1 Topic by Coffee

  • Coffee
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Topic: New printer, can't extrude plastic

Hello all

Just got my 3d printer and I've been playing around with it, but not got far because of a problem with the extruder on my printer.

The small bit of starter filament that came with the printer was stuck in the printer and I got it out after raising the temperature of the extruder to 210% and clicking reverse, reverse, reverse in pronterface and pulling gently with pliers for a while. Clicking either 'reverse' or 'extrude' caused the gear on the left of the photo to go round and pick up a bit of plastic on the gears, but the filament did not move either up or down noticeably at all.

Now that I've got the starter filament out I've got some more ABS plastic from solidoodle (orange in the photo) that I can't seem to push into the gap between the roller and the gear mechanism. Of course I have already tried pushing and clicking extrude at the same time but it won't go through.

Anyone got any suggestions for me?

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2 Reply by 2n2r5

  • 2n2r5
  • 2n2r5
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  • From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2013-05-09
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Re: New printer, can't extrude plastic

  1. Heat Up extruder to 200C (do not go above 205C)

  2. Undo tension arm by loosening the silver thumb screw and then sliding the spring and washers off of the M3 bolt.(remember the order that they go back on)

  3. Pivot tensioner arm to the right

  4. Grasp filament gently and pull upward slowly. (make sure the hotend/extruder is at 200C before trying to remove the filament)

  5. insert new filament and reassemble tension arm **Do not over tighten tension arm. The spring needs to only be partially compressed. A little goes a long way here**

  6. Extrude 50mm of filament - Again making sure you are at 200C before extruding

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.

2n2r5's Website

3 Reply by Coffee

  • Coffee
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Re: New printer, can't extrude plastic

Thanks for your reply 2n2r5.

I've tried what you said and by slightly cutting the end of the filament to make it a bit finer was able to get it to go through the roller and gear down to about 1mm above where you would see it disappear towards the end of the nozzle for printing. It got here pretty quickly and I was able to 'reverse' it and 'extrude' it to this point easily, but whereupon it got stuck.

I am thinking I may have a blocked nozzle? Now it won't reverse, and I suspect this is because the filament has fused with some left over starter filament that may be blocking the tube. How can I tell for sure and perhaps someone can tell me what I can do about it?

4 Reply by Coffee

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Re: New printer, can't extrude plastic

Ok. From following what 2n2r5 said and the unclogging procedures on wiki.solidoodle.com/unclogging-procedures I've been able to identify this as a 'hot clog' and opened the side bit fully after taking off the spring and such, and pulling out the clog with long nose pliers.

Seems to print now and looking forward to some fun time tomorrow with it. Cheers 2n2r5.