1

Topic: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Printer was working great aside from some sliding issues and I decided to try another filament which wouldn't go past the feeder wheel. I switched back to the red that came with it but it got jammed with another piece, so there are two squashed into the feeder wheels. It wont retract or extrude, but it's very slowly oozing out of the hot end.
I was going to just remove the hot end but it slides out sideways and the filament will be in the way.
Do I need to take apart the whole assembly or just wait it out? I tried easing off on the thumb screw, but didn't seem to help.

2

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Take the thumb wheel all the way off and swing the tent ion arm out of the way. Then with the extruder at ~195 you should be able to grab the filament with tweezers to pull it out.

SD3 w/ mods:
Glass bed with QU-BD heat pad upgrade, threadless ballscrew w/ 8mm smooth rod, spectra line belt replacement, lawsy MK5 extruder, Lawsy replacement carriage, E3D hotend, Ramps 1.4 w/ reprap discount controller, DRV8825 drivers, 12v 30A PS, Acrylic case, Overkill Y-idlers, Filament alarm, Extruder fan + more.

3

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Or push it through with a paper clip.

4

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you both. I used a combination of both techniques and I think we're good now. When I tried the other filament it wouldn't go past the feeder wheel. Do I just need to lessen the tension on the thumb screw?

5

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Its better to just undo the tension arm. If you turn off the motors you should be able to push it through the gear but you won't have any issues if you undo the tension arm.

SD3 w/ mods:
Glass bed with QU-BD heat pad upgrade, threadless ballscrew w/ 8mm smooth rod, spectra line belt replacement, lawsy MK5 extruder, Lawsy replacement carriage, E3D hotend, Ramps 1.4 w/ reprap discount controller, DRV8825 drivers, 12v 30A PS, Acrylic case, Overkill Y-idlers, Filament alarm, Extruder fan + more.

6

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

And if your drive wheel has filament dust ground into it you need to clean that out of it with a small stiff brush(toothbrush) otherwise it will have feeding problems, also do not leave your hot end on and at temp(195) longer then about 3-5 minutes with out it getting filament fed through it or you will get plastic burned inside it that will result in clogging.

7

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

cool.  thanks for the advice.
I'm getting small lumps of plastic which cause the hot end and heatbed to jump, offsetting the print. one of the lumps looked singed. is my hot end too hot? it's at the default 195

8

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have printed at 200 with no trouble, so no you are not getting it too hot.
Sounds like plastic stuck to the print head, over heated and then stuck to your print
If you see a lump on the print before your printer gets offset you can pause the print, move the hot end away the the print and cut the lump from your print and then unpause to continue.
Careful how far you move the head as not to hit the side or anything.

9

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Either that or you have the bump in the middle of an infill and the head continually passes over it which will cause the plastic to brown from the heat (slight burns, but not blackened).  This is common in overextrusion or if you have a section of the model detach from the bed then get over-printed by the head.  From your description you may be over extruding.

10

Re: Clogged on my first day. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

+1 on over extruding

Solidoodle2 with Ceramic tile heated bed http://www.soliforum.com/topic/2544/my- … eated-bed/
"1kg should last for an while" is a lie!