My nozzle on my CR Ender 3 s1. Keeps clogging in the print head and I do not know why.
Specifics:
Printer is a year old
I have printed maybe three - four rolls of filament so far, different brands
Settings:
• Sprite dual gear direct extruder
• Print Speed 50mm/s [25mm/s when printing walls;
• Retraction 1.0mm
• Retraction speed 40.0
• fan speed 100% - initial fan speed is 0 until layer 4
IIID Max vanilla Cream PLA+ was the first filament to give me issues. I was getting “clicking” sounds from the print head. I interpreted this to mean that the PLA was not being melted enough and the extruder could not force the PLA through the nozzle. I tried increasing the temp of the print head and found a temp were the clicking stopped. This took several attempts, but I did get it to work again. But not reliable. I could get a 3 to 5 hour print done, once an 11 hr one done. But often the next print, I would encounter a clog. eventually I stopped printing before I finished using up the vanilla cream as printing was unreliable
ordered new nozzles, and started printing with a 0.6mm nozzle vs 0.4. I finished off the vanilla cream PLA and moved to an already opened package of PLA (opened 8 months ago). And… I got a clog within the first hour of printing. Was printing at 215 (temp range for euro silk spicy copper is 210 - 240. The current clog is the best one yet as I cannot pull out the PLA, even with the print head heated to 240.
Normally I set the Nozzle print temp to be 10 degrees above the minimum temp called for by the manufacture
I am printing in a basement office
not much humidity in the basement
the Euro Silk PLA has been open to the air for 8 months
The vanilla cream PLA was from a newly opened package
I do not understand why I am getting clogs. I look forward to hearing your advice.
I had a ot of issues with the IIID filaments. I found they jammed on the spool poorly wound and the sides of the spool were bent jamming the filament. It presents as if you have a jam at the nozzle.
Make sure the nozzle is clear. Try different filament. I would suggest a high quality brand the has perfect winding. If the attention to details exist in the quality of the windings it will likely continue through all the process.
Good morning! There are several possible reasons for constant clogging. Firstly, make sure that the nozzle is properly installed after replacing the nozzle. If there is a gap between the nozzle and the thermal barrier, the hot filament may get stuck in this space during retraction, causing nozzle clogging.
It is also important to check if there is enough pressure between the gears of your extruder. After loading the filament, try pulling it out or pushing it through without using force. If the filament moves easily, it may indicate insufficient pressure between the gears for proper extrusion.
Equally important is to reduce the retraction speed to a minimum - 25 mm/s. After achieving stable printing, you can gradually increase this speed.
I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. Retraction of up to 2 mm is possible when using a direct extruder. In your case, 1mm should work very well. I usually use 0.6 for PLA and 1.3 for PTG. And the retraction speed is 25mm/s.
Silks can be odd they expand after they exit the nozzle they can cause some issues. The 0.6 generally will not clog with particles and junk. I use mostly 0.6 and almost never have any clogs of any kind. It’s been over a year.
If it isn’t the filament spool or the path to the hot end it might be the simplest to just replace the throat. Is it lined or unlined? The liner can get quite mangled over time and could be the issue. I am not big on spending a lot of time solving issues with a consumable parts. Personally I usually just would replace the nozzle and throat once it was apart.
I would always look to the filament first as it is the easiest and simplest fix. It sucks to tinker with the hot end to find it is the spool causing issues.
the fan to cool the heat sinks is running
-Missing PTFE tube?
Should my Creality Ender 3 S1 have a PTFE tube in the heat block? I removed my heat block to clean a PLA plug and there is no PTFE tube in my heat block. There is a PTFE tube in the heat break. I have uploaded two photos.
When I look at videos online when removing the heat block to clean a really clogged nozzle/heat block.
They also remove, check and often replace a PTFE tube in the heat block.
My Ender 3 S1 does not have one. is this because i have an all metal hot end? I did not think this came with an Ender 3 S1. Or maybe I pulled it out by accident when removing previous clogs?
Nope that is correct, you can see in the first picture it is tucked up into the body of the extruder. The actual heat break on this printer is metal, then the bowden tube just guides the filament past the extruder gears into the heatbreak.
I am now able to print. I opened a brand new box of PLA. Took out my hot end and cleaned the throat and put in a new nozzle. I reduced my retraction distance from 0.8mm/s to 0,7 Kept my retraction speed the same … 40mms/s
I have been able to print for 7 hours now. on my third print. So… I think I am out of the woods.
I am still clogging. getting tired of this and have taken another step on the path of giving up
This is what is going on and where I am:
New 0.4 nozzle
New PLA
Printed more than 7 hours and then filament snapped
Before printing again I had to clean the nozzle as it was clogged and I also had the snapped filament in still in the print head. Removed nozzle and hot end; cleaned both of melted filament
Then Printed over 24 hrs … no issue
For the next print, I had to stop after 10 mins as I noticed globs or raised areas on the printed surface. the printed surface was not smooth in some areas. I thought globs of PLA were coming out. so I stopped the print, cleaned the plate and started again.
This time I printed for 3 hours and then the filament stopped coming out, the extruder was making clicking noises as if the gears were slipping on the filament; no filament was being extruded, though the hot end was hot
I paused print and tried to push out/force filament out of the hot end - but snapped the filament. This filament seems brittle in places
Next steps? Not sure what to do:
replace the hot end with a new one - i have an extra one
replace the hot end with a new ceramic hot end? I have one
throw out this filament and try another?
give up on 0.4 nozzles and work with 0.8?
just give up? Well I will not give up just yet. I want to try a few more things.
Here are my settings:
Print bed is 60C
Print temp is 220 (max for this PLA is 230)
PLA is the same as mentioned in a previous post
Print speed is 50.mm/s
Travel speed 150
Pint cooling is enabled
fan speed 100%
retraction distance is 0.7
I was printing at low quality 0.28mm
