Anyone know where to get replacement parts for the stock extruder, or a relatively inexpensive aftermarket extruder replacement that is of decent quality?

I’ve been having issues with jamming recently and after trying everything I could to fix it, tore the extruder apart and discovered there is a sizeable groove worn into one of the plastic guide pieces. I suspect the filament is getting caught in this groove and pinched, which causes the drive to grind the filament and jam while the printer keeps humming along not actually printing anything.

I’m in the middle of printing out a full sized Storm Trooper helmet and this is causing me a lot of grief when prints make it 380/450 layers and then jam and stop printing. I’ve learned how to restart a print at the failed layer, but I’d rather not have to keep babysitting things or tossing out a bunch of waste when it craps out at 15%

Here is the part I’m looking for but I can only find it in a big $40 kit or as $100 extruder replacement:

Edit: If anyone else comes across this in the future, I was able to source one from Happy3DThai for around $2.99. I bought the last two in stock (one as an eventual replacement for the replacement) but I’m sure they’ll get more eventually. https://www.happy3dthai-artillery.com/online-store/Titan-extruder-guide-tube-p200504936

Edit 2, Electric Boogaloo: I just found them on AliExpress in a 4-pack too. If you search for “Titan extruder guide tube” you’ll find them.

Final edit: turns out this part wasn’t the cause of the issue. The extruder stepper motor went bad (bearings full of junk) and would randomly lock up while rotating. I was able to feel it sticking when rotating it by hand. $10 replacement and I’m back in business.

  • CmdrShepardOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I don’t have a photo of it but I can get one when I tear it apart again in anticipation for the replacement. Basically the hole in the top is now an oval instead of a circle from the filament grinding away the material by rubbing against the edge.

    As far as restarting, I had to modify my homing location to be in the corner of the bed instead of the center (be mindful of the x-axis bar when homing the Y axis so you don’t crash the print into it), modifying the “Start Print” gcode to exclude the nozzle purge, moving the extruder manually to where it touches the top layer of the failed print and recording the Z height, then finding that Z height in the parts gcode and deleting every layer before that.

    I followed this guide to get help with setting up the gcode correctly. Make sure you follow all the steps as I kinda jumped ahead and wound up getting a bunch of errors at the start. https://www.3dplatform.com/Blog/2018/July/3D-Printing-Tech-Tips-Recover-a-Failed-Print

    Also this will probably leave a visible scar on that layer so keep that in mind if the piece will be displayed without any post processing (sanding, paint, etc). I’m printing a helmet that will be covered with body filler and paint so it’s not really a big deal.

    If you’re having issues after a pause, try pushing the filament into the extruder manually to get it to start feeding itself and be sure to pull that extruded bit away from the nozzle before it reaches the print or it’ll cause issues.