Mk3 not loading filament/clicking after failed print.
My first issue with this printer.
Last night one of my prints failed due to the filament reel jamming and thus snapping.
This will have obviously put a lot of force on the printer. As the tension will have had to have been significant to snap the PLA
1. (less important) The printer didn't stop. I thought it was meant to detect this? (no filament)
2. More of an issue. The gear that grabs the filament seems to click and not feed the filament properly. It's moving and grabs it. But the filament isn't moving smoothly down. You can hear a slight click as it's rotating.
The movements of the gear without filament (ie trying to load/unload) look OK by eye. But soon as filament goes it it seems to stop.
I'm not sure but it looks like it maybe misaligned?
Here's a pic of the port hole
Best Answer by Neophyl:
Sounds like you have a clog in the heatbreak. Probably from the cooked filament that is in there as it wasn't being fed through.
Open the feed door, heat up the extruder to hotter than normal for that filaments, go over by 20 or so degrees, and then when at temp manually feed more filament to try and push the blockage out the nozzle. If you cant feed it through when the extruder is hotter then at that point its likely going to need a disassembly of the nozzle/heatbreak assembly to clear it.
Once its feeding freely and smoothly then you can lower the temp to normal, close the feed door and reset the tension. You can then test that loading works ok and its flowing out the nozzle properly.
As for the sensor, well if it had filament jammed in it then it would still be detecting filament so it wont stop. It does not detect that filament is moving. Its just 1 or 0. It detects problems above the sensor. So in the case where the extruder is not clogged and is feeding through normally if it breaks (or runs out) at the reel end then eventually there will be no more filament in front of the sensor. So it then changes to zero and stops. If the problem is below the sensor then you are basically out of luck.
RE: Mk3 not loading filament/clicking after failed print.
Sounds like you have a clog in the heatbreak. Probably from the cooked filament that is in there as it wasn't being fed through.
Open the feed door, heat up the extruder to hotter than normal for that filaments, go over by 20 or so degrees, and then when at temp manually feed more filament to try and push the blockage out the nozzle. If you cant feed it through when the extruder is hotter then at that point its likely going to need a disassembly of the nozzle/heatbreak assembly to clear it.
Once its feeding freely and smoothly then you can lower the temp to normal, close the feed door and reset the tension. You can then test that loading works ok and its flowing out the nozzle properly.
As for the sensor, well if it had filament jammed in it then it would still be detecting filament so it wont stop. It does not detect that filament is moving. Its just 1 or 0. It detects problems above the sensor. So in the case where the extruder is not clogged and is feeding through normally if it breaks (or runs out) at the reel end then eventually there will be no more filament in front of the sensor. So it then changes to zero and stops. If the problem is below the sensor then you are basically out of luck.
RE: Mk3 not loading filament/clicking after failed print.
Stupid question.
I can't fit either my 2mm (too small) or my 2.5mm (too big) Allen key into the screws.
Surely there isn't another size in between?
RE: Mk3 not loading filament/clicking after failed print.
Thanks. Looks like taking thr top off and heating to a higher temp cleared the issue.
Looks like a couple the screws are miss shaped. Some of them my 2.5mm would fit. Other not at all. But they clearly are 2.5s managed to force a star screw driver in and get some purchase and was able to open.
I will have to check and see if the sensor is working by snipping the filament on a test print and seeing if it stops.