This is the extruder wheel. the axis needs to be cleaned and add some grease. It is a weak and known issue and takes you one hour to fix.
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Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately it isn’t this, I’ve tried this already 
My guess is that plastic is melted and jammed in the extruder.
Be aware that this is a junior.
The gears are not in the head. The feeder and the nozzle are two seperate units far apart.
The filament feeder and nozzle are separated by a long filament guide tube.
Feeding gears and hot unit are thus separated by about 40 cm.
Most problems with grinding feeder wheel are caused by a blockage in the nozzle unit.
Because of the blockage the feeder cannot push the filament into the tube and starts clicking and grinding.
Yes, if a Jr. then the head can be easily removed and if you are capable, disassembled to clean and check. I’ve not had one apart, but clearly there is filament stuck in the path or in the hot end section, and clearing this may be a challenge. Take it slow and try to see where the actual sticking place is. It might be necessary to get a new head but most blockages can be cleared - the main thing is to not damage the extruder in the process.
Yes, this is the best approach outside of a complete extruder head disassembly.
Hello Chris,
I have had the same issue with my Junior.
the filament is stuck in the nozzle.
The solution is simple but requires some hands on work.
1) removing the head
Cut the fillament below the feeder.
Take of the printing head from the carriage (push white button on top to release)
Remove fillament guiding tube from feeder and pint head
you might have to push the filament through the feeder (while pushing the filament release) before you can take off the tube.
Now you should have a loose printing head with about 40 cm of filament sticking out.
just put it down on the bed but leave the electronic flat cable on
2) removing stuck filament
Start the nozzle cleaning cycle via the operating menu.
utilities>clean nozzle
When the temerature is ok, poke the nozzle with the cleaning needle
stop the cleaning cycle by pushing ok
the filament is probably still stuck.
now go to monitor mode in the menu.
When temperature drops to about 100 degrees celsius start pulling hard on the filament while you hold on tight to the printing head.
Now the filament should come out.
3) prevention
by deep cleaning the nozzle on regular basis this can be prevented.
yes completely agree with approach. I have done the same with my Da Vinci 2.0. I recommend cleaning the drive gears on the extruder at regular intervals. I usually give a quick clean before a large print just to ensure I don’t have any issues.
Good luck,
Jay
8 days later
Hi, I’m having problems unloading my spool. I get a chug chug chug when unloading, as if something is stuck somewhere. I’ve tried cleaning the gears with the brush, but to no avail. I’ve tried the steps you’ve listed above but can’t seem to remove the guiding tube from either end or move the filament at all manually. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Update, I did a nozzle clean, go an error 0011 code. Turned it off, then on again, all normal. Attempted to unload nozzle, no sounds this time but was firmly stuck. Removed extruder head, managed to remove feeder tube. About 1 metre of filament manually removed. On inspection of the filament, it appears to be ‘bitten’ in several places and ridged. What could be causing this and how can I fix it?
The teeth of the feeder cause lacerations (or bitemarks) while feeding into the feeding tube. That is normal.
The teeth of the feeder cause lacerations (or bitemarks) while feeding filament into the feeding tube. That is normal.
4 months later
I´m having this issue where I´m trying to unload the filament, but I get this grinding noise from the extruder (not the hot end but the gears that push or pull the filament), while the filament is firmly stuck.
Upon inspection, I noticed that the temperature first increases, reaching 186°C, but instead of the gears starting to pull at this temperature, the nozzle starts to cool down.
Afterwards, at 107°C the gears start pulling on the filament, but obviously at this temperature it´ll stay stuck to the nozzle.
Seems to me like a coding issue, as the printer instead of pulling the filament at the highest temperature, it skips the operation an pulls when temeprature reaches its minimum…
4 months later
I don’t have this problem but where is you can’t do it either side of the feed tube out mine pops out on the side near the filament roll. So every time I start a print nothing comes out of the extruder.
Any ideas.
11 months later
Try popping the extruder assembly back into place.