Continued extruder problems...

I cleaned all the parts up and rebuilt my extruder.  I even drilled the brass a little deeper to minimize back pressure.

I also was careful to ensure that the heater wire was not to close to the thermistor and I placed the pipe clamp lower on the PTFE.

Once I had it wrapped I used a high quality contact thermometer to check the brass temperature.  The computer and the thermometer matched at both the tip and the base of the brass.

I then proceeded to hook it to the extruder and try to extrude PLA.  It still seemed to have a lot of back pressure.  I read some online and discovered some people have been using oil to lubricate the filament. I tried this and it seemed to help, so I started a test print only to have the brass pushed out of the PTFE again...

I may have damaged the PTFE to much the first time it slipped out.   I have discovered a few things and have some plans for going forward.

1. Wade's Extruder can easily put out more torque than the heater can handle.
2. I was somewhat lucky with my first heater.
3. I need to be much more careful testing heaters to ensure I don't continue pushing with excess pressure.
4. I want to get PTFE and brass rod so I can make more parts myself.

I have also made a simple test fixture to hook heaters to and push filament through by hand and see what I can do to reduce back pressure.

I hope to be printing again soon...