Mk8 Extruder adjustment

[jburke4]

Hello,

Looking for guidance on adjusting the Mk8 Extruder. Mine keeps making a clicking sound and not feeding the filament. I see people stating that this is an adjustment issue in various forums but nothing that explains the proper way to correct this. There is an adjustment bolt on top of my extruder which doesn't seem to actually do anything when adjusted.

I have included a photo of the type of extruder that I have. If needed I can post my actual extruder as soon as I figure out where my wife put my phone.

s-l1000[1].jpg (170.3 KiB) Viewed 18268 times

This is the type of printer I have:

i3.jpg (234.13 KiB) Viewed 18268 times

[Mark]

have you checked this thread?
http://www.geeetech.com/forum/viewtopic ... 19&t=17097

[jburke4]

I read that post, thank you for sharing it but it looks like everything I have already tried.

I have adjusted the screw from it's highest most point to it's lowest it tiny 1 turn increments and it does not seem to solve the issue. It will feed incrementally but then I get the periodic popping sound and it stops feeding thereby ruining the print. It isn't clogged. I've adjusted temperatures. Nothing seems to work.

[jburke4]

This is my i3.

My i3.jpg (202.01 KiB) Viewed 18230 times

[Mark]

how's your slic3r settings? and the filament, PLA or ABS? is it new one or very old?

[jburke4]

Everything is new including the filament.

It was working great then suddenly began intermittently jamming. Running PLA with the extruder at 220. I started at 210 and kicked it up to 220 in the hope that was the issue but it isn't. I adjust the tensioning bolt very slowly but it does not seem to resolve the issue. If I place a little bit of pressure on the metal tab sticking out of the front of the extruder, no clue what it's called, then it runs fine so it tells me it's a tension issue.

[jburke4]

Looking closely at the tensioning screw and the design does not make a lot of sense to me. I see other extruders online and there is a solid bolt going all the way down through to the bottom of the frame, but mine is a bolt that only seems to push down on the top of the spring. There is a bolt coming in from the bottom of the extruder frame which seems to serve only the purpose of keeping the spring in place. There is a cap on the spring with threads going about 1/3 into the spring. When I screw the tensioning bold down it seems to press down on this cap, compressing the spring, but I can't see it doing anything else. Perhaps this is the way this model is supposed to work and there is something happening that I can't see.

[jburke4]

Sorry, just trying to work this out in my head. It looks like the more you tighten the tensioning screw the more it is supposed to lift the lever device thereby placing pressure on the grooved wheel squeezing the filament against the gear. Unfortunately it seems that the lever on my extruder may be too tight, sticking, or something because when I adjust the bolt it keeps returning to it's original position on me. Should I lubricate this, try to loosen it or something?

[Mark]

yeah not too tight or the filament will be hard to move; also the temperature, 220 is too high for the PLA, have you tried 195? I use this one and print well.

[techrad]

How to sort out this problem.
1 remove fan and heat sink
2 remove arm
3 using 1.5 mm hex allen key undo the two grub screws, realine one with the flat on steeper motor shaft and tighten up. tighten the other one to sharft this will stop the sharft slipping
4 using a cut off of filiment feed into the extruder and carefully tighten the adjustment screw until it bits the filiment.
5 reassemble repeat if you have other extruders.