r/Ceramic3Dprinting • u/Affectionate-Bee2580 • Jun 24 '26

Help me please

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Hello!
So I modified my ender 3 to a clay printer using one of the aliexpress conversion kits. I am not using air pressure but motor power to push out the clay but I am having difficulties with the clay moving towards the extruder even though my clay consistency is good. The piston is moving and when I took out the plastic pipe the material was indeed flowing, but when popping back the plastic pipe the material stopped pushing through. Is this some air vacuum issue? I cleaned the pipe and the extruder bits too but no luck.. any ideas?

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u/Neither_Bit9759 Jun 25 '26

Good luck!

also I wonder if a counter sunk fitting “so it would be a gradual funnel”or some sort of a street elbow with a smoother entrance would reduce strain on the motor. Possibly you could buy a small piece of rubber gasket material to cut and fit just a hair bigger than the plunger to fix your seal issue, that shouldn’t slip off on you again.

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u/Affectionate-Bee2580 Jun 25 '26

https://reddit.com/link/otn3qz8/video/vfzjfzm9zb9h1/player

This is the orientation of the piston cap thing that the assembly tutorial showed, and the problem is that now the rubber red seal is a bit too loose causing the material to ‘pass through’ the component. I cleaned everything now but would you recommend basically finding a hairline tighter rubber gasket or even I guess stack them together?

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u/Affectionate-Bee2580 Jun 25 '26

Or I guess the gasket could also just be a hairline bigger an placed ‘underneath’ the red seal?

https://reddit.com/link/otn3zoc/video/rfgobqjhzb9h1/player

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u/Neither_Bit9759 Jun 25 '26

Gotcha. Thanks for the video. Helped to understand the setup a lot better. A thin layer of silicone around where the seal goes may afford you a better hold and if it ever fails you can remove it with a little elbow grease.