Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
Brand new Mini+. Produced beautiful prints. Then suddenly nothing coming out of the hotend. Prior print was fine. Since the failure I have not been able to have a successful print.
I have removed and cleaned extruder gears per the support documents.
Filament skips with a click and fails to feed despite cleaning. I've adjusted the tensioning screw in all aspects and I can get it to feed during a purge, but then as soon as I try to run a test print, click and nothing feeds. Filament spool is not blocked or restricted. The failure is 100% in the feed/gear mechanism.
Using Prusament PLA. Galaxy Black.
At this point I have a Mini+ shaped table ornament as nothing will print.
RE: Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
If you can load filament to the nozzle, then it doesn't sound as much as an extruder problem but perhaps a clogged nozzle. I'd start with a couple of cold pulls, then disassemble the hot end and examine it, especially the PTFE tube.
This is not to say that the extruder is a marvel of engineering. It's okay but in my hands proved to be sensitive to filament choice and required constant adjustments of the tensioner screw. I switched to the Trianglelab clone of the Bondtec dual drive extruder and never had a single problem again.
But before spending money on another extruder, I would make sure that it's not a clog in the nozzle or the hotend.
And most importantly, with a printer that new, my first thing would be to get on the chat with Prusa Support, to document the issue and potentially be eligible for a return/replacement.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
Sounds like a nozzle clog. I had one last weekend, pretty bad. Stepped away for about 30min to shower and came back to find the hot end about half an inch above the piece and no filament coming out. Attempted the cold pull and the filament just broke off during the pull. I had to pull out the PTFE tube in order to get new filament down to the plug and it still broke off twice. On my 4th try I tried a trick I had found googling. Do the cold pull method, but as soon as you get to the point of doing the pull, just let it cool all the way down to room temp, then turn the nozzle heater back on and pull lightly on the filament, as soon as the temp rises enough to start softening the filament it will all release. I pulled out a big nasty plug of junk with this method. The 1st pull with this method pulled everything out and left it nice and clean. Since I already had the PTFE out, I went ahead and cut a new one and replaced that. It's been printing perfectly since. Aside from the cold pull had to also disassemble the extruder to clean out the mess of the extruder chewing through the blocked filament.
RE: Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
dOug, fuchsr, thank you. You are correct, it was a nozzle clog. Also a big thank you to those at Prusa support that helped me.
Yesterday I spent a good amount of time with Prusa support. They were fantastic and pointed me in the right direction. Although we couldn't resolve it before I had to run some errands, they quickly identified the problem and got me in the right direction where I was able to clear it myself.
The problem was the clogs in the nozzle were not clearing with a cold pull no matter how often I tried. See attached pic. With Prusa Support, we did maybe 10-12 cold pulls with no luck.
Since my time with support I did the following
I obtained some cleaning filament and ran a good deal of it through manually and did several cold pulls with it and still not working to clear the crud.
I tried some more cold pulls with PLA for grins. Still no luck.
I tried loosening it by inserting the acupuncture needle through the nozzle. I could feel the goo, but it didn't clear it or even move it.
More cold pulls, because fun.
Finally I stuck a thin 1.5mm driver into the top of the hotend very carefully while the nozzle temp was 270. I could feel the tool press into the goo. Then let it cool down, but only to 180-200 or so. Removed the tool which now had plastic on the tip. Cleaned the tool and repeated until I could no longer feel the goo when inserting the tool.
I then manually ran some pla and could immediately feel the difference.
After reassembling the hotend per the KB article (Support was clear - pay attention to all the steps) and loading the filament and recalibrating the z index, the test file printed beautifully.
RE: Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
Hi Gilatrout,
Quick query. Had you changed filaments just before the blocked nozzle? or had all this occurred only using one filament?
I've had a similar issue. Thanks.
Prusa Mini+ - Fw. 2.3.1 - PrusaSlicer 2.3.0 (Mac) - Filaments PLA / PLA+ / PETG.
RE: Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
Brand new Mini+. Produced beautiful prints. Then suddenly nothing coming out of the hotend. Prior print was fine. Since the failure I have not been able to have a successful print.
I have removed and cleaned extruder gears per the support documents.
Filament skips with a click and fails to feed despite cleaning. I've adjusted the tensioning screw in all aspects and I can get it to feed during a purge, but then as soon as I try to run a test print, click and nothing feeds. Filament spool is not blocked or restricted. The failure is 100% in the feed/gear mechanism.
Using Prusament PLA. Galaxy Black.
At this point I have a Mini+ shaped table ornament as nothing will print.
I have the same issue with a brand new mini+ was working for a couple of hours now will not load filament.
RE: Mini+ Extruder failing after less than a month
I have the same issue with a brand new mini+ was working for a couple of hours now will not load filament. The extruder just crushes the end of the filament.