Hello, I faced with strange problem after using vertex printer for almost 1 year. It occasionally stoped to drag fillament through the extruder. I already checked everything:
I swapped drivers, took tryed all three from the X,Y,Z axes, even burned one out.
Checked all wiring with tester.
Swapped this motor with anotherone from second printer (I’ve got three of them).
Swapped all electronics parts (motherboard, power source, screen) from another printer.
Updated the software.
I checked the tightness of all bolts on the extruder, and it’s fine.
Nothing helped me. The rest parts of printer are working perfectly - all axes, heater and so on.
I took out the “not working” motor, checked pulley (it’s fine), checked if it is rotating (it’s file too).
As test, I tryed to unload fillament, so printhead heated plastic till 210 degrees, then it’s possible to hear the noise from motor, like it is trying to move, and then nothing happening and screen shows the end of unload process.
What could it be? Any suggestions?
this sounds like a clogged nozzle or, to be more precise, a sticked filament in the insulator tube. There are several threads for this issue in this forum, you may check them out. Basically you have to remove the filament within the insulator. Several approaches have been described, with more or less efforts to spend.
I already took off fillament from system. There are some left in the nozzle, but no fillament going throug extruder mechanism. So it’s free to spin and show, is it working or not.
Basically, there is no prints, because extruder do not push fillament through the nozzle (extruder is not working).
that sounds rather strange. I would propose to dismount the whole extruder holder into its basic parts (backward action from the installation manual). Maybe you find some mechanical irregularities which can block the filament movement.
Just for my understanding: the motor seems to work (clicking) but no filament movement.
So you can verify the extruder motor movement in disassembled condition.
Just a comment beside: the extruder design with the original Vellemann parts is a little bit tricky. The filament axis through the guides and the filament axes location on the pulley are not in line, the pulley axis is shifted towards the frontside of the printer. Within the extruder the filament is bended. This can cause problems for special filaments, however, there can be a mechanical abrasion at the filament guides which will block the proper movement. Therefore I switched to a modified extruder design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1133248