M200 not extruding

[Zack_6]

My M200 has stopped extruding. I replaced the hotend and the nozzle thinking there might be an obstruction, but that didn’t help. I cleaned the motor in the extruder from plastic and bits but that didn’t help either. That little cog on the extruder is turning, but it’s not forcing the filament through. If I apply a little pressure when guiding the filament through it nozzle does extrude like it should, however, the second I stop applying pressure to feeding the filament, all extrusion stops.

Any idea on this?

[BartsGarage]

Hi,

Probably the nozzle is clogged. Go through this extruder maintenance instructions by Zortrax:

http://support.zortrax.com/extruder-maintenance-m200/

For me its better to burn nozzle over torch than plunge in acetone. Use 0.4mm wire that comes with the machine.

EDIT:

Sorry, I meant this: http://support.zortrax.com/nozzle-cleaning-m200/

[OlliWer]

Hi, is the thermocoupler assembled correct? Sounds like the material is slightly too cold to extrude properly. If you remove the extruder motor and heat the extruder, it should be possible to feed the material quite easily. Would try this first. Regards Olli

[3DPrintComo]

Better to check if the Extruder motor is working fine first.

try doing this:

1. Remove the nozzle and load the filament and see if the filament comes out.

2. Check if the Extruder motor is rotating clockwise

[pryo3d]

Do you chack it out, that the extruder motor are moving without material? For example if you load a new Filament.

So you check taht the extruder motor are work, if not it’s possible that the cable has a problem.

I hope it was helpfully for you.

Bg

daniel

[Michele_Turco]

See if the cable extruder is ok.

[freeformxyz]

Agreed, can almost guarantee the extruder ribbon cable needs to be replaced. After you replace it, print this to help prevent the failure from recurring.

Extruder Cable and Filament Guide HOLDER by CryptoBot – Zortrax Library

Cheers

Chris

[thebeastgoeson]

I’ve been having a same problems over the last few days. I replace the nozzle, clean the old one with acetone, cleaned out the extruder motor with the brush very well, and then I unplugged the extruder cable and made sure that it was plugged in all the way in correctly and securely. After that didn’t work I moved a clip attached to the wire and the tube that the filament goes through about two or 3 inches above the extruders so that the cable wasn’t lying flat and it started extruding so maybe try that. good luck!

[Jesse_Hull]

Hey buddy, you tried looking at your motor output? You might have burned it out. If not, try soaking your extruder tip in a solution as per the guide on zortrax.com

[Zack_6]

Thanks all for the awesome suggestions! Here’s some more info:

1. I’d say it’s definitely not the nozzle or the hot end, as the first thing I did to troubleshoot is put a new hotend on with a new nozzle and I still had the same issue.

2. Initially I thought it was a thermocoupler issue, but given I am able to get filament through the nozzle if I apply a small amount of hand pressure, that may be wrong. However, I suppose it could still be possible that it’s underheating by just enough to not allow the filament through without being forced.

3. I removed the hotend and loaded filament. This appeared to work fine (a little slower than I expected, but it’s kinda hard to judge how fast it should be going through)

4. When I removed the extruder motor and cleaned it, there was some black residue on the front of the motor where the motor touches the bearing. I’m wondering if that bearing has worn out or something. Anyone ever have an issue with that?

Thanks again for the comments.

[Jesse_Hull]

Sounds like you burned it out. Remember to oil your working parts every 300 printing hours! You may have to get new extruder motor…

[Zack_6]

Thanks for the help and recommendations everyone. Upon further inspection it appears the problem was a broken filament guide bearing in the extruder.

In hindsight I should have identified this earlier, as after having the problem I removed the extruder motor to clean it and noticed a larger than normal amount of black residue on the motor where the it comes up against that bearing and that should have told me there was something wrong there. It did prompt me to look at the bearing, but it looked normal enough after a visual inspection, and it wasn’t until I went to remove the bearing that I was able to see that had broken.

[freeformxyz]

Thanks for coming back and sharing! That’s a new failure mode to us. Glad you got it root caused.

Ps I’d still recommend printing the part linked above to avoid a future cable failures. Good insurance, I’ve seen it happen too many times.

[Octrom]

Edit: please ignore, I didn’t see all the replies. When you cleaned the extruder, did you remove the motor? Beside the extruder gear/cog there is a very small bearing. The filament should go between the gear and that bearing. Check if the small bearing is still in place. Also, cut the end of the filament (15cm), then check the diameter of the “new” end.