Hey All, Been having and issue of late, using a bigbox, its a dual hybrid titan. I think my bed got out of alignment, the print way too close, the titan started clicking and nothing extruded. saw the filament at the top was pushed to one side away from the hobbed gear. Think its just a one off, put everything back the way it should be, level bed. all working for a print or two. however this past week I would say maybe every 3rd print fails during start up and this evening I am 5 fails in a row. it prints the outside skirt and sometimes a layer or two and then fails. Each time the filament has pushed its way to the front of the feed away from the hobbed part of the bolt. Have I proper borked this up? Or is this just a case of I need to do a re-assembly or something I have missed? tried a bit looser and a bit tighter on the filament spring bit as well but no real change. Here you can see the filament from the top: Here from other side although a bit blurry and side angle
Update, tried several more prints and got another one running. 2 hours in it gave up. The bearing piece is worn on the inside to one side so have just put in an order for another one. And this is how it ended up with the front off. Re-checking the guide for building a titan, I didn't don't have the guide tube going all the way in but it wont fit so that will be some tweaking when the replacement part arrives and double checking the build guide again. Edit: This bit: http://wiki.e3d-online.com/wiki/File:TITAN-IDLER-PTFE-NEW.jpg have found a bit and lined the bit now, still have one on order as well but will test tomorrow.
It is important to have the PTFE feed tube fitted right into the lever until it almost touches the hob. Several of us just cut a short length (50mm)of tube to be permanently fitted in the lever as that is all that is required to ensure a square feed path to the hob. I noted somewhere somebody redesigned the lever to have a small bearing fitted where the motor shaft passed through to enhance the wear resistance but I can't find it; I also saw that E3D had redesigned the lever but I have not seen one yet.
It looks from the final picture as though your PTFE tube has been sucked all the way down to the hobbed bolt. Do this. Several reasons, but primarily it reduces strain resulting from retraction. You want retraction (well I do anyway) and so releasing the strain on the entire PTFE tube works really well. Another reason is that you'll have SO much of an easier time changing filament (hopefully you already chamfered the top entrance to your short PTFE tube running from titan to v6, but if not, do that at some stage; you'll be amazed how much that eases filament change).
@Spoon Unit that last pic is a trick of the eye, it's just grey filament I am using, the ptfe tube just rested on the top part it didn't go into it at all. Have now put a small piece in there, couldn't get it all the way in so might see if I can sand it, will certainly chamfer the top that's a great idea
Thanks for your tips gentlemen, the extra bit of tubing in the feed in seems to be doing the trick and makes things easier to boot when changing filament. Some issues with extrusion on latest prints but could be tension or temp so will keep working at it as it is freezing here as well today which doesn't help!
