's an interactive discussion)
     
  8. kazik

    kazik Member

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    Yes, these are valid questions ;-)

    I'm using Titan with V6. I'm printing direct 1,75 PLA. I bought it from E3D (online store). Still waiting for new nozzle from E3D to confirm if this is not nozzle issue. If this won't help I will go back to them.
     
  9. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    What nozzle size were you using? What speed are you printing? Is this just a test model or something complex? Which slicer? Is it plain PLA or something with 'content' (copper, bronze, wood, glow in the dark etc.)? How is the spool held? Oh, and are you using retraction (if so how much)?
     
    #9 Spoon Unit, Aug 14, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2017
  10. kazik

    kazik Member

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    - Same happened on 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5mm nozzles
    - I tested it on speeds from 50 to 80mm/s with retraction 5mm (45mm/s) - can try without retraction
    - Model complexity doesn't matter. It happens on very simple models as wells as complex
    - Cura and Slic3r
    - Plain PLA
    - For spool - I have a stand with bearings so it is rotating easily.

    I still have a question mark on V6 cooling. Have standard 30mm fan on radiator but don't know if filament isn't melting too high.
     
  11. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    The E3D V6 states in the instructions that retraction should be no more than 2.5. As long as your fan is on permanently on the radiator fins when the hotend is over 40 degrees C, you shouldn't get any melt in there, which would be an issue. Your 5mm retraction could well be the issue; I think what happens is that the melted filament gets pulled up a little too far, deforms, and is cooled enough to be too much to push down again. That's going to be quite random in terms of when it happens. 6mm might make it happen a lot more, but E3D recommend no more than 2.5; I use 1.5mm on mine.

    https://wiki.e3d-online.com/wiki/E3D-v6_Troubleshooting

    Quote: A common issue is massively excessive retraction distances. In direct configurations retraction of 0.5 to 2mm is all that should be needed for ooze-free prints. We use around 0.6mm for ABS that oozes very little, and 2mm for the very floppy flexible filaments that like to ooze a great deal and need a good tug to pull back the soft filament from the melt zone. For PLA we stick with retraction settings no higher than 0.8mm.

    Interesting ... they recommend even less than I use.
     
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  12. kazik

    kazik Member

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    Hmmm I didn't notice that. Will check today. Thanks a lot!!!
     
  13. kazik

    kazik Member

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    @Spoon Unit thank you for your help. Retraction was the issue indeed. after setting to 0.8mm it works like a charm. I think that it should be put somwhere in Q&A as here is a number of posts with the grinding problem and maybe there is the same root cause.

    Thanks again.

    Greets

    Kazik
     
  14. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    That's brilliant news :). Thanks for confirming.

    These are my settings, which work great for me:

    upload_2017-8-18_10-58-29.png
     
    Ephemeris likes this.
  15. kazik

    kazik Member

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    Hi,

    unfortunately I have to refresh the topic. As mentioned above retraction settings seemed to solve the issue bot not for long. Have still the same problem. Does't matter if printing in ABS or PLA. Even without retraction. Filament keep jamming in the hot end after 1-2 hours of printing. Before that print goes really nice. Recently I even changed heat break to titanium one and nothing. Still retrieved filament looks like this:
    [​IMG]
    Interesting thing is that after changing the heat break yesterday and mounting whole V6 again first print went flawless. I hoped that finally have problem fixed but not for long ;-(
    When I look at my orders in E3D store and how much I spent already trying to make it work, I would be really disappointed having to get rid of it all.
    Have you maybe any other ideas what to do with that?
     
  16. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    A photo of your whole printer setup might be revealing. What does the whole thing look like? Take some photos of it. How is the filament spool held? Are you on hand at the point of failure? You've got to reduce the total number of variables instead of increasing them with new nozzles, heatbreaks etc. Stick with one set and tune that before moving on. What were you printing? The image you've shown is interesting; the red circled area at the bottom is very strange, and I don't see how that could ever occur, I've never seen anything looking like that and I'm surprised that it even was possible to pull that out. Whatever happened there is clearly the issue. The red circle at the top is nothing interesting; that's just the result of every 3d printer jam in the universe - hobbed bolt eats filament. I don't see how the blob at the bottom occurred without retraction.
     
  17. kazik

    kazik Member

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    There is nothing worse than being interesting case for the doctors ;-)
    Today evening I'll post more photos, but I think there is nothing unusual. I'm thinking about other factor. Is it possible that there is too hot and the fan is not able to sufficiently cool the cold end. My printer is placed in the enclosure and it is quite hot inside. I removed the power supply outside the enclosure but it is no difference.
     
  18. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    Sure. That's possible. What's the purpose of the enclosure? Is the bed not heated? The enclosure might help with ABS, but not PLA. Is the enclosure itself heated? Can you remove the enclosure while you get things working?
     
  19. Old_Tafr

    Old_Tafr Well-Known Member

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    A simple problem I had was that the filament was crossed on the spool, the power of the stepper kept pulling it and sometimes it released from the spool before it was to late, other times inextricably stuck it started grinding the filament.
     
  20. kazik

    kazik Member

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    @Spoon Unit below there is my setup.

    This is my enclosure. Normally when printing with PLA the door is open. I have this enclosure maily as this is my technical cabin so it protects printer from dust. It does not have any additional heating as when printing with ABS hotbed gives enough heat.
    [​IMG]

    The spool on the top runs smoothly on bearings. Filament goes through foam dust filter and my filament movement monitor (my invention caused by desperation ;-))
    [​IMG]

    Extruder. Don't look at the Titan cover as it comes from cheap Chinese clone. I found once original one broken (don't have a clue about the cause) and needed replacement without need to buy whole thing.
    Beside that all I think is normal. Print cooling fan is not used at the moment as in this setup is too short.

    [​IMG]

    And the bottom.
    [​IMG]

    Any thoughts?

    Greets

    Kazik
     

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