My M200 has stopped printing recently due to what I had initially suspected was a clogged nozzle - the filament would get jammed and would not extrude.
After replacing both the heating element and the nozzle with new ones, the problem was still unresolved.
Whenever a new filament is loaded, a certain length would get fed through initially without a hitch. After this initial length has been fed through (probably up till the filament reaches the nozzle), the filament would then get stuck in spite of the continued rotation of the cog.
If extra force is used to push the filament down, material would eventually get extruded from the nozzle. Once the force is removed, the filament reverts to its stuck state.
When the nozzle is removed, the filament extrudes smoothly.
Has anyone encountered this problem before? Have the teeth on the cog worn out, causing it to grip the filament poorly such that it cannot push the filament through the nozzle? Or is the new nozzle clogged, causing a jam that is preventing the filament from being fed through?
Would appreciate any feedback as I have many jobs to print urgently!
Not yet for me unless leonard0850 wants to respond on the solution he was provided. They told me it’s the ribbon cable and the pcb but I haven’t received mine yet so I’m not sure if that’s the solution.
Just an update I received my pcb and ribbon cable and am still experiencing this issue. I believe it to be the stepper motor as the torque seems insufficient to push or retract the filament.
Everything else functions accordingly.I know bad steppers aren’t common but they do happen I have a received some bad eggs before when I was building and selling cnc router kits back in the day. Parts from China don’t always use great material or do proper QA when they’re popping out a million of these things
I have not yet had a chance to open up the extruder on my new machine so I'm wondering if the opposing bearing that presses the filament into the drive gear is fixed or spring loaded, I bet it is fixed as this is cheaper and forces the owner to buy only OEM plastic as it is supposedly more "tightly" controlled for diameter tolerance.
This design can create more force to the bearing making it fail (no longer turns freely) and then plastic has to be dragged past it putting undo strain on the motor.
Another issue related to this is the mentioned before diameter tolerance of the plastic, if you get a stretch of plastic that is undersized, smaller diameter than 1.7mm (this happens more than anyone likes to admit) then a fixed pressure bearing will fail to add enough force to get a good grip (bite) into the drive gear.
Since you replaced both the nozzel and the heated barrel but state the issue still exists then either the motor is bad as suggested or one of the conditions I mentioned above could be at issue.
Lastly, I would like to comment about natural (clear) PLA to other users and the Zortrax, I've had experience with the issue of using PLA and I've noticed that those that are colored tend to have feww issues with SST heater barrels while Natural (clear) sticks in the cooler section of the barrel, since I changed my "UP Plus Pro" to a "Recreus" barrel that is lined with high temp nylon-PTFE all my plastics perform better and flexable plastics became possible to use.
If you research the designs of home built (kit) 3D printers almost all use a nylon-PTFE barrel and shoot PLA, when I realized this I looked for a replacement and found a great one.
Just 20 bucks worth sorry if I get a little preachy, it is late and I should go to bed.