I got my Sovol SV01 dialed in to where it was printing almost perfectly. I was really happy with the way the Sovol preformed. AND THEN I got a nozzle clog. I switched the old nozzle for a new one and now I have leakage all over the hot end which left streaks, strings, and globs of plastic on the model. Yesterday, using a video I found on You Tube, I disassembled the hot end and replaced the teflon tube inside the hot end. I then brought the hot end up to 245C and tightened everything, including the nozzle up. Now, I not only have a leaking nozzle, but the hot end is under extruding while printing. By the way, the extruder flow rate is exactly 100mm when tested. I also re-leveled the bed.
Not knowing what else to do, I have ordered this hot end. Upgrade Hotend Kits For Direct Drive Extruder(compatible with SV01 only) to replace the old hot end if necessary. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get things back to normal? Maybe swapping out the hot ends will solve the leaking problem, but what can I do about the under extruding?
There are a couple of problems, for me, in the post that Ender5r mentioned. First, my Sovol SV01 has direct drive hot end. Filament feeds directly into top of extruder without Bowden Tube. It does have a short teflon tube inside the hot end that runs from near the top of the hot end thru the heat brake to the nozzle. I will have to take things apart to see if top of the teflon tube is blocked from coming out the top of the extruder. If so, maybe I can cut a new tube a little bit longer and us the above method of keeping the nozzle 1 turn loose and then tightening the nozzle after things are pit back togather.
I am still looking for suggestions on what to do about the under extrusion problem.
Replacing the white Teflon tubing with hi-temp Capricorn is a great idea. The other thing is that it may be possible for you to use a spare piece of tubing to push down on the top of the tubing in the hotend tip.
I suspect good closeup photos of your hotend/extruder in various stages of disassembly might help us figure out a way to fix the issue.
Usually the small PTFE tube is Φ 3mm and the throat can’t accept a Φ 4mm tube. Would be so SUPER if Capricorn could provide Φ 3mm PTFE tubes as well! BTOH the plain 3mm tube handles up to 230 degrees easy! If the temperature exceeds 230 deg , then you have to change it every 5 long prints…
I think I just solved a bizarre problem that has plagued me for a long time. I bought some new connectors for the bowden tube to the hot end on my ender 3 pro. We will see but I think it will not give me the corkscrew log jam that I have been getting for months now. My bowden tube actually broke apart inside the crummy fitting and I highly suspect that was what was causing the problem.
I’m just wondering why it broke but it does move around a lot. And the connector I had was not working properly, I coulsn’t remobe it from the bowden tube any more. It was jammed.
Well, it looks like I was able to solve the hot end leaking problem on my Sovol SV01.
I took the hot end assembly apart earlier today and found the heater block covered with plastic. When I removed the nozzle, to clean the inside of the heater block, I discovered that the nozzle was loose. I knew that I had tightened the nozzle the last time I took everything apart. However, I remembered that I has tightened it while cold and with plastic stuck to the threads. So, it appears that when the hot end heated up to operating temp. the plastic on the threads melted and then caused part of the leakage. However, I still had melted plastic on the sides and top of the heater block. I think I solved that problem by replacing the white Teflon tubing with a piece of Capricom tubing which I cut about 1.5mm longer than the Teflon tubing. Now, when the nozzle is screwed in tightly, it kind of squishes the Capricom Tubing inside the hot end, therefore creating a tight seal between nozzle and tubing.
The printer has now been running for a couple of hours and there is no random strings or blobs on the print. Everything seems to be working fine. The under extrusion problem has now disappeared. I think that is because there is, now, no leaking in the hot end and all filament is coming out of the nozzle instead of leaking all over the outside of the heater block.
Looking back, I believe the first mistake was when I changed nozzles the first time, I failed to remove the filament from the hot end and created a glob of plastic inside the hot end that did not allow the nozzle to seat properly when it was re-inserted.
Thanks to everyone who tried to help with this problem. The information was helpful.
I bought the better Bowden Tube connectors when I got my Ender 5, which I returned. However, I was just informed by e-mail that my new Ender 3 V2 has just arrived in the lobby and the very first thing I am going to do is replace the original connectors with the better replacement connectors.
I also ordered the Dual Drive BMG Extruder and a ANTCLABS BLTouch : Auto Bed Leveling Sensor for the Ender 3 V2. However, I am not going to install them until I have everything running smoothly on the stock machine.
Catch you all later. I gotta go play with the new printer.
You also should tighten the nozzle, unscrew it a quarter of a turn, screw in the head pipe from the other side and as the last step tighten the nozzle against the heat pipe. All under hot conditions of course. You may get away without doing this, but usually it fires back.
Exactly what I did today except I unscrewed the nozzle a full turn. The Sovol has a direct drive extruder and the tube inside the hot end is locked into position when you install the hot end. That is why I cut the tube approx. 1.5mm longer than the original tube. That way you compress the tube when you tighten the nozzle like you are supposed to.
I would keep an eye on the 1.5mm extra length. If you run into clogging or sudden underextrusion you might want to disassemble the hotend again and check to see if the Capricorn tubing has become distorted or pinched. It it does, it might be an idea to cut the extra length to 1mm or even 0.5mm. I love the idea of having a little extra length in order to get a more secure fit, but the exact amount of extra may be pretty important.
I measured the diameter of both the old Teflon tube and the new Capricorn tube. The Teflon tube was 4.07mm while the Capricorn tube was 3.97mm. 1/10th mm smaller, which gives a little “wiggle” room for the compressed tube to adjust to within the 2+ inch length of the tube. So, I think, maybe, that the 1.5mm should work fine. If it doesn’t, then I will trim it as you suggest.
