extruder flow issues

[Tyrie]

Hi All,

Disclaimer : I am a noobe, first ever 3d printer first ever play with one....

Have just purchased a new Prusa i3 X pro, assembled it yesterday, completed the pre-start checks etc, but I have a problem with he extruder. when I performed the test print after going through all the slicer setup instructions from Geeetech, it printed very wispily from the start the "plate" the sample print printed very pachiliy,it looks like a piece of fly wire.
I have the latest firmware (oct 15) Board is the Gt2560, extrusion material is PLA.

The hot end was set to 220 start 200 operational, and the bed to 65. over the course of the next two test prints ( a 15mm x 15mm x 10mm rectangle) I played with the heat and other settings, increasing the heat in 10 degree intervals to 250 Deg C made it extrude more evenly, however it was too hot and subsequently the rectangle sagged.
I also noticed the feeder motor keeps feeding in as required but every so often I get this little thump noise from it, a closer inspection shows it is every few seconds allowing the feed wheel to roll back (backing off the pressure) and then immediately it starts feeding again. Its like the feed pressure is too great and the pressure over comes the stepper motors force and and rolls it back a step.
I have played with the spring tension from very loose to very tight through he print and doesn't seem to make any changes.

Thanks in advance for any assistance

[Mark]

Your temperature is too high for PLA, try 195-205 degrees. And the clocking sound might be your hotend is clogged, check this link here to verfy it:
http://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopic ... 13&t=17097

[Tyrie]

Thanks, found the output of the drier to be less than 0.8, tip is brand new first use. had to wind the extruder up to 1.4v to get it operating smooth without tick.
I have started cutting back the temp now to get a better finish. Once I have the temperature back down and rule this out as an issue I will have to look at the extruder voltage and find out why it is above 1.2v??

Any hints, I just completed a 45 minute test print and about half way through is were I adjusted the voltage and the feed improved to be really good no fly wire type effect it is nice layers, the hot end is as you say too hot as I am getting strings accross open air sections or on hot end moves. Dropped to 205 before power failed... will gave another at adjusting temps down later.

thanks

Ty

[jimmypop]

Hi guys I am a first time user and need a little help

Have just purchased a new Prusa i3 B pro, assembled it and now I'm trying to print I have followed the instructions from geeetech wiki and tips from the forum rooms I was just wondering how you
managed to increase the flow rate of the filament as I can not seem to get it to flow unless I'm holding the filament and manual feeding it through the extruder

please help
James

[Mark]

if you can manually feed the filament, then how about tighten the screw on the extruder? does your exruder motor actually turns or not when control it in the repetier host?