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Nov 2014
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Nov 2014
Feb 2019
JulieSillam
Nov '14

Hi there,

Often, when I want to print, I’m blocked from the beggining simply because the filament is not extruding.

I tried to heat up the extruder, to move manually the filament, to increase the filament flow, but it’s not always working. Could you help me by sharing your tricks ?

Thanks in advance,

Julie
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  • created

    Nov '14

  • last reply

    Feb '19
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James_2
Nov '14

@JulieSillam

Which printer do you use and what material are you prinitng with, what temperatures are you useing?

James

JulieSillam
Nov '14

Hi James,

Thanks for answering :slight_smile:

I’m using Ultimaker 1 or 2 in general. I hit up to 220 degrees sometimes, when it’s not extruding, and lowering the temp. after.

James_2
Nov '14

@JulieSillam - I have a couple of UMOs and the answer kind of ‘depends’.

Some filaments do just clog - I have some older colorfab filaments that I just use to print prototypes and they print brill for the first 20 layers and then just gradually clogg - so after a long print I swap out the nozzle and clean it (Let me know if you need to know how to do this.)

Some filaments respond badly to too long a pre-heat - thy clogg the cool zone and will not push through a ‘plugg’. To check this you could pre- heat to 210 and unload the filament and have a look at the end shape - if it looks like the nozzle inside then you are good to snip off and re-start as it is not the filament blocking.

Woodfill and copperfill just clogg because they burn.

Sometimes xt is being used by mistake - and this needs a higher temp

Your drive might not be clean - they can get filled with powder - open up the extruder and look at the hobbed bolt, give it apuff of air with a keyboard cleaner and/or brush it with a small brush. - to test it you could put the filament in, untension the syetem - just tension it until it grips the filament so you can’t pull it out backwards.

Check your delring bearing wheel in the feeder is turning round and not in a groove - I have replaced mine with a metal bearing (£2) on ebay)

Check the filament is smaller than 3mm (2.85) and moving through the bowden ok

So in conclusion it could be at the hot end which is blocked in the tip, or the cool zone or the bowden, or in the feeder not driving it from the back end, or bad filament :slight_smile:

That is my brief cheat sheet for a UMO

nozzles do block - I have done a youtube video on getting them off if you need it.

James

JulieSillam
Nov '14

Wow, thanks so much for this long answer, it’s awesome!!

I can get back to printing now, thanks to you!!

BeachLab
Nov '14

I have sometimes similar problems with my ultimaker 2, usually when the printer has not been used for a long period (8 hours or so). This is the workflow I use before starting to print:

- Heat noozle for at 3 or 4 minutes.

- Slowly Forward the filament with the wheel till it flows evently

- Print as usual

4 years later
1 month later
Cassidy44
Feb '19

I believe I have reduced my problem to the short metal tube going into the hot block (before the extruder nozzle). Seems this tube is getting too hot, causing the PLA to soften and expand. This blocks the tube and causes the whole thing to stop extruding.
But it will print 30 layers before this happens :smirk:
Haven’t got a completed print with PLA yet, have tried 5 different rolls of filament. Don’t know how to control this “hot spot”.
Very frustrating.