EzStruder Click sound!?

[Cox]

So I have been printing (finally!) and got through a 24 hour print with no problems what so ever.

Now I started it up to print a 8 hour job and half way in (middle of the night) it started making a click sound at the ezstruder. Is my motor shot? I do not know what could be the cause. Going to pull the filament out and look more at it. Any experience with this?

[geneb]

What hot end? What material?

That "click" sound is the stepper motor skipping. It does that if it can't push the plastic through the hot end.

If you watch it, each "click" will be coupled with the knob on the stepper motor turning backwards for a short distance.

g.

[Cox]

Wow the motor got so hot it melted the PLA inside of the struder.... Anyway to solve this in the future (I assume allow for a cooldown period)? Should I put a fan on the motor?

[geneb]

You might try lowering the current setting on the motor.

g.

[teoman]

A fan would be a good idea.

It could also be that your hotend is not up to temp so it is more difficult to push the filament.