Filament stops feeding

[jrosennc]

I've been trying to print something using t-glase and no matter what I tried I couldn't convince matterslice to generate the necessary support material so I tried switching to slic3r. Previewing in mattercontrol showed the necessary support material but when I tried to print, on the second layer I hard a pop kind of sound and when I looked over at the printer all seemed ok until I realized the filament wasn't feeding. The filament stepper was continuing to turn as if it was feeding but the filament wasn't moving. There was plenty of slack in the filament and after manually releasing the filament and re-positioning it began to feed again.

I figured that the filament must of gotten hung up and by the time I looked over after hearing the pop the spool must have freed itself but the filament was not aligned properly in the stepper where it's feed from.

I cleaned the bed and restarted the print. Again I wasn't watching but to my surprise it happened once more at what seems like exactly the same place on the same layer as the first time.

I haven't tried a third time but I'm wondering if something could be wrong with slic3r where it's generated a command that really fowls up the stepper that feeds the filament.

So now I'm not sure if there's something wrong with my printer and certain print sequences stress it enough to cause the filament to lock up, or maybe it's slic3r's fault for generating bad commands?

Anybody experience something like this before?

Any suggestions?

[grimmindustries]

I just added an E3D v6 hotend to my RM and I'm having a similar issue. I can manually push the t-glase through the hotend and the extruder will feed it, but they don't work together, the extruder seems to slip on it.

[Nylocke]

T-Glase is pretty vicious in comparison to PLA and ABS. You'll need a large layer height and a large nozzle. .6mm works pretty well from what Ive heard

[precisionpete]

If your running the stock Orion hot end your going to need to print real slow and hotter than you should with the orion.

I have a E3D hot end on my orion and I print at 235-240 Deg C and ~ 10mm/s anything faster or cooler and I have problems.
The pop your hearing is the stepper slipping, stop before you damage something.

My suggestion if to invest in a new hot end if your going to print T-Glase.

Give us some more info on your print settings temp and speed.

Also, measure your filament accurately and use that number for your filament diameter instead of 1.75mm

These will help but with the stock hot end I would NOT recommend trying to print with T-Glase unless you can print real slow.

[jrosennc]

For the temp/speed I started with the PLA profile and modified the temp's.
I set the Extruder Temp to 230 and I also up'ed the Extrude First Layer to 228.
I also up'ed the bed temp to 65/70 (Bed First Layer/Bed Temperature).

The only other change I made was to check the "Generate Support Material".

I did not modify the print speed. Looks like in general its set to 30 mm/s.

Given that the problem occurred in the exact same place on two prints I can't help but wonder though if it's not the print speed/temp but something it does at that point in the print cycle other than the normal extruding it had been doing up to that point. It's not obvious to tell from the print what transition might be occurring (like some sort of retraction or move) and using mattercontrol's layer view again I see no indication on that layer that there is any sort of transition.

I don't have calipers so I don't know that I can easily measure the diameter.
I'll try slowing the print down, uping the temps and increasing the layer height (which was set to .2).

If anybody has a config file for t-glase I would be interested (the one under downloads doesn't seem to work will in mattercontrol, I can't seem to get the "generate support material" configured/enabled.

Given the trouble I seem to be having with getting access to and having settings take effect in mattercontrol I'm curious if others suggest using mattercontrol (the only thing I've used so far) vs. other software (Repetier-Host?).

[Mac The Knife]

I've had my Max a little over six months now. I started with Repetier and occasionally try Mattercontrol, but I always end back at Repetier. I had a problem with my extruder "popping" and not feeding, I tracked it down to the hob not being centered on the pinch roller. The pinch roller arm, on my extrider, is flexible enough to allow the bearing to roll off the filament. Once I recentered the hob, that problem went away.

[jdurand]

I just ran into a bad spool of PLA, snapped in two places just unspooling. This was during the night on my other printer using their premium filament, so I've left a message that I expect a replacement spool.

*grump*

[jrosennc]

So I've up'ed the temp and lowered the speed and so far it's printing much better.
I will say that the Nozzle temp seems to have a tough time staying at the target temp of 235. Struggles to stay in the 230's and I've seen as low as 226.x.

Is this kind of swing in temps normal?

[Mac The Knife]

With the stock resistors? yes. Wait till you start using a layer fan, and then see how far it drops.

[jrosennc]

Just an update based upon some more experiments...
Repetier-Host seems to do a better job at keeping the nozzle temp close to the target. It still falls short but not as far on average.

T-glase does *not* like overhangs. In general the problem seems to be that it tends to curl upwards so you've got to have good adhesion down to the build plate to keep it from curling up. I've also had issues with the prints further from the center curling up off the build plate.

I can up the temp's on the plate but I'm also a little concerned that at some point it will work against me.

One other note. I had left the mesh on the reel of t-glase (with a full reel it seemed to just want to jump off and unspool) but a little ways into the roll it seems to feed better without the mesh (btw, I printed off my own spool holder as the default was too big for the smaller hole in the t-glase spools).

Off to do more experimenting... Oh, and though it seems to be a bit touchy to print with, when it works and with the right designs this stuff can produce some really interesting results.

[geneb]

FYI, the host software doesn't have anything to do with how well temperature is maintained. All the host does is send an M code that tells the firmware on the RAMBo what temp you want the hot end or heated bed at.

g.

[jrosennc]

Could it be the layer fan?
I don't recall mattercontrol turning it on/off but I have noticed Repetier doing so.

[HumanLiberty]

I'm having the same problem on my Rostock Max v2.
The latest print was coming out great using 25% infill, 237 temp, and 15m/s speed. Then is just stopped feeding - no idea why.

I saw someone in this google thread say they had this problem and found it was caused by a dry solder joint somewhere.
(here's the link - scroll to end for solution. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic ... U707Zhg2Ig" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
I hope it's not that, because it sounds like a pain to find/diagnose.

Have you guys ever heard of another PET called HDGlass?
Supposed to be clearer, and faster+easier to print than T-Glase.

Ordered some yesterday at Makergeeks - (makergeeks.com/hdglasspetg.html)

will try it and let you know the outcome.

Meantime, any help w T-Glase feed problem would be much appreciated.