Neptune4 plus curiosity

[D Craig]

Hello my printer people,

As I said with my last post I print mostly in resin and took to filament as a hobby.  Around November of last year I got what i thought was a decent deal on a Neptune 

4 plus, not my first FDM printer but my largest. Since then I upgraded the linear rails, the extruder, installed a microswiss flow tech hotend, I paid so little for it I figured if I broke it oh well. 

Well for the past 6 months it has printed well until recently. So, it starts off printing great then (not sure the layer number) when the model gets about to the Half inch tall mark it starts clicking and stutters quite a bit. 

I have swapped nozzles and tighten up the gears. I have watched this process happen almost a dozen times now. Almost always the same spot. If I pause the print and push some filament through manually (literally keep the nozzle hot and push the filament in by hand) it will start extruding aging for another half inch or so. 

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Wow - that sounds VERY Weird - as it seems to be so Repeatable. But, Contemplating what might be going on - it's a weird one. I would figure - problems printing - starting at a height - with like Layer shifts or something like that - at least that makes more sense. But, not able to Feed into the extruder based upon a layer height - sounds WEIRD! 

Have you tried a Google Search - Describing your exact problem? Wierd things like this - AI CAN be very helpful...

-K

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Big clue... it's happening at around the same layer.

So it could be something in the toolpath for those layers. Look at the tool paths carefully and look carefully at the failed prints. You could be over extruding a very small amount and it just happens to back up right at a particular tool path position where it may get too crowded. if this is the case you simply need to mod your settings for the interaction between shells and infill. As well as check your feed rate.

Another possibility is your downward cooling. If it's overcooling and the hot end is affected you could be inhibiting the melt zone.

and/or...

How consistent is your extruder temp? If PID control is not well set and the temp variation too much it could easily inhibit the melting consistency.

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Since it's happening around same layer heights - I'm also wondering if it's the filament feed tubes - that are getting WAY Bent - Constricting - and thus the filament can NOT move easily!!!

A Pic of the Printer setup would also help...

-K

[Scott Bussinger]

Try dropping the print in the slicer 1/4" down into the bed. Then do a test print and see if it errors out at the same place in the print (meaning it's something about that particular layer's geometry) or it happens again at 1/2" (meaning it's something about your printer working at that particular z height and not the print itself). You could also rotate the print 135° on the bed and slide it to the opposite position on the bed see if that affects the print.

Basically change the mechanics and see what happens.

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From: 3d-printing-...@googlegroups.com <3d-printing-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of D Craig <threedpri...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 30 June 2026 16:52:52
To: 3D Printing Tips and Tricks <3d-printing-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Neptune4 plus curiosity

 

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Good idea Scott! Also - is it always the SAME Model - for which the problem happens? If you print Different things - is it the same results???

-K