PLA extruder jamming after 1 layer

Hello everyone,

I've had a lot of problems with my printer starting, but all of them was hardware and after googling I managed to solve all of them.

Now the problem is with printer jamming after 1 or 2 layers of 10x10 cube

I am using PLA. If I use manual extrusion, extruder works without jamming, but when I use slicer it jams.

As I've read, some people adds oil on plastic? What kind of oil? what influences extruder to work normaly when I'm extruding manualy and why it jams after a few seconds?

Anything you add to the filament is heated to around 200C (over 390F!) in the hot end. I would be really cautious about using any oils...

The most common problems that cause extruder jams are related to heat. I print PLA at 190C with very good results. However, I have taken measures to isolate the heat brake as much as possible from the hot end. This has solved my james for the most part.

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-David

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I've printed at 180 185 190 temps with the same problem. As I understand heat from hot end gets to PLA plastic and melts it a bit, so it doesnt stay hard enough and makes a jam. One solution for my problem would be to add fan since it was take because of calibration purposes. So i think it would cool PLA a bit.

Anyway, why manualy PLA is extruded and automaticaly isnt?

And how do you isolate your extruder from hot end?

The PLA (or any filament type) is liquid inside the extruder nozzle, but should stay solid until making it into the PEEK/PTFE sleeve inside the nozzle. If the hot end (which is below the throat and heat brake) continuously radiates heat upward, heating these components. The heat brake is whatever component is used to keep this from happening.

Here you can see what I have done to eliminate this heat (above the PLA melting temp) from rising above the PEEK/PTFE sleeve.



I started by insulating the hot end itself. This significantly reduced the radiated heat (and burned fingers!).

The metal washer is wide enough to dissipate a good amount of heat right above the hot end block. Then, I put as much of the throat as possible inside the aluminum mounting block to serve as a heat sink, and made sure that the 40mm heat sink was in good contact with the block using spacers between the fan and heat sink.

The main difference between manually and automatically feeding filament is the feed rate. Manual feeding is much faster, not giving the same amount of time within the throat to melt (which is good) and the automatic feeding is allowing it to melt (which is bad). This is not a fault of the firmware, but in the heat inside the throat...

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-David

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I'm getting a point. Sadly I left printer at work and it look like after the war I will post pics and maybe vids of the process. Maybe there will be extra advices. Assembling printer is like one long war with a lot of battles

True. A caution... fight one battle at a time.

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-David

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It's what I found after disassembling extruder:






So I think the problem is the same as you described. Just to be clear: temperature 180C?

And what about moding my extruder? Can you give a simple sketch (sorry if I'm asking too much).

It looks like the filament is melting inside the PEEK/PTFE sleeve in the throat. This will cause jamming in (just under) the extruder, above the heat break. Cooling the throat immediately above the insulated hot end would help a bunch.

---

-David

Find me online at:
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Check out my FolgerTech Prusa i3 (plexi) at MindRealm.net