Hello
I recently bought the Velleman Vertex K8400 kit. After a couple of days of assembly and fiddling with the printer to get it to work, I was able to do a couple of prints. But recently I noticed this strange ticking noise, coming from the X-axis stepper motor. It sounds almost clock-like ticking.
Would anyone know what is wrong and how I can fix this issue?
Thank you in advance!
Kind regards
Ruben Denolf
Are you sure it’s not the extruder?
PLA print at 190C
set the retraction to 4mm
Retraction speed 110mm
I tried those settings (although I printed PLA at 195°C), the printer produced the same noise. Only this time I also noticed a loud whining noise (very similar to a sound I heard with my faulty PC PSU). I only had this once so the PSU is probably not broken 
After a couple of thorough listening sessions, it is coming from the extruder… Would those 5°C really make a difference? I think I assembled the extruder correctly since I already did a couple of prints without that noise.
It definitely is the extruder, I tried one more print with those new settings and after 30 minutes or so, I ran into a problem.
The extruder started to slip from the filament, resulting in a weird underextruded build. The ticking noise is gone, but the slipping is even worse than the noise… Could this mean the hotend got clogged during a print? It still extrudes, just not enough…
Check the pulley mounted on the motor.
Make sure the screw is tight and is properly aligned.
If the nozzle is clogged remove the feed tube heat it to 210C - 215C and try to push the filament through.
There are some more tips in this link.
http://manuals.velleman.eu/article.php?id=39