Titan Aero filament stripping - troubleshooting help

Hey everyone,

I'm reaching out to the forum as I've tried my best to troubleshoot my filament feed issue with the titan extruder but have come up empty handed.

I've had the Titan Aero for a while now and it's put out some great prints but i've also had a nagging issue of filament stripping randomly. It's become a more frequent issue for me and so I started to look into the exact reason it was happening.

My issue seems to be that there is too much play in the idler arm and it can yaw out to the right a bit, enough to cause the filament to grind against one side of the hobb rather then the center. (see pics) in both pics the idler is loaded where I would normally have it.

My failure is ALWAYS that the filament has ground out. Upon inspection of the hobb, I usually find that one side of the hop is clogged up with filament grounds.

I've replaced the nozzle, tried new filament, tried drying my filament in a dehydrator.. ect.


I've bought a new hardened steel gear that arrived today to ensure that I was not effected by the mis-pressed gear run.

I'm really at a loss on how the filament is supposed to stay on path if there's that much play.

Any advice would be very appreciated!

 

Still working with E3d support, It's not giving me a ton of confidence tbh. we've gone back and forth now for 3 days focused on the reference voltage of my stepper motor, while completely ignoring my question regarding the Idler arm. I had to almost be rude about it and ask the tech to specifically address my question, to which he said that does look "wonky" and then glassed over any sort of troubleshooting into why that could be the case or if that would impact my issue ect.

I've even tried opening another ticket in hopes of getting another tech but the same tech has also been assigned the ticket.
I think what's most frustrating is that I provide, in some messages, a paragraph worth of troubleshooting and detailed information, and have to wait a day for a single sentence. And to this point (nearly 2 weeks now) none of these responses has gotten us closer to an answer. At this point it seems like he's going to start having me re-assemble the titan aero on a step per email basis.

I really hope someone from E3D sees this, and perhaps could offer some help, i'm not sure how else to contact or reach someone else besides the tech I seem to be stuck with.

If I do get a resolution I'll reply here for you Dexter.

 

UPDATE:

Today E3D has authorized the shipment of a replacement:
-idler arm
-fixing kit (to replace the idler arm spring)

Should be a few days until I'll have it (In the USA) but I'll report back once installed.