"signs of impending doom - fault finding" Topic

Had trouble over the last few days. Prints not sticking down. Cleaned the bed but nothing worked. Then the nozzle blocked on the Replicator 2. It's a long job striping the system down as you have to heat up the block to part the nozzle, then burn it out then heat up and fit then cool down to re assemble. However it seems to have fixed all the issues. Not had to do this for 18 months so it's not often you have to do many jobs in the printer.

What plastic are you using? Could it be a bad roll of filament?

One thing I think I have discovered, (not enough data points yet) is that after certain large print jobs my usual wipe down using Iso alcohol does not do the trick and I have the problem of not sticking. Last two times I have used a wipe down of acetone, followed by the alcohol and that seems to have eliminated the problem.

I suspect the blaockage is just due ro a slow build up over proably 750 hrs + of printing. One the nozzle was running correctly the prints are sticing. I use a Lexan Bed and exclusively PLA. Not sure acetone is a good idea on Lexan.

Yeah, I wouldn't hazard the acetone on the Lexan without further research. I don't know if this would help with your nozzle cleaning but my Prusa came with an acupuncture needle. They recommend heating the nozzle in place, sticking the needle up the nozzle then extruding some plastic. Repeat until a good thread comes out.

I have a glass bed I bought after market. I Cover it with masking tape, then spray Aqua Net (Extra Hold) hair spray lightly over the bed to help parts stick. I also print on top of a raft, which seems to help the most of all.

Be careful when you take it apart and put it together again. I had an issue where the nozzle tightened up against the heater block and not the feeding tube before it. It caused plastic to mushroom out in the crack and stop feeding after it was running a while. That was frustrating to find.

Re set the bed to 0,1 spacing (seems I got it wrong last time at 0,15mm). Running smoothly again clocking up tens of hours, some even for models.

I hate changing the filament spools. My printers are a pain to get the filament started properly.

My QiDI came with a blue sheet 2mm or so thick over the bed.
One light coat of stuck glue has been good for 6 moths so far.

Feels like the old hard mouse pad but works well.

Luck to all.