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My month-old Mini has stopped printing  

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TeeBell
(@teebell)
Trusted Member
My month-old Mini has stopped printing

My Mini suddenly stopped extruding yesterday. I'm pretty sure I used it over the weekend and it was fine. Yesterday morning about 5 minutes into a print it just stopped extruding. I tried to unload the filament (PLA) and it was stuck, it would not back out at all. I found the only way to get it out was to heat the nozzle to 240 then purge until it started coming out, then quickly do an unload. This is pretty much where I am right now. Any print that I try will print for about 2-3 minutes and then stop extruding. The Mini is about a month old and has had nothing except PLA in it. Everything is stock.
I have disassembled the extruder and cleaned it out. I also removed the fitting from the top of the hot end and took out the short PTFE tube. It's clean as a whistle. I looked down into the heat break and it also is clean. I poked the needle into the nozzle from the bottom just in case.
What is happening and can anyone help with a fix?

Posted : 15/09/2020 2:22 pm
bobstro
(@bobstro)
Illustrious Member
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

I'm sure there will be some suggestions forthcoming, but I recommend you log into the online store and contact support via online chat. They are very helpful. You paid extra for Prusa support, so use it! Good luck with it.

My notes and disclaimers on 3D printing

and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Posted : 15/09/2020 3:50 pm
TeeBell
(@teebell)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

@bobstro

Thank you for your reply. I spent many hours on the chat with them yesterday (8 or more) and while much of it was waiting for replies or me trying things they suggested, there was little help. It seems this is a known problem or at least a common one, yet I feel like they are spinning my wheels with questions about how old my filament is and how it is stored. I am hoping others here who have experienced this found a solution other than spending more money on a replacement extruder.

Posted : 15/09/2020 3:59 pm
Oxygen
(@oxygen)
Reputable Member
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

maybe this is what you already tried but... you could remove the fitting from the print side of the printer and see if the extruder is able to feed the filament (if not adjust the screw on the extruder) if this works fine your problem is in the print side of the printer....

Mini with FW:4.4.1 + SuperPINDA + Bondtech Heatbreak + PC4-M8 couplers + 1 piece boden

Posted : 15/09/2020 4:10 pm
TeeBell
(@teebell)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

@oxygen

Thanks for your reply. I did forget to mention that when the problem first started happening I was hearing clicking from the extruder as it stopped feeding filament. After I disassembled the extruder and cleaned it, I reassembled. Support emphasized making sure the screw was barely catching the nut. The problem still occurs. I can print for 2-3 minutes then nothing. I do still hear clicking but not as much as before. It is acting as if the temperature has dropped. On another forum someone actually suggested that this is the issue, that the heater wire has degraded and no longer has a good connection. This makes sense but my LCD says the temp is still at proper printing temperature.

Support did have me remove the fitting on the exit side of the extruder and do a filament load/unload. It feeds and unloads perfectly.

Posted : 15/09/2020 4:19 pm
Oxygen
(@oxygen)
Reputable Member
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

did you go through the cleaning process of your heatbreak? sounds like you have a buildup in the lower halve of the heatbreak (inner ptfe tube too short??) if you did the feeding test and know the filament can be feeded through the ptfe tube without issues (i have read there can be issues if you compress the brass fitting too much by tightening the nut too much) the issue must be in the hot-end part of the printer (I would start by ensuring the ptfe tube is long enough and there is no buildup of filament in the lower part of the heatbreak)

if you have done this then I would be as lost as you...

Mini with FW:4.4.1 + SuperPINDA + Bondtech Heatbreak + PC4-M8 couplers + 1 piece boden

Posted : 15/09/2020 8:45 pm
LLCoolJeff
(@llcooljeff)
Active Member
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

I had an issue that sounds remarkably similar when I first got my Mini a few months ago. I could print fine with Prusament, but anytime I switched to a different brand (I have a lot of Monoprice filaments both PLA and PETG) the printer would stop extruding a few minutes after printing. 

 

I saw this YouTube Video where the guy recommended I raise the Mini's Hotend up. The thinking goes the other filaments have a wider tolerance for the diameter band (read: inferior quality) and so what was happening was the Monoprice filament was too thick, and because the hotend was too low, the filament ended up siezing in the nozzle, essentially jamming in the nozzle completely. By raising the Hotend heater block and pushing it as far up into the heatsink as possible with Bowden tube removed, this issue was eliminated for me. I can now print with Prusament and Monoprice Filament. (Note: you will have to re-adjust the PINDA probe so your z-axis doesn't drive the nozzle into the print bed). 

Video below for the fix: 

Best of luck to you - don't give up on this little machine. It's fun when it's working, and this just might fix it for you. 

J. D. - 

Posted : 22/09/2020 3:05 am
Aaron Keigher
(@aaron-keigher)
Active Member
RE: My month-old Mini has stopped printing

This sounds a lot like what I went through. Prusament printed no problem, switched to Protopasta and everything went sideways.

I was unable to print large files, hot end was clogging, the filament was jamming, and I didn't know what to do. Support walked me through how to purge the nozzle and how to reassemble the hot end. It looked like my PTFE tube wasn't seated properly, I had to re align my PINDA as well. Since then I have printed almost every day, Matterhackers, Protopasta, and Prusament with zero issues. It took a few tried to get it right. The support articles are a huge help as is a high powered flashlight to see into the top of the nozzle. 

Posted : 23/09/2020 10:47 pm
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