Extruder and Hot end issues

Hi!
So I’ve been loving my Ender 3 V2 for the past few weeks - I’ve probably gotten at least 30ish mini prints out of it. I recently switched from White PLA to Black PLA, and its starting to cause some issues.
Just recently, the Extrusion Motor coupler has started to get loose randomly, and pop off the blue wheel that helps push filament inside to the hot end. I tried to fix that by just rescrewing the bolts on the coupler, and it worked for a bit. Now I’m experiencing clogging in my hot end - with it being very difficult to clean. Is their any fix for this? Any suggestions?

I’ve found that different color filaments can print at different temperatures even from the same maker and same kind. I would do some of the calibration explained here. That might expose the problem.

https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html

Interesting, I thought I was on the high end for temperatures for PLA (210/65). I’ve managed to do 2 other prints that turned out well with those temperatures so I doubt that is the issue

Is that the recommended temp for the filament? this isn’t in reference to the parts coming loose but to the clogging. high temp can compound the heat creep issue where retractions cause the heat to creep up out of the heatbreak and cause a clog up where there would not normally be melted filament

It’s in between, the recommended temp is 190 - 230 and 0 - 60. So while my hot end should be fine temperature wise, my bed could be too hot?

Except you are having trouble in the hot end. The bed heat seems fine if your first layes is good and the prints are sticking then thats all you.want from the bed

So I’m running out of options here…
Regarding the coupler randomly coming loose, any suggestions for that? I’ve rescrewed that, but I’m not sure if that is going to be a longer term solution

When you say the extruder coupler are you talking about the part the Bowden tube fits inside? in pictures the only blue wheel I see in photos is like an indicator so you can see if the motor is turning. under that is the gear that drives the filament and opposite that is a bearing that holds the filament inline with the Bowden tube. Mine looks the same as that actually. What is coming loose, the gear part?

for the filament issue I’d do at least the temperature and retraction tuning sections from that site I linked.


This is the part that’s coming loose, and I think that’s also resulting in some fail prints when it comes loose and can’t make grip with the filament

The brass gear. Does the motor shaft have a flat side on it for the set screw to engage? If it does and that’s where you are tightening the set screw then you may need to put loctite on it. Purple is probably the right kind for that or blue. There’s another discussion on set screws recently on here but suffice to say that none of the set screws ive seen on a 3d printer are implemented properly and can be prone to come loose. The loc tight will make up for the sloppy fit on the motor shaft and help keep it from loosening the set screw.

Okay then, I’ll look into getting some purple loctite then - I think it’ll be able to work for the time being, but I suppose I’ll try and tune hot end again. Do you have any recommendations for brass nozzles? I’ve seen some at 3D Printing Canada, but I just want to make sure I’m getting the right one. (Sorry for asking so many questions, I’m very new to this haha)

I think any Mk8 nozzle would work.

Canadian Tire generally has blue in stock.

Awesome! Thank you so much for the help!

For nozzles, I would recommend the Official Creality MK8 nozzles.

You dont need thread sealer or “loctite” I’d suggest getting a new dual gear extruder from amazon the 3dman red aluminum ones are abput 14$ i love them and they work great… when tightening the actual filament pushing gear i will call it use the end of the allen wrench that DOES NOT have the ball on it and make sure u dont strip it out… as another person mentioned make sure u tighten the set screw on the flat D part of the motor shaft … added info my ender 3 v2 has only 1 feature i like over the standard economy model and thats silent drivers besides that i cant stand the fact they limit you on the settings you can use during a print such as filament flow % besides that i cant tell the difference in the prints … so for the extra 100$ id get the economy version and upgrade the hotend and extruder …just venting on how much i dislike the ender 3 v2 and yes i know it has other upgrades but non of them have shown me that the quality of prints was upgraded aswell…

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Do you have a link for this? I’ll look into it later tonight

Did your problem get fixed? What was the solution? I’m having the same issue on my Ender 3V2