Extruder direct drive gears clicking noise
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Progressing on with the build and now when extruding I am hearing a clicking noise. I see the larger gear advancing one notch but then it doesn't advance to the next notch, it just sits there clicking. Not sure what could be causing this. This doesn't happen right away into the print, this happens at 4 or more hours into the print it corrects itself and continues and eventually it happens again. I tried to alleviate all the pressures from pulling the filament so that the extruder drive makes less effort in pulling the filament. This seemed to have helped, but not 100%. The other option is the small metal knob that makes the gears tighter against the filament. I will try loosening this I already reduced the amps to 800mA. Does anyone have any suggestions? thanks.
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@jsinicro
I've heard that, and probably indicates the extruder is incapable of advancing the filament (in my case, the hotend heater had turned off), and the sound is the stepper skipping steps.A few things to review: feed rate, nozzle size, filament feed restrictions, current limit on your extruder stepper, nozzle obstructions, etc.
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@jsinicro what kind of hot-end are you running? I've had this same issue, the cooling is not sufficient and after a few hours of printing PLA I get heat-creep. It took more effort to push the filament into the hot-zone and would click as you describe. This was with an E3D on my Delta with a long(ish) bowden. The original fan I had was very quiet (which was the reason I swapped it) but did not offer enough CFM to cool. The initial fix was to go back to the stock fan from E3D while I printed a new 40mm fan cowl and tossed in a Noctua fan.
Usually the team that scores the most points wins the game.
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Do an extruder calibration and determine your max volumetric flow rate as described here: https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Guide/Ender+3+Pro+and+Duet+Maestro+Guide+Part+4:+Calibration/40#s165
Once you know your max flow rate you can determine your max print speed based on layer height and extrusion width. Staying within the volumetric limit of your hotend can help with a number of problems like underextrusion, clogging, clicking extruder etc. Also, if you're printing at or near your volumetric flow rate you know that you're printing as fast as you reliably can.
For your extruder motor set your current to 60-85% of the rated max to ensure you're getting good torque. And PID tune the extruder heater if you haven't already. Get a silicone nozzle sock and ensure the fan duct isn't blowing on the hot block too much. For the pinch roller tension, you want just enough pressure to leave a light tooth mark on the filament, you shouldn't need more than that otherwise you're just adding friction.
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@th0mpy It works for a good while before starting to do this, originally I had the filament runout sensor put inline with the filament right before the extruder, which caused pressure on the filament and also the way I had the filament run to that point at times it was pretty tight between the extruder and the filament roll. Fixed that issue which improved the print tremendously, The clicking noise persists. this is the E3D Titan Aqua which keeps it really cool, this is a water cooled system. I pause the print and do a extrude test and it extrudes just fine, no clogging. The only thing that I do not have set up yet are the blower fans to cool off the extruded filament. But I need to print a mount for it first.
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@phaedrux OK, thankyou, I have not done an extruder calibration test, just used recommended flow rates and such...
