update: yesterday i received my new (replacement) effector assembly, it had the hot-end (heater block) assembled within and nozzle, heater core and thermistor all put together and wired up;
the way it happened:
i e-chatted with FLSUN support about getting a new replacement heater block + nozzle; they said they would send free;
i then in consultation with them a few days later agreed that attempting to melt the hardened plastic around the old heater block ( so that i could take it out ) would very likely damage the effector assembly, given that it is a sensitive piece of equipment , much vibration, high speed, high temp, much movement, etc
they agreed to sell me a replacement effector at half the advertised price;
great so far, then i e-chatted back and said that in my dream world the heater block+nozzle would be installed in the effector when i got it
when i received the unit ( a reasonable shipping time ) the unit was all put together; super
installation/replacement looks to be very straightforward so should be on-line again shortly;
all told i give their support high marks, instead of trying to sell me an entire replacement printer they helped my fix mine;
and now i get to take apart the old unit , with no risk, just for educational purposes;
I found a very good Prusa slicer profile for Flsun v400 by Rey Alicea:
You can see, same model sliced with Cura 5.3.1 left side (seam random) and sliced with Prusa profile (seam aligned). Prusa slicer have better result with seam aligned. Cura leave small bumps all over even with seam aligned.
i think i will go the route of another poster on this forum, much more veteran than i***, when it comes to clogs i wont mess with cold pulls ( i dont think the delta 400 can do cold pulls, i couldnt , would have to exert enough force to topple that big printer over) and all the other methods that dont seem to work well enough;
his approach was to just change nozzles; so i will soon be in the business of stock-piling nozzles;
o well i will get very good at changing nozzles ( and buying them);
the flsun site offers nozzle kits but they are packaged in strange collection-of-parts packages that i dont need and they are pricey
*** and he happens to read thisā¦thanks for the good advice
Can I ask what do you think a cold pull is? Iām curious as to understand why you think you have to exert so much force on things.
If you do a quick Google search, you will find instructions on how to do it. They vary a bit in terms of what to do when you are about to pull out the material (see my comments below on this):
Personally, I find cold pulls best used in situations where Iāve changed material and it seems like some of the old material (usually PLA when Iām going to a higher temperature filament) gets burned and hard in the end of the nozzle and is causing uneven material extrusion.
My process is:
Disable the tensioner on the extruder (I only run direct drive on all my printers).
Heat the nozzle up to an appropriate temperature for the new material.
Manually push down the new material until I see 5cm or so of material come up - NOTE: if I donāt see any material, then I usually end up looking at replacing the nozzle. The only time Iāll use something other than the new material I want to use is when that new material is black (and you canāt see when it gets clean). I havenāt measured how hard I push but youāre going to have to apply 2kg-3kg (5lbs to 7lbs) of force.
Let the nozzle cool to 50C or less (Iām not sure about the 80C to 120C in some of the examples above).
Pull until the end of the filament. This doesnāt require that much force - I havenāt measured it but itās less than 5kg/10lbs.
Repeat until the filament comes out clean - it usually takes me two to three cycles.
Enable the extruder tensioner.
If you have to exert so much force that youāre physically moving the printer in any direction, youāre doing it wrong.
I rarely do cold pulls personally, never been very effective for me. I have x nozzles on many of my printers and it isnāt recommended with them. I donāt think it would hurt an V400 you would likely need to support the head.
I am very fast to change brass nozzles. I rarely get clogs, I tend to use high grade filaments and surface filters on the filament so there isnāt much junk to cause issues.
Personally I use one of these things,
and needles from the bottom.
I just heat the extruser up to 15 or 20Āŗ beyond the filament. Turn off the printer push the wire down the throat, and sue the needle into the nozzle opening.
plse let me try to clarify:
no extrusion comes out of the nozzle even at 300;
a cleaning filament was inserted and even at 300 i cannot unload thru the top; so i concluded my cleaning filament is fused to the blockage;
at this point i cant go forward (extrusion) or backward (unload);
so i try the .4 mm prick tool inserted into the nozzle from the bottom at 300;
goes in a short ways and hits something hard; back-and-forth a number of times = no joy;
the amount of force i was using was trying to unload;
so i could only conclude that i had a nasty clog and since i have extra nozzles , a nozzle replacement was the best way forward;
i read all the articles whose links you sent; thank you for that ;
the only one i found that seemed a dim potential out for me was the one where the author mentioned some distinction between heater-block and nozzle clogs ( that author then when into only discussing nozzlesā¦) but in my case these nozzles are 21 mm long, which i think is pretty much the whole heater block, so that heater-block-clog may not much apply to my case;
since i had extra nozzles and had done a replacement on this printer beforeā¦;
on that sub-topic, as regards the right torque applied to screwing the replacement nozzle in, i figured as much as needed factoring in that i might in the future have to be able to unscrew itā¦;
on an allied issue i once torqued off the nozzle ātopā and broke it, leaving the nozzle throat inside ( bad news) so it may be that i am overtorquing when screwing in;
i wonder about the quality of the nozzles that i am using, my immediate replacements are brass sent from the manufacturer; i have ordered a steel-hardened nozzle
(E3D Nozzle Volcano Hardened Steel 1.75mm x 0.4mm | Lazada.co.th) in the hopes of an upgrade in nozzle quality; rate of exchange that translates into about 30 $USD
Sorry to hear about the jam - I was reacting to your comment:
when it comes to clogs i wont mess with cold pulls ( i dont think the delta 400 can do cold pulls, i couldnt , would have to exert enough force to topple that big printer over)
The few times Iāve been in that situation, Iāve found that I have to replace parts. Can you remove the nozzle and see if you can clear the heat break (pass filament through when itās cold)? If that is the case then all youāll have to do is replace the nozzle.
