filament guide V2 plus will pay

[ruffaloem]

hello I was wondering if anyone could print me a filament guide for my V2 plus. I am getting some serious jams and I have pulled the machine apart to fix it but I thin I need a guide.
thanks in advance.

[RetireeJay]

Can you be a bit more specific?

Are you using 1.75 or 3.0mm filament?

Do you have a Wade's (geared) extruder or Direct Drive?

Why and where are the "serious jams" occurring? Is it (A) the filament is getting stuck before it reaches the extruder due to kinks in the way it feeds from the supply spool, or (B) the filament is riding off to the side of the toothed groove on the driving hobbed bolt, losing traction, or (C) the filament kinks up after going through the drive gear/idler wheel and before it reaches the hot (melting) zone?

[ruffaloem]

I am using 1.75 filament. I beleve I have the gear drive (uses hobbled bolt that feeds filament between a wheel to the hot end) I have a plus V2. It is jamming at "C".
And as always Jay has come to my rescue!
You are a godsend to this forum.

[RetireeJay]

All the extruders shown in this post viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3484 are "Wade's" or "Geared" extruders - meaning that there is gear reduction between the motor and the hobbed bolt. If you have a Plus, you probably have a geared extruder. The picture of the extruder in this post viewtopic.php?f=74&t=5202&p=47618&hilit=alu#p49745 shows an aluminum "direct drive" extruder.

The aluminum direct drive extruder conducts heat from the motor to the driving point, so the filament gets warmed up, which softens it. Many people have added fans and heatsinks to their motors to reduce the heat being transmitted to the filament.

Once the filament leaves the "pinch point" between the hobbed bolt and the idler wheel, it may need some support to stay straight until it enters the throat of the Ubis (or other Hot End). This is called the "drinking straw" solution, although in reality people use PTFE or metal tubing. Here's how one person did it viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4968&p=32936#p32936

Another thing to try is active cooling. Mount a fan that blows air at the zone in question. If heat is rising up from the melting zone and softening the filament in the gap between the pinch point and the Ubis entry, the fan will reduce that heat dramatically.

[ruffaloem]

yes so I have the geared extruder. I think the drinking straw technique would work. I will post back here when i try it.

[ruffaloem]

*Untested as of july 26 2014*

So I once again had a jam in my printer. I pulled the filament, cut off the bent pieces and tried to replace the filament in the hotend. filament would not come out though I was pushing very hard. I took apart the hot end and cleaned the nozzle with a MEK over night bath. Before I reassembled everything I decided to try the fix Mr. Jay had suggested. Lacking a circuit board spacer I looked for an alternative.

I found an old india ink dropper in my desk and cut it to size saving the tapered end to help guide the filament. The dropper had to be squished a little bit but it creates a direct line to the hot end.

Edit

tested and the dropper tube works great! no jams after 140 layers