Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

After failed print after failed print, I can only conclude that the heat from the extruder stepper is causing the filament to soften to the point that it just squishes and won't feed.

Is there a way to fix this problem?

Thanks

You could point a desk fan at the motor long enough to print a fan shroud for it, then hook up a small 20mm fan or something for a more permanent installation. Wire it up to the same wires that feed the PEEK fan perhaps?

i will totally concur, not that is causes me issues, but that stepper motor gets BLISTERING hot.

This is what happens between 1.5 and 2.5 hours into every print.

How fast are you printing? What temp?

I've found that things like that happen when you go too fast at too low a temperature.

g.

geneb wrote:How fast are you printing? What temp?

I've found that things like that happen when you go too fast at too low a temperature.

g.

Interesting! Thank you, I'll investigate that further.

Cheers

I had a simular problem. My extruded motor would get super hot with jobs that had lots of retracts. I ended up attaching a fan with a built in heat sink that I had salvaged from a old video card. I wired it inline with the peek fan. Solved the problem of the hot motor.

RichardMac wrote:I had a simular problem. My extruded motor would get super hot with jobs that had lots of retracts. I ended up attaching a fan with a built in heat sink that I had salvaged from a old video card. I wired it inline with the peek fan. Solved the problem of the hot motor.

Also interesting as this print does in fact have a lot of retracts. Thanks for the post.
I like the idea of heatsink/fan. I have tons of computer equipment including a few older style CPU coolers.

Cheers

This is like the part I salvaged. Used some paste between the sink and the motor

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131282045366?ru ... 26_rdc%3D1

RichardMac wrote:This is like the part I salvaged. Used some paste between the sink and the motor

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131282045366?ru ... 26_rdc%3D1

I have a couple of those laying around too lol

I think both of those suggestions were very helpfull. The latest print (which is actually still printing at this moment!) is doing very good.
I made 2 changes.
1: I reduced the speed by 25%
2: I switched to RepetierHost and Sli3er.

Sli3er has produced a huge reduction in retracts and the filitment extruder is over 12 degrees cooler!
Slower seems to have produced a good result too

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. They have been very helpfull to me.

Here's a vid for ya.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITOsNOVZIFs[/youtube]

Cheers!

I spoke too soon.
Still can't get a successfull print with Red PLA.