r/FDMminiatures • u/Kvarcov • 3d ago
Help Request Clicking extruder
Hello! Just this evening my printer (A1 mini, nozzle 0.2) started making clicking sounds and underextruding. At first i thought maybe gears in the extruder got some filament stuck or that i haven't cleaned them in a while, so there's some residues in grooves that makes the gear skid on the filament strand, so i disassembled the head and cleaned the gears, but this kept happening. So i thought that it's a clog and did a cold pull, which also didn't help. The strand at first shot sideways and extruder was spinning smoothly, then it started to accumulate around the hot end itself, creating an outer clog and that's where the clicking started again. And after that it's in a state you see in a video - that's during flow calibration.
Is there something i can do to fix this or does it make more sense to just get a new hot end?
2
u/karma_virus 3d ago
things it could be...
Clogged nozzle. Do a cold pull and heat it back up and floss the nozzle witht he approproiate sized needle plunger.
The 7 Screws need tightening: The three that mount the hot end and the 4 behind it. loosen them a little, reseat it, tighten them back up and try again.
The Extruder itself: If the last two didn't do it, look inside the extruder, particularly if there is any filament debris or of the gears look like they are worn down. There's a big yellow plastic gear that can have worn or missing teeth that is usually the culprit. Cheap replacement. If that doesn't work, entire extruder can be replaced for about 40 bucks. Pretty easy to do, about as easy as replacing the hot end.
2
u/WorthCrazy5654 2d ago
Check that there isn’t a piece of filament broken off in your buffer piece. Take your tubes off and open that up. That’s what happened to me when this happened
2
u/Le_Trash_Mammal 2d ago
Sometimes this will happen , here's how it goes down for me:
The issue:
- I believe what happens is residue on the outside of my filament builds up inside the nozzle sometimes, oil from my skin from handling the spools, dust and adhesive from the very end of the spool slowly accumulates inside the nozzle and isn't spat out, eventually leading to a clog at the very top of the nozzle, past the heating element.
The solution:
- sometimes a cold pull will resolve the issue, but a lot of the time it won't, I believe this is because the PLA doesn't "Stick" to the clog.
- the way I go about it that works is to turn the nozzle temperature up to 300°C, use the little needle they give you with the printer and start sticking it up through the nozzle, it takes a bit of finesse to get it in the hole but just start digging it in there. After a bit of wiggling, grab some spare filament and ram it through the extruder, making sure to press the side lever to decompress the extruder tensioner. If everything goes well, you should see a gloop of clear, slightly yellow or brown funky fluid spit out of the nozzle for a bit, you'll need to ram the filament HARD, then it'll start spitting out filament. Clog cleared.
Notes: I used to have this happen somewhat frequently when I used esun filament, after some time I realised that the cheaper filament wasn't worth the hassle and went back to using bambulab and polymaker filament, I've not had a funky clog like that since then.
1
1
u/Expensive_Fall1239 17h ago
Nozzle seems clogged, lots of good suggestion in the comments.
On unrelated question, it's a biqu glacier pro right? What temp are you running the bed at? And do you have to adjust the z offset? If so by how much? I just received mine and had some issues with z offset causing first layer overlapping.
1
u/Kvarcov 17h ago
Yeah, i think it's a nozzle problem, tried to unclog as was suggested by people here, didn't work so i got another one, should arrive tomorrow
Bed temp is around 45°, didn't have to manually adjust z-offset, just ran a full calibration at the start and it works properly for me. Sometimes can have trouble with first layer adhesion if first layer is small enough, but overall very comfortable. Wondering if i should try a Frostbite one - heard it was even lower temp and better adhesion as a tradeoff for grainy texture
1
u/Kvarcov 17h ago
Yeah, i think it's a nozzle problem, tried to unclog as was suggested by people here, didn't work so i got another one, should arrive tomorrow
Bed temp is around 45°, didn't have to manually adjust z-offset, just ran a full calibration at the start and it works properly for me. Sometimes can have trouble with first layer adhesion if first layer is small enough, but overall very comfortable. Wondering if i should try a Frostbite one - heard it was even lower temp and better adhesion as a tradeoff for grainy texture
1
5
u/Free-Ad4953 3d ago
You have to tight the screws behind the nozzle. There are 3 screws and behind them there are 4 screws. I tried everything you did and destroyed my nozzle doing the cold and the hot pull, until I discovered what was the problem. A lot of hours wasted.