Filament intermittently not feeding

[Moby Disk]

I have a Makerbot Replicator Dual, and between 1 min to 1 hour into printing, I find the filament has stopped feeding.  This is the extruder with the Delrin plunger, which has not had any trouble despite so many posts railing on the design.  I opened the extruder, turned the plunger a bit, and cleaned the filament gear with an airduster since it was completed filled with plastic dust.  Thinking I was successful, I put it all back together and I still have the problem.  The temperatures seem stable: it's like it only works when I am looking at it. :-(

What procedure should I try next?

[Joseph Chiu]

You said you turned the plunger a bit. Did it have any groove in it? If so, it's definitely toast.  Even if it did not, there is a good chance it has lost the springiness of the rubber washer used to tension the plunger against the filament on the drive gear. Your best bet is to upgrade to the spring loaded extruder design.  They are also easier to load and unload...

On Oct 23, 2016 4:57 PM, "Moby Disk" <moby...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a Makerbot Replicator Dual, and between 1 min to 1 hour into printing, I find the filament has stopped feeding.  This is the extruder with the Delrin plunger, which has not had any trouble despite so many posts railing on the design.  I opened the extruder, turned the plunger a bit, and cleaned the filament gear with an airduster since it was completed filled with plastic dust.  Thinking I was successful, I put it all back together and I still have the problem.  The temperatures seem stable: it's like it only works when I am looking at it. :-(

What procedure should I try next?

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[Randy Zimmer]

" it only works when I am looking at it. "

Makerbot called this a Feature, not a problem.

The fact that the gear was full of dust proves it slips all the time and like Toybuilder says, a spring version should be the cure. 

[Moby Disk]

Okay, I'll give it a try. I actually have one, but the spring is wrong so it is impossible to push down.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

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