Qidi Q1 Pro Unclogged The Non-Retractable Extruder

[@IcedFIame]

Thank you! I just successfully unclogged my extruder, and it was fairly easy thanks to your video.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Glad it helped!

[@NexGen-3D]

Just an FYI from a former Qidi Tech reseller, all their printers are prone to clogging with PLA and PET-G, its usually heat creep, they are more oriented to printing higher temp materials, if your printing PLA and PET-G, then take the top off and leave the door open, I used to upgrade the hotend cooling fan on the older X-Max and X-Plus as they both suffered from this, Id suggest swapping out the hotend fan for Sunon Maglev or a GDStime Dual Ball Bearing fan, both push more air and will help mitigate the issue.

[@notlewislevine]

@nexgen-3d-printing do you have a part # or reseller to get the correct Sunon Maglev or a GDStime Dual Ball Bearing fan?

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

They'd good to know, I'll try to keep the top of and maybe use lower temp soo that there's less heat creep

[@NexGen-3D]

@@Scratch3DPrinting Ive even had to place a desk fan blowing air through the open door to print PLA reliably on the older X-Max here in Australia in the summer, as I was always suffering from heat creep, it gets a little warm where I am, keeping the machines enclosed they will heat up inside and would always result in a clog, this doesn't happen when printing higher temp materials, like ABS, PC or Nylon, even PET-G with Carbon Fibre is usually okay as well, its the nature of these machines, they are a brilliant printer for PA-CF and PC-CF, but PLA, not so much, just keep it really cool inside and you shouldn't see this happen again.

[@leaftye]

Guess I'm lucky because I print pla at 250c with the door open. Petg at 260c with the door closed, usually no part cooling, and case fan below 50%. That said, I do have standoffs for the lid that raises it by 1cm. Lid is never fully removed while printing. Never had a heat creep jam. X-smart3.

[@NexGen-3D]

@@leaftye Yes you are lucky, I had no end of issues with stock printers, PLA and heat creep, it gets warm here and PLA warps on its own as soon as it leaves my house, which is why I wont print the stuff at all anymore, PETG with CF is as low as I go, close your machine up and try printing PLA and you most likely will have an issue.

[@darkwinter7395]

Had a couple of clogs or jams (not sure which) with PETG-CF using the stock 0.4mm nozzle. I had to disassemble the whole hot end + extruder assembly and use a drill to get the now frozen filament out of the hot end. I am seriously thinking about making some extension cables for the hot end so I don't have to remove the back of the toolhead to remove the relevant parts from the machine. I'm also thinking about adding some extra cooling to the cold end of the toolhead (an extra fan on the other side of the heatsink perhaps). As for the tensioning spring, it occurs to me that drilling a tiny hole thru the side of the extruder where the spring is as well as in that lever that it pushes against would allow a piece of something like fishing line or even steel wire to be run thru there and attached to the lever, and then by pulling on the wire or line you could take tension off of the extruder drive wheels. I have a spare extruder assembly on the way, so I'll probably give that a try... worst case, it won't work and I'll have to take the wire out, and be left with a spare extruder with two tiny extra holes in it, so.... ??? 🤔 P.s. (edit to add) I'm also going to switch to a CHT-clone 0.8mm hardened steel nozzle and see if that helps.

[@hmartinlb]

Those CHT nozzles have terrible durability. Also flow rate issues. They're a waste of money. I got some for my Qidi XP3. Just use brass, it's good enough for non-abrasive materials. You can also buy longer M6 nozzles for different printers and grind off part of the thread (put on a nut as a guide, then clean up the thread). Don't print wood pla / fiber composites with 0.4 nozzle. It will always clog.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Wow you have to drill in order for you to get the filament out, that sucks. Qidi easy of no unloading kind of sucks tbh.

[@darkwinter7395]

@@Scratch3DPrinting Well, the upside is this filament has great adhesion. The downside is this filament has great adhesion to a cold printer hot-end.

[@darkwinter7395]

@@hmartinlb Genuine QIDI bi-metal or Bondtech CHT both are about 30 bucks, and the clone was only a buck on sale, and CNC Kitchen was getting OK results so I figured I'd give it a shot. I am printing carbon-fiber so brass is not suitable. If I'm still getting poor results with the clone nozzle then I'll spend the $$$ and get some genuine ones.

