Thought my pull up problems had ended. Went through an entire role of filament, not one pull up error.
Now this… just changed to a new roll of filament. Not sure why it’s decided it won’t play the game anymore. Can’t see anything obvious that is causing the issue.
Reloaded and cleaned, printing for the time being at least
For me it depends on how the filament is rotated in the drybox. When it rotates with the middle plastic role, all works great. As soon as it touches the metal ones in the bottom, the resistance is to high and the head pulls up.
So sunlu Filament works great, jayo not.
Esun and overture are problematic through their paper rolls.
I am using the middle plastic roller, back to constant pull up errors. God only knows what is wrong with it this time. This is really frustrating. Not receiving a message when the thing stops just adds to it. Beginning to doubt this machine as a 3D printer, if I had my time over I’d probably be looking at something like the Bambu Lab A1. This is just ridiculous.
OK, revisited in the light of a new day, cut down the filament feed tube, raised the filament temperature in Snapmaker Luban (from 60 to 65 degrees), reloaded the filament, still getting the error.
Upon inspection it appears as though the filament is being caught over itself on the roll. Not sure why, I’ve tried to ensure it feeds correctly. It’s obviously something I am doing wrong, just not sure what that is.
Keeping the spool fixed at an angle and letting the filament unwind from the side seems not like a good idea. If the spool doesn’t t rotate freely it will induce one twist onto the filament for every rotation. Twisted filament increases friction in the extruder and can cause entanglement.
Filament twisting can also be caused by the extruder gears themselves if they are not properly aligned or if there are too many bends in the path. You’ll particularly notice it with multicolor filament.
The filament stuck under itself on the spool is probably also caused by twisted filament and temporary slack caused by large retractions. Auto rewinders can mitigate that but they are very finicky to implement and also induce some (intentional) pullback force
A few tricks to reduce friction:
obviously avoid long feed tubes, sharp corners and cardboard spools…
use only PTFE tube with large 3mm inner diameter. Not the one with 2mm inner diameter.
I found the clear transparent PTFE tubes to have higher friction. I only use the milky white tubing
if your PTFE tube connects to pneumatic couplings (e.g at the drybox), make sure to use couplings that allow to push the PTFE tube all the way through and let the tube protrude a bit on the inside. With the couplings that have a smaller inner diameter, filament can scratch along the metal of the coupling and cause friction and filament particles being scraped off.
finally its best to have the axis nicely centered on the spools COG and rotating on ball bearing. Additional pulling force is required when the spool is still full and heavy and not rotating around its COG (like with any simple spool holder)
In regards to getting the thread knotted it happened to me long time ago and I thought it is related to the spool itself being rolled in a wrong way from the factory. That’s what I think.
Thanks for the helpful tips. I have implemented the snapdryer box in an attempt to overcome the issues you mentioned.
I am using the filament tube that came with the snapdryer and have shorted the filament tubing in an attempt to resolve the issue. I actually got a full print done yesterday which would seem to indicate the filament is rolling out of the box fine.. But this morning? The error is back. I just don’t seem able to get this working consistently.
I think I am starting to see better results from the printer with less extruder pull up errors. Thanks for the tips everyone, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
It was cool (for us) overnight so my “workshop” (garage) was relatively cool, and I was printing with a new filament, and it had “strong” bends from the shape of the spool.
I tried with the filament dryer inside the enclosure, but it kept getting pulled over because the filament was so rigid (I didn’t have a start or anything for it, but the entire tube was in a spiral because of the filament).
After much messing about, the final solution that worked (at least for a couple of smaller prints) was to make the tube as short as practical outside the enclosure, and not have any tube for much of the length inside the enclosure (I left a short bit at the print head so the filament will guide in without scraping).
Back to constant pull up errors. I can get maybe five minutes at time. Think it’s time to consider a trip to land fill. This thing has been such a huge disappointment and very expensive mistake.
Yes it is… Just on the NSW side of the ACT border. Would you be open to buying it from me for a low price… say $700.00? It includes some accessories, like the air filter, rotary module, and the new PEI build plate. PM me if you’re interested.
I encountered this problem today when I needed to do a fast print. Thanks to user comments it put me on the right track. I got into the extruder and looked for debris or other issues. Everything looked fine. I cleaned and replaced some nozzles with the same problem. My filament is fed from snapmaker dry boxes that make a long path from outside the machine into the extruder.. It is really important to reduce any drag on the filament. I have printed for hours now with no errors. Be minful of snapmaker filament and temperatures. Aftermarked filaments have been fussy with melt and bed temps.