thanks a bunch; i never knew those filters existed; i was pleasantly surprised one of my standard e-suppliers over here in thailand has them in stock; the filters are rated high and inexpensive; ordered 2
I tend to always use hardened steel nozzles. I find they hold up very well. I have no clue how many prints my E3D X nozzle has printed but itās been on the printer a year so around 50 kg of filament? hard to say. It seems fine. For the cost of that much filament name brand nozzles are cheap and in my experience they are more accurate and print better than clones. The taper to the point has been demonstrated smoother and not as sharp a taper.
I have used successfully a volcano adapter. Original CNC Kitchen Volcano Adapter Version 2 ā CNCKitchen I like Stephanās videos so I donāt mind supporting his efforts. it allows a easier to find nozzles with little to no difference in performance, at least as far as I can see.
well i think my flsun v400 days are done, the latest big clog required me taking the effector head completely apart, it looks like somehow the gear axis had gotten off and the interior gears werent turning well (manually) i reset that but it highlights a serious flaw in this printer;
overall it has become too much trouble for me;
i will move on; recent searches have shown there isnt another printer at this feature and price point if you absoltuely require tall z, fast speed, wifi, (quoted) printer accuracy, etc;
so i might put this back together and print until next-big-problem but that will be it for me with this brand;
then i will wait, maybe revisit the market in 6 months, and hope another manufacturer ( i hope prusa) will offer something decent
** the initial issue here was a clog, i replaced the nozzle, nothing, then i took the nozzle off, no filament could be loaded, with or without the unload lever engaged and doing the feed manually
i will provide photos of what i am about to try to describe narrationally;
the āclogā i ran into isnt really a clog so much as it as a ājamā;
i took the effector head completely apart, not fun considering you might have to reassemble it;
i wont have to do that;
fatal end;
there is an area in the overall flow just above the top of the heater block , in a metal sleeve area that , IF, the solid filament breaks there, or a broken fragment is forced there, will block all fixes from above and below;
that area is above the heat so heat wont help;
that area , when blocked with hard filament will require a new effector head as the only remedy as there is no way to get that hard filament out of that area;
i have contacted flsun about this and they offerred me a new effector assembly;
that doesnt fix the design flaw and in theory you could be replacing effector assemblies every day;
no way to live
I had something like that with my Zortrax Inventure - the first time it happened, it took me three hours to take apart the toolhead, clear the jam and put things back together. After a few times, I got this time to around 45 minutes - it was a huge job with lots of little pieces. Over the year or so I worked with this printer, I got two free toolheads.
The only advice I can give is to look to see what is actually happening and see if thereās anything you can do to reduce the likelihood that it can happen. In my case, the problem was a PTFE tube that was wearing out every few hundred hours - to replace it, it turned out to be a ten to twenty minute job without having to pull and disassemble the toolhead.
What really pissed me off was that there are filament movement sensors built into the toolhead that could have been polled to indicate when the jam took place and stop the print so it could be cleared from the top but, no matter how much I begged, they wouldnāt add the software to monitor these sensors.
After I had the printer for a year, Zortrax stopped selling it and removed support for it.
Good luck - hopefully things will work out better for you than for me.
well i appreciate your thoughtful response; i will be taking a sabbatical from 3d printing; after what i experienced i no longer think this niche industry is mature enough for what i expect at this point;
taking effector assemblies all the way down to clear a clog/block/jam isnt my idea of something that has progressed enough;
i experienced high highs along the way and am thankful for that; i will check back on the state of the consumer side of this industry in 6-12 months, hoping there is a big-player out there offerring a unit at what i believe i need (note the recent flop that creality had with their integrated klipper and their almost-opensourceā¦);
as an aside, if prusa came out with a printer with similar specs to the V400 (but with added power-drop coverage) i would pay double what i paid for the flsun
This is the big problem with 3D printing. It is plagued with poor designs and reliance upon "moddingā to get the machines running well. I have not had a jam with the FLsun but they have poor slicer profiles at best. I sound like a broken record but there is a reason why companies like Prusa are so well respected. The designs by the time they are released have 1000s of hours of printing already. Not like most companies out there, sometimes I think they have gone to full production and nobody actually used it at all. Basic issues not corrected out of the gate.
My XL just arrived, if the bloody basement had not flooded Iād have been assembling it now. I have a Mk3 (upgraded to a MK3s+) I am considering a new upgrade for it as well as they sell upgrade kits. It is by many many times the most reliable printer I own. It is un modified and runs perfectly, I rarely need to fiddle with it. honestly I almost never wait for the first layer to even start before I walk away. I almost never have failures.
I feel the pain also. My V400 has been a big PITA since about 1 week after I purchased it. I am now looking for a replacement, as no one should have to put up with such a maintenance nightmare just to print a few 3D things. Iām looking hard at the Bambu P1P, but am still holding back because I donāt want to experience another big disappointment (like you also have experienced). I might join you in giving the market another 6 to 7 months before seriously considering another purchase. Cheers, =Ed=
