This time, however, MBI told us to keep the clogged one and they'd send us a new one anyway. I guess they figured the maker community would eventually figure out how to fix them, and then someone would post about it and maybe MBI could leverage that for a more permanent solution. Well, here you go.
Without any further introduction, here it is.
How to fix a "clogged" SmartExtruder on the Makerbot 5th Gen.
- Heat the extruder using the "Load Filament" command on the MakerBot.
- Once the stepper starts stepping, take the extruder off of the machine, and while it is still hot, use a 4mm wrench (I used an adjustable) to remove the nozzle from the extruder.
- Make sure your nozzle isn't clogged. If that is the problem, then you can clean it with a small gauge wire and a blowtorch. Ours wasn't really clogged, but I cleaned it up anyway.
- Remove the fan shroud from the bottom of the extruder by lifting (gently) the tabs that hold it on. Mine came off pretty easily, You have to loosen all 4 tabs, then get a little space along the seam where the shroud touched the extruder body, then loosen the tabs again, and so on. You'll see what I mean when you get in there.
- Now, go ahead and use the same "Loosen, spread, loosen" routine on the plastic casing around the main extruder body. The housing should come off after 2-3 rounds of spreading. Be careful not to lose any parts as the lifter mechanism isn't really held in by anything but pressure. When you open it up the bearings and the lifter mechanism may fall out. I like to work on a table that is covered in carpet so if parts fall they don't bounce half-way across the room.
- Next, unscrew the heater body from the heatsink. To do this, you need to heat the heater-block with a torch for just a few seconds, then use really thin pliers or a narrow crescent wrench to unscrew the heatsink from the heater-block. The hex-head (nut) is between the fins and the heaterblock. It won't unscrew when its cold.
- After you have off the heatsink, see if it has plastic in it. I used 22gauge wire to push out some hardened (glassified) plastic that was in the way. I had to heat the heatsink before pushing the wire through to soften the plastic. A couple seconds in front of a blow torch was plenty of heat.
- Once this side is clean, repeat the same process for the heater-block.
- Now that your heater-block and heatsink are clean, heat the heatsink bank up and screw it back into the heater-block.
- Carefully re-assemble the whole thing. To get everything in line, I put a piece of filament (6" or so) through the assemble to hold everything straight while I lined up all the pieces and snapped it back together. Pull the filament out when you get it snapped back together.
- Now put the nozzle back on the heater-block by heating it up. I wouldn't try to screw it in while it was cold, I'm pretty sure it won't go. Just heat the aluminium heater-block, then the brass nozzle will go in very easily. You may have to heat the assembly again to get it all the way in. When it cools the threads become so tight I couldn't turn it with a wrench without thinking I was going to break something.
- Now, put the extruder back on the MakerBot, load up some filament using the on-screen tools, and you should be good to go.
For a detailed teardown of the extruder for curiosity sake, look here. They don't get into taking the nozzle off or taking the heater-block apart.
Hope this helps someone out there.
Happy Printing!
Hope this helps someone out there.
Happy Printing!
16 comments:
I was wondering if once you pulled the brass tip off you could clear the extruder with a small drill bit that is the size of the filament. I would like to try, but I'm not sure if there is anything near the top of the cooling fins that would get damaged (and void the warranty).
From what I saw in there, it is clear up to the top of the aluminium fins, and above that is the extruder drive gear. You could reasonably measure that by placing your bit along side the outside of the extruder body and taking a visual check of the length needed to get that high. The problem is, you aren't going to be able to get the hardened PLA out with a bit, it is just going to push it out the top, which will get pushed back down when you try to load. Good luck though, and let me know how it turns out.
My one day old Makertbot 5th Gen is clogged up already after two prints... : (
I contacted the support and I'm waiting for their response and tempted to try and clean it myself if they allow me to keep it.
I would be great if you could do a video of the process :D
Thanks for the tutorial !
Kevin
I am telling you...
I am not happy with the smart extruder at all!
I can now quite easy clear it when it clogged up, iv'e opened the thing 50+ times i swear! The problem is knowing how far down in the heat block the barrel has to go and subsequently how far down the nozzle should be fitted and this still keeping enough play for the whole thing to move up and down while printing.
For me its been a sea of trial and error.
The first thing that broke was the little microswitch at the top that senses the physical presence of the filament.
This I fixed by installing a bypass switch that I can turn on and of manually to tell the "Smart Extruder" "Now we have filament in".
Obviously all mi fixing... voided my warranty, (I was aware of this).
I wrote several times to Makerbot and begged them to sell me a new Smart Extruder, but no luck there, they claim they don't have enough of them for selling as spare parts. So long story short... I am now stuck with a 3000 USD Replicator "Brick" on my desk... after 4 weeks thats just Shameful!
Thank you for your pictures and tutorial!
So far this is the most useful explanation I have seen so far - do you know if anyone from Makerbot has seen this?
I think they need to rethink the warranty policy in light of the fact this is happening literally to everone.
I lucked out in that I managed to get a few weeks worth if prints before I started getting "air prints" and today the complete clog.
If Makerbot doesn't send a replacement this week, or worse just does nothing above quoting the manual, I will have to resort to opening up the case.
Thanks for the info
Can anybody tell where can I find more information like this about MB Rep, I recently bought a 5th Gen Rep and I'm having a lot issues, I'm looking for a community or a gruop where I could post my questions ir read about other people problems.
