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Nigel Green
Aug 02

Nozzle Clogging and Upgrades

in Proforge 3 3D Printing

After the first few prints using the supplied Cura profiles, the nozzle has started to clog up either at the start of the print or part way through. The extruder keeps going bending the PTFE tube until stopped. Has anyone have any idea of what is causing this and what are the solutions. I have ordered a Dragon Hotend.


I am getting frustrated with the MIC-6 bed falling and printed off the parts for Johannes Weis's solution before I started having problems with the nozzle. I saw a YouTube video by Kersey Fabrications, which addressed this issue on a Creality Ender 5 by installing different Z axis lead screws with a finer lead(angle of the threads). Has anyone considered this solution ? As I only intend to use one hotend and there are two Z axis motors, would the installation of another stepper driver enable independent Z axis operation ie Marlin G34 operation. I realise this would involve amending Marlin, which is beyond my knowledge at the moment but may be a long term upgrade. It would help level the bed in one direction.


Pulley Upgrade - although I haven't had any problems yet, they don't look that secure. The Pulleys that I purchased for the Z axis synchronisation upgrade are very similar in size to the supplied bearings and washers but with a deeper flange. They have a deeper flange than the suggested flanged bearings. Has anyone used pulleys successfully ?

12 comments
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12 Comments
Nigel Green
4d

Dragon Hotend and Z axis modification installed, which has solved the problem of heat creap/nozzle clogging and a falling bed. I'm now able to get consecutive prints without any problems. Very worthwhile upgrades.

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R
Ryan Andrews
2d
Replying to

Which Dragon Hotend did you get? There's 4 on Amazon: BMO, BMS, TAICHI, and UHF

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Nigel Green
1d
Replying to

Biqu Phaetus Dragon High Flow Hotend, ordered direct from Biqu (Cheaper than Amazon).

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J
Johannes Weis
Aug 04

The original hotend sucks. Replace it asap.


Finer leadscrew should be an easy swap and remove the issue of the falling bed. You should be able to adjust the steps for Z via a simple command so no need to dive too deep into Marlin :)


Asynchronous movement of the Z-motors is doable if you use the output of the second extruder and another driver. Haven’t tried it yet since I wanted to keep my code usable for other proforgers.


Also I don’t think Independent lead screws are that much of an upgrade since they lengthen the leveling time at the start of each print and doesn’t solve anything a Z-Synchro can‘t. I prefer the static solution (at least for two leadscrews).


I tried using regular pulleys but it seems hard to get any with decent quality. Another user suggested two flanged bearings which seems like a really good upgrade.



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A
Akisame -
3d
Replying to

Is the issue the heaterblock, heater, heatbreak, cooling section or the actual hotends? I am looking at buying an upgrade for the DSH and I think I can put a dragon hotend heaterblock on the setup but if the problem is caused by the heater or heat creep through the heatbreak or something like that it would be a waste of money.

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Nigel Green
3d
Replying to

The blockage seemed to be in the PTFE tube insert so that the filament could not be extruded, which then backed up and caused the PTFE tube to bend and push it out between the extruder and hotend and break the filament. Is that caused by heat creep through the heatbreak?

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A
Akisame -
3d
Replying to

So when I used the Direct drive extruder I had this issue as well. I think it might be due to heat creep causing a blockage which then buckles the PTFE tube.

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A
Akisame -
Aug 02

I haven't gotten a single large print out of the damn thing myself. It consistently cloggs mid print.... When I am there i can intervene (ea. cut 3 mm off of the end of the filament and reinsert it into the hotend) but I can't watch the printer for 30 hours straight.... Also printing with octoprint gives me filament runout errors....

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A
Akisame -
Aug 05
Replying to

I'm using the DSH. Do you know a good hotend that can slide into the setup?

The heat break uses a standard barrel design to slide into the metallic switching system.

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J
Johannes Weis
Aug 05
Replying to

Not really :/

did you check if there is any space between the nozzle and the heatbreak? This is oftentimes the cause of clogging.

Did you hot tighten your nozzle?


The clogging could also be a programming issue. Is there a retraction before each switch? Otherwise the filament inside of the inactive nozzle could burn and clog that way.


You could also try other PTFE couplings and better PTFE tube (like Capricorn)

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A
Akisame -
Aug 05
Replying to

I did and there is space between the 2. I did hot tighten my nozzle at 400°C.

I still need to try out cura 5.0 and I still need to make a profile for prusaslicer for the DSH. Inactive nozzles decrease in temperature to 175°C. I've already bought high quality PTFE tube.

There are quite a few programming errors in the official firmware though....

For example I can't use octoprint with the official firmware as it detects the filament running out regardless of the detector triggering or not.

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12 comments
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