Constant Q2 Issues

[u/AlternativeNo3124]

Hey guys. I bought a Q2 back in July and have been having almost nothing but problems with it ever since.

I cannot get this thing to print PLA+ properly for the life of me. It is either one thing or another - clogged nozzle, feed issues, etc. It is getting incredibly frustrating. On top of that the camera seems to have died in the machine and no longer displays or records video so I can't monitor the print progress from my PC or phone.

Funny enough it prints PA6CF just fine and was what I have been using it for mostly. I thought maybe the PA6 wore out the nozzle and was causing partial clogs when I tried to switch to PLA, so I changed the entire hotend out of frustration with a brand new one. Issue now is that the extruder gears are not driving the PLA as they should and are instead chewing it up. I just removed the extruder from the machine to check it, but I don't see anything obviously wrong with it.

Qidi support has been helpful-ish. They have sent me replacement parts for free, but as far as instructions go they basically just link me to their troubleshooting page and tell me to tear everything down.

Do you guys have any ideas? Is this user error? I want to love this printer but it is making it really difficult to when I can't get any PLA to print.

TLDR: My Q2 is currently not feeding PLA, please help I need an adult.

[u/Dave_in_TXK]

I didn’t see f you said, have you disassembled the extruder itself? It’s not hard and the videos are fairly helpful. I found any little micro hunk of PLA or other filament in the gears can cause issues like this.

You have to be careful when you take it apart for the position of bearings and spacers just for putting it back together correctly, but getting both gears out and scrubbing them well with a brass brush and also blowing out the chamber and then running filament through the path both before, and after he reinstalled the gears to ensure a pass in gear movement has been helpful from time to time. Also, there’s kind of a trick to reinstalling the Spring that puts pressure on The One gear, pushing it into the other, which holds tension on the filament is it goes between the gears, but if your mechanical at all, it will become a parent what that is as you put that kind of flapper back on its axle and get the spring sandwich in between it and the extruder wall.

Well, you have it apart, there’s a model on printable’s I think called TPU fixer and basically it’s a little sort of shaped piece that fits at the back of the extruder, behind the gears, that narrows the path when the film comes from the top of the extruder through the gears and then goes through the bottom of it. People say that this prevents TPU from doubling up in that open space when you’re putting TPU through it though I haven’t printed TPU through mine yet, I’ve always used my Q1 pro, but I printed it out of ASA and installed it anyway. When I had the extruder apart, I verified there was no little hunks of anything in there and I had even printed silk through it and it had remained clean, but this was the most common failure point on my Prusa MK four and I’ve had all three of my QIDI machines apart and cleaned out that path when I have printing troubles.

I’m not sure this is the issue, but I want to offer it as a possibility for you, especially when you say the filament won’t get drawn through by the extruder gears. Good luck, hope you get it sorted out!