RESOLVED: SE 300 Jams Repeatedly

[wjallison1122]

I must be doing something wrong.

We recently purchased a RostockMax V3.2. I've gotten it set up, and I've actually had a few successful prints that turned out pretty nicely.

However, since this morning, every time I try to print, the hot end jams. Here are my settings:

Temperature: 210
Speed Factor: 60%
Extrusion Factor: 115%

I've messed with these somewhat, but those are what I've tried most of the time. I don't think anything in particular changed between the last print and those I'm trying now.

Generally, the printer will print the first layer without too much trouble, but then it just stops extruding and I have to take it apart, clear the plug (which occurs in the heat break area, not the melt zone) and try again.

[geneb]

Make sure the fan on the heatsink is running.

g.

[wjallison1122]

Heatsink fan is definitely running.

We've ordered a cleaning kit for the nozzle, and we're going to switch to ABS instead of the PLA.

[wjallison1122]

UPDATE:

I cleaned the nozzle with a drill. I also changed the layer height to 0.1mm as opposed to 0.4mm. It's working much better now. Not perfect; there are still plenty of problems with the parts it's giving me, but it's not clogging any more.

[rootboy]

I'm with Gene on this one, it sounds like there is something going on with the fan. Is it running at 100%? And can you take a picture of the nozzle and post it? It could be that you need a bit more separation between the hotend and the coldend.

Whose slicer are you using? I finally got around to getting Cura working on mine, it is definitely better than Matter Control.

And post pictures of the bad parts that it's spitting out, maybe someone can help.

[wjallison1122]

Fan seems to be fine. It idles most of the time, and kicks up to high when the hot end is actually hot.

The main thing that seems to have resolved this was bumping up the heat to 215. Based on what I was seeing, the PLA was getting hot enough to soften but not actually melt, which led to it coiling inside the heat break. Not sure if my explanation of what's happening makes sense, but it definitely seems to be fixed.

After quite a few prints, the problem has yet to repeat, so I'm going to call it closed and move on to more picky problems.