Hobbed Roller. A wear item?

[U.S. Water Rockets]

My hobbed roller seems to be slipping a lot recently. When I manually feed filament, I can feel it sliding instead of biting into the filament. I cleaned out the grooves but it's still not good like I remember it being in the past. I am curious, is this thing a wear item? I've had it 2 years and it has been printing 3-6 hours a day all this time. Does the metal wear over time and lose grip. or is there something else going wrong? EZstruder tension spring getting weak? Any advice?

[lordbinky]

It does get clogged, but you're right that it's most likely just the tension shifting. If you are interested in swapping out the hobbed gear you might want to check out this article that does a comparison of various ones.
http://airtripper.com/1676/3d-printer-e ... benchmark/

[U.S. Water Rockets]

Interesting read. Thanks for the info. I will check my tension and give everything a good cleaning.

[Jimustanguitar]

They can definitely build up with little bits of stripped plastic.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/POjM8bg.png[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/BtD0yZj.jpg[/img]


They'll eventually wear out, rivers carve valleys, but it'll take a long long time for soft plastic to erode a steel gear. I wouldn't consider it a consumable part, no. Just keep 'em clean.