Has anyone else experience failures with the filament feeder?
After setting up the printer I printed a few test prints, but each time I printed something, the print would pause during the print with an error that the filament feeder detected a clog. I checked. There was no clog. I just resumed printing and it started printing again. Another 10 minutes or so went by and the same thing happened. Then it happened again and again.
I disassembled the filament feeder, but everything looked like it was in the correct place. I checked to make sure all bearings were present, everything was seated, etc. I did notice that the spring tension on the filament grabber wheel thing isn’t very strong at all. I tried putting a spacer in to help it grab better in case that was the issue, but it wouldn’t even feed after that, so I removed it.
It seemed to print fine without pausing for no known reason after i put it all back together without the spacer, but then it just quit working altogether. I can hear the motor, but filament doesn’t feed at all now.
I emailed info@sovol3d.com but haven’t gotten a response. It’s a bit disappointing.
Anyone have any guidance? For now, can I just trick the feeder into thinking everything is cool by leaving some filament in it but completely bypassing it and at the same time reducing friction for the main extruder motor? What do y’all recommend?
Had the same issue, the sheer length of PTFE creates a lot of friction in addition to very strong external feeder sometimes rips small parts of filament, those can build up in tube over time contributing to even more friction and at some point you experiences false positive pauses couple times over 10 minutes of print. The solution is to clear all PTFE tubes from filament residue.
I’m currently trying to create tube connector with holes which allow filament residue to escape without sacrificing tube tension.
It’s default PLA, and its not a tube tearing up. I used compressed air on empty feeder assist after print to clean it up after that table looked like sprinkled with artificial snow.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’m definitely going to try that dust ejector thing. I also purchased ptfe tube with a wider diameter so I’m going to try that too.
my current challenge is that I found a bearing that was rattling around the inside and I can’t for the life of me figure out where it goes. It’s larger than the rest. I think it’s the reason why it’s not feeding at all now.
I fixed the issue with the feeder not feeding at all. This might have been my fault during one of the 5 disassembly jobs I’ve performed with this thing. A bearing was missing from the top of the small brass gear causing it to pop out and not drive the filament gear.
Now on to solving the false positive clogs. I think I’m getting somewhere.
I thought I was getting somewhere. Now I got a tangle error. I took the roll off the spool and I’m now trying with it on the floor on my filament roller with bearings.
Ok before I change to dual extruder setup this is what I achieved so far in the meantime.
I changed PTFE to shorter one (to reduce friction) but long enough to support whole volume, replaced old PTFE holders with new ones from Printables, and also added residue catcher.
If you have an order to place, they will respond almost in the same day. I am also very annoyed. Just gotten the max and its my 3rd day of having the machine already installed. Nothing is even printed properly. Nothing at all and the feeder system keeps getting stuck. I had installed capricorn tube, but doesn’t seem like its helping much. May be less friction for the filament to get through.
