Hi everyone, I’m having constant clogging issues with my printer that sprung up out of nowhere. I’m running out of things to test.
The printer had been running several prints a day for several days when I decided to change nozzles for one print. Ever since then (~2 weeks ago) i have not completed a single print, due to clogging. I have tried:
Replacing the PTFE tubing in my hotend.
Replacing the nozzle. (I’ve used a handful of nozzles, all with the same results)
Trying different filament.
Replacing the hot end with an all metal hot end, trying three different heat breaks from two manufacturers.
Removing the printer from its enclosure to ensure proper cooling.
Adjusting extrusion tensioner.
All the other basic obvious stuff like making sure there’s no blockages anywhere (whole hot end and nozzles have been soaked in acetone, torched, brushed etc).
The printer will seem to work fine for a little while before either slowly failing to extrude until it completely jams, or it completely jams all at once. I don’t think it’s heat creep, because I tried setting the nozzle to printing temp, letting it sit for half an hour or so and running filament through it and it had no issue, whereas prints usually start to fail within the first 10 minutes. It also doesn’t have anything to do with my print settings because I’m able to get it to clog sometimes by just running the extrude command.
I’m completely at a loss here. I don’t know what else to try. Does anyone have anywhere else for me to look?
Printer is an Elegoo Neptune 3. Nozzles are just some generics I got off Amazon. I know people like to harp on quality nozzles, but I’ve been using them for around a year, and I don’t think that all of them suddenly stopped working. Some of the ones I’ve tried are brand new as well, so even if the nozzles all got worn down beyond use at the exact same time (despite drastically different print times between the different sizes), the new ones should at least be able to extrude filament.
Thermistor and cartridge are undamaged. I haven’t done anything to specifically test the temperature of the nozzle, but heat isn’t the issue as filament still oozes out of the nozzle during clogs.
As stated above, I’m able to replicate this outside of prints, so slicer settings are irrelevant.
Grasping at straws at this point but did you do a PID tune since changing it?
Hm, I have not. If my printer still reports stable temperatures, is a PID tune necessary? I feel heat isn’t the issue as filament still oozes out of the nozzle when it clogs, but if it has something to do with wildly unstable temps then maybe it could be the cause? I will say that the filaments I’ve tested are all PLA and have successfully extruded at temps as low as 170, and I’ve been experimenting at around 200, so unless the nozzle temp is off by over 30 degrees (which I would’ve noticed at idle temps) I don’t think low temps could be causing it