Hi there, I’ve been having a little trouble printing models with my MINI+, when there is very low extrusion between retractions. The Extruder grinds the filament through, and then the filament in the hotend burns until it gets stuck as well.

It usually only happens when I print extremely fine things like DnD (2") miniatures at .05mm layer height.
For now I’ve switched to .15mm layer height and have not had the issues since, but I wonder if there’s something that could be done, except changing the Extruder/Hotend?

    • TheYangOPMEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I know it’s (kinda stupidly) low layer height.
      But I’m pretty sure the issue is largely that the extruder files the same spot of filament down over and over again, because each extrusion, between retractions, is just sooooo little.
      But if I don’t retract, I have thicker strings than printed structures…

        • TheYangOPMEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I think I need to try to explain better:
          I meant that if I print minis, and for example the legs of the minis, then the printer sometimes has to print layers of two circles.
          each of these circles maybe only has a length of 4mm, at .05mm layer height and .35mm layer width (I believe that’s the default), that’s 0.07mm² before it retracts and goes to the next leg to print another 0.07mm², before it goes to the next layer and prints another 0.07mm²… etc, for a long time.
          The Filament has a diameter of 1.75mm, and thus an area of 2,4mm²
          So I have retracted 34 times, and the main filament only moved 1mm in this example.

          The extruder gear going over the filament 30 times grinds it down, and the gear can’t grip anything anymore