Hi,
Vertex is not my first printer, the former one MendelMax1,5 had an extruder with quite soft spring pushing the filament against the pulley.
The vertex spring seems to be very hard. If I pull out the previously loaded filament, it is quite deformed: By the strong press it is flattened, and the original diameter of 1.72 is then 1,5mm x 1,8mm. This results in bigger friction in the tube
The more critical is the situation, when printing more small surfaces - a lot of retractions very closely to each other. The filament is more deformed and feeding then stops because of filament stuck and loosing steps of the motor (the first pic shows the place where the extruder stopped the feeding)
at first I thought you were right with that too strong spring. While in the printer building phase I thought by myself that this spring seems too strong and the spring loading pressure is not adjustable. But I have to say that I’m having no problems with the first prints I made with the original velleman filament(colour: light blue). Even when the filament is under pressure for several days from that spring on the same spot I can’t see any major filament deformation. I just unloaded the filament for the first time to check if here is such a problem.
But anyways I think it may be better to unload or to release the filament from the pressure of the spring for longer periods(weeks/months).
I think your problem might be the filament your using. Is this original velleman filament or some no name Chinese?
Since this is my first printer i may be wrong but maybe the real problem here is this not adjustable spring pressure? If your using for example exotic materials like “ninja-flex” the pressure might be to strong and you have to adjust the spring pressure anyways?
I just got my first encounter to this problem. My filament got stuck at the feeder so I needed to pull it out by hand. It was deformed like in the picture above.
We are experimenting with new settings for retraction: only 3mm retraction but at 150mm/s. A user on the forum (forgot which one) has rather good results with this and it warps the filament much less. You could try these values in an experimental CuraEngine profile.
I’m currently running with those settings and I like them very much. Before I had issues too where the filament got deformed by the extruder when I printed models with a lot of retracts. Here’s the result I got with these settings: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=13381
Hi,
I definitely changed the spring and seems it helps a lot…
I had an issue with a stuck filament, played 2 hours with dis-assembly…
and my finding was: as the filament is flattened, and the pressure is high, the melted material started to flow upwards, out from the heated zone. cooled down and totally sealed the filament in the tube.
I tried to measure the force (just roughly with kitchen weight): Original spring approx 50N on the end of release level at a moment it just releases the filament. Currently I have approx 15N. If I want more, I add some rubber band to pull the level downwards…
Thanks for the settings it worked it din´t get stuck under printing. I try the same object whit the new and the old setting it got stuck whit the old setting and printed fine whit the new.
In the Cura configuration under the “Extrusion” tab you change ‘Retraction speed’ to 150 and ‘Retraction distance’ to 3. And then save your profile (you can create new profiles with the “save as” button).
In the Cura configuration under the “Extrusion” tab you change ‘Retraction speed’ to 150 and ‘Retraction distance’ to 3. And then save your profile (you can create new profiles with the “save as” button).[/quote]
Hello Raby,
thank you very much.
kindly regards
Niyazi
Is there any news on this issue ?
I’m having the same problem with my vertex. Having several retractations within a few centimeters area flatten the filament to the point it cannot enter the ptfe tube.
For instance, it seems impossible to print this kind of model (tested at 70% size) without issue: thingiverse.com/thing:145694
This problem aside, my vertex works great, and everything seems well configured and adjusted (after weeks of tweeking and configuration).
The lever spring seems really too hard, and i’d like to have Velleman point of view. Is it safe or recommended to use a softer spring ?
I’ve tried the 3mm - 150mm/s retractation setup without much success when printing high number retractation objects.
I too had problems with the second extruder: the vertex works fine with the first extruder, but when trying the second extruder, the flow isn’t enough: not enough material is coming out, especially on filling actions (bottom and upper layers). Now and then, a ‘click’ can be heard, caused by the extruder stepper, loosing steps. When looking at the extrusions wheel: the wheel itself is loosing steps, it’s not the filament slipping over the wheel.
So apparently, the cause was a too high tension of the spring and pressure wheel. I solved it (for now) by adding a few elastics on the ‘grips’, where on would manually press to loose the pressure wheel. Result is that the pressure of the pressure wheel has been reduced now, and that I get normal flow now.
Maybe a too high pressure is causing a way too high friction on the motor or pulley ???
