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I've been having very good prints with my new RMv2, but today I am getting some clicking sounds coming from the extruder stepper and it has gotten very hot to the touch, about 50 C according to my optical thermometer. Is this normal? I am getting fine printing, there doesn't seem to be any hangups in the bowden tube or from the reel, so I'm stumped. Some places I looked say to turn down the current to the stepper, is that a possibility for a solution? Heck, this may be the SOP for the stepper, but this is my 4th or 5th print so I can't be sure! Thanks!

Is your printer bed level calibrated well? Isn't first layer too thin? Try to raise a little, and see if it helps

The steppers are designed to run hot, 50C is fine, I'd start to worry at 70C+ for the extruder stepper, mine runs all day at ~60C+

It's something increasing back pressure, that's usually either bad 0 setting, if the extruder is too close to the build plate or the previous layer or over extrusion, these types of issues stop clicking after a few layers if the hotend doesn't jam first.
A jammed hotend will also do it, but you generally don't get any extrusion when this happens.
Too low an extrusion temperature, if you were borderline in extrusion temperature, filament (especially cheap stuff) can vary within a roll and some parts can require an extra 5C or so.
Too low stepper current, or less likely too high, you can usually rule out the latter by making sure you have air blowing over the stepper drivers on the rambo.

Thanks for the suggestions. When I get home I will see if there is over extrusion occurring and maybe raise temps a bit. I do run at 228°C for ABS, So I thought that would be fine. My bed is very level, I am sure, but I will maybe raise the zero Z height about 0.03 or so to check. I am also getting some "popping" from the extruder nozzle where it almost sounds like an air bubble being forced out. Could that be water in the ABS? I can bake it in the oven a while if needed.

redoverred wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. When I get home I will see if there is over extrusion occurring and maybe raise temps a bit. I do run at 228°C for ABS, So I thought that would be fine. My bed is very level, I am sure, but I will maybe raise the zero Z height about 0.03 or so to check. I am also getting some "popping" from the extruder nozzle where it almost sounds like an air bubble being forced out. Could that be water in the ABS? I can bake it in the oven a while if needed.

The popping can be water, though that's normally accompanied by steam, or it can just be air bubbles in the filament.

You will need to take apart the stepper assy and clean the drive gear. It is probably gunked up with ABS, and you will need to scrape that off before you start troubleshooting.

RAMTechRob wrote:You will need to take apart the stepper assy and clean the drive gear. It is probably gunked up with ABS, and you will need to scrape that off before you start troubleshooting.

Oh, I literally have just gotten this so it has like 10 hours of printing on it so I doubt it is gunked, but I will look and see just in case something happened. Thanks!

Once you hear the clicking, that is the motor grinding away at the filament. Then the knurled get stuffed with filament and it gets worse.

RAMTechRob wrote:Once you hear the clicking, that is the motor grinding away at the filament. Then the knurled get stuffed with filament and it gets worse.

I see, I will check it out then, thanks.

I guess I kind of solved it by tweaking some Slic3r settings. Also, some of the "clicking" I thought that I heard was from a tiny little sponge filament duster I have on there and it was actually squeaking! It was grinding a tiny bit so I cleaned out the stuff with canned air and a brush and it seems to be going pretty well now. Also, I re-leveled the bed PERFECTLY this time because there were some parts where it was so close it wasn't extruding.

Huzzah!