Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

On my Max (and also just started on my Eris), if I have a long print, say over 2 or 3 hours, the extruder gets jammed and the filament worn down. So when I discover the nozzle is printing with air, I cancer the print, attempt to do a warm pull of the filament out of the hot end, etc. The filament breaks at the point of engagement with the extruder. I pull the tube out of the extruder and pull out the remaining filament with no problem. I will put a new roll on tomorrow and it will start to print right away, (I've been through this several times) so I don't think it is a blockage in the hot end.

The other thing that may be relevant is that I tried printing this octopus from Thingiverse, octo-object-double_sided-low-poly2.stl. I blew it up to maximum size and started printing. This is a really complex print with scads of retractions. In many cases the head jumps from intersections to intersections just printing a single drop. That was the first time this happened and now it feels as if my extruder is cursed.

I'm sure there is a simple way to deal with this, I'm still pretty wet behind the ears.

What's your retraction speed set at? If you're too aggressive with it, you can end up grinding away a section of filament during a print with tons of retraction, like the octopus.

I have it at 150. I will take it down to 100 and see what happens. Thanks

Woah, that's insane! Back it off to 45mm/sec at the most. No wonder that poor thing is packing it in after a while.

g.

Thanks much!!

I brought my extruder speed down to 40 mm/s and things appear to be better except that I went to print a large Buddha head and after about 5 hours (when I was asleep), the extruder jammed again. Had to take the bowden out of the extruder and even then the filament wouldn't come out, had to use a pliers to force it out. The filament was ground flat which is why it was so difficult to get it out. Cleaned out the extruder by running a straightened paperclip through to get any material hanging around out. I don't understand how this happened since the retraction speed was low and there were not a lot of retractions happening anyway. There must be other things wrong with my settings though they are pretty standard, speed between 50 and 60 mm/sec, temps: nozzle 210, bed 70, etc. Any ideas or things to check is much appreciated.

It's printing now with no problem, though for how long?

How long are the retracts set to? With the HE280, you want to keep them under 3mm.

g.

I was having a similar problem, i am assuming you are printing with PLA.

It would not be the case with all types or brands, but ultimately I found I was printing at too high a temperature. I did regularly print at 210, now I am printing at 190 and getting better results. Especially at the first layer.

I'm at 5mm. Will take it down, thanks.

knabo wrote:I was having a similar problem, i am assuming you are printing with PLA.

It would not be the case with all types or brands, but ultimately I found I was printing at too high a temperature. I did regularly print at 210, now I am printing at 190 and getting better results. Especially at the first layer.

Thanks, I also reduced the temperature, though it varies with the kind of PLA used. I will try to print at the lowest possible temps from now on. I still don't understand how the temperature and retraction settings are responsible for this, but I'm still pretty new to things so I have adjusted my settings accordingly. We'll see how things turn out. I am printing an 8 hour object right now, if it goes to the end, I will feel pretty good about the settings, if not, I will continue to investigate and ask questions.