[@hmartinlb]

@@darkwinter7395 Didn't know qidi sold bimetal ones. Must be new. I bought the ones with inserts that are available for cheap from China. Flow rate was basically random which made for terrible petg prints. The insert was already oversized after one print with wood pla (0.4 nozzle size). It also clogged. The Qidi original will probably work fine. The price is not okay though. I recently bought some anycubic compatible hardened nozzle for cutting down to size. Can't give recommendation yet as I haven't tried. I just saw that you can now get hardened qidi nozzles from ali in different sizes for 5€/2pcs. They were always sold out.

[@rjakiel73]

There is a printable mod that you can add a cutter to the head. Just press, cut, pull out filament, load new filament, heat nozzle and feed new filament. Makes life infinitely easier.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Ahh all look into that, I don't like pulling out the tube, then cutting it retract, load, plug in tube too much work lol.

[@NotaGandhi]

Tried and does not work when head and heatsink both are clogged. QIDI tech support has been poor.

[@TheDeeStain]

Very interesting. I don't have the q1 pro only the qidi x max 3 and it has an unload directly built into the klipper UI. Surprised it doesn't have such a vital feature. I do have the same filament dryer as you and one time the filament got stuck at the end and the gears couldn't pull it loose causing it to sort of strip the filament in the gears getting it stuck but all I did to fix it was take off the hotend and pull the filament out.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Ahh, so I guess then it's just the q1 pro that they start doing this kind of style of loading in filaments.

[@somhunt5446]

With the clog you had, best to remove the hotend first. It can be seen when you were pushing the filament the jam was beyond the extruder gears. Yes QIDI has quirky processes which 99% of users are not used to. Users need to take some time just have a think why this way? And you know what, their processes work well. At the end of the day, QIDI have provide opportunities to customise your own workflow. I do acknowledge and understand your reluctance to remove the Bowden tube. However should not be an issue when done with care.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Yeah, doing it that way is easier, but it was the first time taking off this hot end on the q1 pro so I didn't know. I think removing the bowden tube every time changing filament is just going to wear down the components.

[@RabidMullet]

If you take the 2 screws out and remove the hotend you can take the extruder out and it's much easier to work with.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

ahh, haven't thought about it that way. Thanks.

[@majkysilipa]

Haaallo service man :). Which camera are you using for recording?

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Hi, I'm using my phone samsung galaxy s23 ultra.

[@1supertec]

I have the same problem printing PA-CF and only this filament all other filaments are fine PLA, PETG, ASA, ASA-CF are all fine it's just PA-CF even my ender 3 S1 Max prints PA-CF with a ruby nozzle, although it dose leave the occasional blob here and there.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Some filaments are more prone to clog than others.

[@lickytime9683]

Nice hands on showcase!

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Thanks glad you enjoy it

[@deeber35]

So much work to fix; does this happen often?

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

For me it had happen 3 times within 2 days.

[@deeber35]

@@Scratch3DPrinting Thanks. May go with Bambu P1P or P1S then

[@ModelMeThat]

Im having a problem where the fillament looks squished... i think the gears are too close together

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

If that's the case then you can untighten the spring a bit by turning a screw near the top of the print head.

[@RobertLeeMonterroso]

Maxing out fans has worked out for me after 2 consecutive fails clogs

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

ahh thats good to know. thanks.

[@3dmixer552]

I wonder how long before those gears need to be replaced. Plastic gears don't last very long

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Not sure, maybe about 1 year or 2.

[@mellon-f3f]

Ошалеть, Скриптонит занимается 3д-печатью

[@TylerTroglen]

why would you keep doing it wrong when you 100% know you are doing it wrong?

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

I learned after doing it wrong.

[@hobonickel840]

Beginner friendly printer .. wth!?! 😆

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

HAHA, advertise. But it is quite easy to use.

[@hobonickel840]

@@Scratch3DPrinting Yeah .. I just went ahead and disassembled head for the heck of it .. wasn't too bad and I got it back together. Printed beautifully

[@hobonickel840]

@@Scratch3DPrinting Thanks for the demo!

[@DailyFrankPeter]

Errrrr.... that's a no buy then.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Yeah, this is one thing that I dislike about the q1 pro, but it does print quite fast and print quality are good.

[@irishoneill2782]

I got two prints and have had nothing but issues since. The worst puruchase ever. This printer is just garbage.

[@Scratch3DPrinting]

Yeah, I did have some problems with the Q1 pro too.

[@akierum]

@@Scratch3DPrinting What about adventurer 5M Pro, it has even worse gearbox made from ABS not reinforce with glass fiber, hard to disassemble.