My first extruder clogged..I filed a claim since I've only had the printer for a month. The tech instructed me to try to push the filament through...did not work. Makerbot sent me a new extruder for free and I rec'd yesterday. First standard short print worked just fine. First high print in the makerbot army green clogged the extruder. Reloaded the filament..filament came through..started back up the print..clogged again..did it again..clogged. Changed out the filament to Makerbot Black. Worked just fine. First extruder clogged on High with White Makerbot filament..and then never worked afterwards. I really like the machine..it does awesome when it works. I'm thinking that the heat will need to be adjusted with the other filaments. Frustrating. I did file another claim with what we are experiencing now. Awaiting a reply.
Someone PLEASE try this on the Replicator 5th Gen. REMOVE THE FEEDER TUBE. Print without it. See if you still get clogs.
It seems to work on the mini. No jams, no clogs, no missed layers, no air prints. 48 hours of prints.
Does anyone have problems with using other brands of pla filament with a Makerbot replicator 5th generation? Everytime I use non makerbot filament I consistantly foul up the extruder and it clogs up and stops printing.
Yes I had. The makerbot filament usually stuck. My extruder always stuck. It's absolutely unusable. Which part of the FEEDER TUBE?
I have Makerbot 5th gen and am on second extruder for jamming issues. Some prints are perfect then the next will be very stringy and missing layers. I have started to think its the friction on the reel turning that maybe the extruder can't easily turn the reel and does not have the feed of plastic to make perfect print. I like the idea of removing the feeder tube. I am going to attempt this. Items from Thingaverse print great then my designs have the issues with quality. I have also attempted several different infills and it seems only 100% will give a true quality print.
I have printed with Makerbot PLA, PrintrBot PLA, and some eBay special PLA ($20/kg) and all three eventually have this problem. I have found that adjusting the cooling fins above the heater-block are the best way to keep it from happening. I have had 20 hour prints go off without a hitch, and 1 hour prints fail within 15 minutes. You need to make absolutely certain that your PLA has not been exposed to a lot of moisture. That stuff is seriously hydrophillic (it absorbs water) and water will ruin your print and cause the filament to drool, stringify, and otherwise behave poorly. I've had to throw out some filament because of this.
I also removed the feeder tube from the equation and started handing my filament above the MB and letting it feed straight in. I've seen fewer problems this way, but in general I would say it just helps me keep an eye for snags or binding whereas I wouldn't see it in the machine.
Overall I think the thing to do it to request replacement parts AS SOON as you see a problem, and make MB pay for your problems and headaches. As much as I am in support of the DIY/Hacker community solving these issues, I honestly don't think MB needs to get off that easy. They took from the Maker community for years through feedback and open-sourced software and designs. Then they went all private and started charging absurd prices for faulty equipment. Hold them to the fire.
Well, I am yet another user (new to 3D printing) experiencing clogged extruders -- we're on a 3rd extruder now within in 5 months!
Thought I successfully unclogged the original extruder: only opened it up (didn't try the 'remove the nozzle & blow torch' method yet,) removed filament, was able to see through the nozzle when I shone light thru -- only to find it's still problematic.
At first, I was able to print a beautiful raft but the 3D object completely failed. Tried to print several more times to no avail, the print quality was poor compared to previous results.
Got the MB replicator in August/14, we've had pretty consistent positive results until each time the extruder has clogged.
Feeling a little frustrated and disappointed! Will the 3rd one just do the same and then we're out of luck?!?! Do I need to take a blow torch to it every time this happens??? Need to get my hands on one, as this looks like my next step. Thanks for the instructions!
It's possible to remove the heater block without using the nut buried below the heat sink blades. A 5/16" wrench will fit on the flat parts on the top of the heat sink and unscrew the whole unit from the heater block. Be careful with the PTFE tube inside the feeder tube. It's fragile and easily damaged by sharp metal objects.
I've had my HipsterBot 5G for almost a year, and it has been nothing but problems. I often spend more than an hour restarting prints that fail, when these prints should only take 30 minutes in total to complete! I'm forced to print everything with a raft because the 5G doesn't do the first layer correctly. After going through the assisted leveling process my bed is high in the back left and low in the front right. The extruder grinds into the platform or air prints. I'll adjust manually during the raft portion of the print, but even after moving the bed more than 5mm the assisted leveling process still claims that it's level! How can it be level, be moved 5mm, and still be level? It's trash. My unit has electric current running through the ribbon cable and the printer body whenever the print head moves, so if I'm touching the printer, it gives a nice buzz of a shock. Awesomesauce. Starting 2 days ago the beast started jamming in the middle of prints, happily continuing to print nothing while shredding the filament in the extruder gear and filling the extruder with plastic dust. I've torn apart and cleaned the extruder. I've leveled manually. I've designed and published leveling feet to help with non-level tables. I've opened tickets with MBI, but their support likes to reply once and then not reply again for weeks. Last year I opened a ticket in May that they answered in July as if I had just opened it! Makerware Desktop is garbage - try to use it with 2 displays. It renders dialog boxes and menus off screen!
No one should buy the 5G in any form. MBI should issue a recall or buy them all back from us. Stratasys needs to bring some proper management into the organization before the community abandons them completely.
Last week I purchased a FlashForge Creator Pro because it was 50% of the price and because it was faster to have that shipped in from China than to wait for an answer from Makerbot support. I'm trying to fix my extruder well enough to sell the 5G to someone with more patience for broken closed-source garbage than me.
I can certainly understand your frustration. We've not had good luck with our printer for a while. We have 3 nozzles that we try to keep in working order and rotate them out when one clogs, but at this point we really only have 1 that works semi-reliably.
It would be nice if Makerbot would send new nozzles with proper z-probes and filament jam detectors on them, but we won't see that because it would destroy them as a company.
Mine was shipped clogged best I can tell. I haven't even layed the first dot. Can I say "Going Back to ___"
Post a Comment