Filament Issue ?

[Nifty]

Well, this popped it's ugly head up again.

This time I'm pretty sure I know the issue.

I built a really awesome "dry box" (details coming) using bearings, etc. for smooth operation. I then added a bowden tube for the filament to travel smoothly, cleanly, and air-tight to the printer.

Well, I got the low-extrusion / layer separation problem again.

I decided to remove the bowden PTFE tube since I thought the extra length was causing too much friction and not allowing my extruder to pull filament easily, thus "starving" the nozzle.

So, I removed the bowden... only to find out I had the same problem, but this time I think because the filament was rubbing against the wall of the plastic box and sticking as it pulled.

Next I added just a short 2" piece of bowden tube in the box to see if that allowed the filament to glide through the box, but not have the whole length rubbing.

... but I'm still having issues.

I think I'll go back to regular mounting position of the filament and only change one variable at a time to see where I end up.

 

[Nifty]

Well, when the spool is mounted in the default position I don't have any problems. I'm obviously creating a situation where the extruder gear isn't pulling strong enough and the nozzle is being starved of filament.

What's odd is that I've put the spool back in the box and it seems to be working fine now.

I'm to the point where I'm wondering if the problem could have even been the way the spool was twisted? It seems like some ways I put the spool on the rod it causes more kinking / bending than other times. My guess is that this could be enough of an issue to cause friction / binding.

More tweaking and testing...

 

[Nifty]

hmmm... yeah, it seems like the filament is binding when exiting the box and I can't figure out why. It sometimes binds so much that the entire box is pulled towards the printer!

I still think it has something to do with the curl that's in the filament as it exits through the hole I made in the box.

 

[Nifty]

Well, whatever I've been doing differently seems to be working. The spool is spinning freely, the filament isn't binding / rubbing, and I'm not having any issues (for now) with my dry box.

I'm going to keep on testing things, swapping filament, etc. before I feel comfortable saying the problem is "solved".

 

[The Hat]

My bucket of paint...err Filament has been trouble free since its inception, I went for the filament reel sitting on its own rollers, and my filament exits the bucket at the same height as the extruder motor a metre away...