Hi folks. I got my first 3D printer as a Christmas gift, and having been stuck unable to get it to actually print since I finished assembling it, I figured I might as well ask for help.
My situation is as follows: I put the printer together over about a week, following the manufacturer’s guide. I put it together, powered it up, and went through configuration steps like adjusting the z stop and leveling the bed. Then when I tried to feed some of the filament that came with the printer(1.75 mm TPU) through the extruder, I got nothing. I was able to push the filament down through the main body of the extruder and into the tube that leads to the heat block, then it got stuck. The only way I was able to keep feeding filament into the extruder was by pushing hard enough that it would coil up inside the empty space.
So then I figured I had screwed something up with the assembly. I took apart the extruder several times and put it back together. I never saw any obvious flaws but I was able to slightly improve the situation to the point where a small amount of TPU would come out the nozzle, though not enough to fall down to the tablet/heated bed. Finally today I picked up a set of wrenches and some acetone with the intent of taking apart the nozzle and cleaning out a potential clog.
Right now I have a few guesses as to the cause of the problem:
The temperature sensor is inaccurate and the heatblock isn’t actually getting up to 220C. I did hold up a meat thermometer to the block after preheating it to 190C, and the thermometer only showed a temperature of 120C. I can’t help but wonder if that’s even accurate at all though when held up to the exterior of the heatblock.
A clog from one of my first attempts stuck in the throat tube and somehow didn’t melt over later sessions. I have no idea why it wouldn’t just melt but hey, this is new to me.
The extruder was poorly preassembled with a gap between the throat tube and nozzle, and the melted filament was puddling there rather than coming out the nozzle. No idea if that’s realistically possible but I’m grasping at straws here. I did just notice that the teflon tube doesn’t stick out from the throat tube like in this example pic.
Anyway, pictures are here. I got the nozzle marinating in acetone right now to clear out any blockage. Any advice yall can give for a fix would be greatly appreciated.
