Hi all,

First time printing with the Thing-O-Matic MK6. There seems to be a
clicking noise coming from the metal "thing" that turns (the extruder?) to
feed the filament. It doesn't appear that any filaments being "pulled"
through. Does this make any sense? What's a newbie to do?

Thanks!

Jon

On 25 Oct 2012 , at 10:41 AM, Jon wrote:

It may be turning the wrong direction….  You can reverse the cable to the
stepper driver card (it's not polarized) or you can invert the axis in
RepG's machine> onboard preferences and see if that solves the issue.

Dan

At 10:41 -0700 10/25/12, Jon wrote:

Our major problem was getting the filament started.  Somebody suggested sharpening the end before pushing it into the hole would help and it did. A small file and a hunk of wood to support the filament while making a point did pretty well.

Since then I posted this about alignment of the rotating parts during assembly. It should be on the archives.

Message-Id: <p05100302cca1f76b0fac@[192.168.1.14]>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:08:52 -0600
To: makerbot@googlegroups.com
Subject:  Extruder alignment on Thing-o-matic

--

--> A fair tax is one that you pay but I don't <--

You may also want to check your z-axis calibration. I have a Mk6 and if the extruder nozzle is too close to the build platform when I start a new print, then the extruder nozzle becomes blocked by the platform and the drive gear wears a notch in the filament and starts to click. After recalibrating the z distance, try heating up the extruder to temperature, then reversing the motor slowly while gently pulling the filament out of the top. You can then cut off the piece of damaged filament and reload.

Good luck!

Lincoln Cole