Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
2 days old. My MK2 is not pulling the filament down. It makes a noise like it is skipping. Tried loosening and tightening the feed spring screws but makes no difference. I now can only print if I stay close and when I hear the noise of skipping go and push the filament down.
First it wrecks the bed. All calibrated so should not hit the deck 😮 A day later (yesterday) there is an update which is designed to stop it wrecking the bed..... So it looks like they know there is a problem but I still have to pay for a new heat bed!
Now this. Tempted to send it back if this is not fixable. No point having one if I need to feed the filament. May as well be a glorified 3d pen 😥
Does anyone know what could be causing the problem? I am printing PLA and ABS. I gave up with ABS as it could not keep it warm enough and the prints came out with the layers coming apart.
The PLA prints perfect minus the feed issue.
No experience in good and bad 3d printers but I did buy this to avoid these problems. I also paid the cost to avoid these problems. Hopefully Mr Prusa can actually help and shed some light on what the problem might be as this is for support rather then leaving the general public to solve Prusa's problems. 😡
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
What temperature are you printing the PLA at? Also, what is your print speed? It sounds as if it is grinding the filament which is usually a sign of a clog, but if you are able to push the filament through then that wouldn't be the case.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
Ben
I presume you have been slicing your own models? What slicer and retraction settings are you using?
Is the extruder fan (not the part fan) working OK and turning on at 50 degrees?
Have you tried printing one of the pre-sliced models from the SD card and if so did you have the same issues?
Unfortunately part of the deal when you buy a kit is the forum support. And it is a great deal. And forum support is not bad at all. It may actually be better for diagnosing issues as there are many more of us on here than there are support staff and we all use the printers differently and collectively have encountered many more problems than Josef and his staff.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
Thanks. A good point on the forum and public knowing more then Prusa would. Hopefully no offense to everyone, That was not what I was putting across. Just a little annoyed thats all. I was not expecting to plug it in and all be fine but I did expect hardware to work without problems.
PLA is 210 and bed 60. The fan does come on at 50.
I am not doing anything overly mad. I download from thingyverse and then use Slic3r onto sd then away it goes. I am not in any position to be designing anything yet 😳
I have tried PLA at 230 and it still does the same thing. I did indeed think it may be a clog so tried it at a higher temp. Same thing. I have checked the allen key screws on the pulley and they are tight.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
It sounds like some debris somehow managed to get into extruder and jams up the nozzle a bit. I'm afraid your only option is to clean the extruder and nozzle. But it is my opinion only based on others' experience, it didn't happen to me yet.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
It did happen to me once, just after getting the Mk2.
I always use 1.5mm retraction with the V6 and that can cause issues when the hot end is not put together perfectly. After a hot end rebuild, the printer hasn't stopped printed even with 1.5mm retraction.
Ben, you could try a nozzle clean - use the Ultimaker "Atomic Method" (Google). If you see any discolouration on the filament you pull out, then it is likely you will need a nozzle rebuild.
Peter
P.S. The supplied nozzle build may have one of two issues; either the internal end of the PTFE tubing is not square or the PTFE tubing has been locked int a position where it is not fully inserted (by a very small amount, < 0.5mm)
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
OK, this is odd.
This happened to me yesterday.
For me it started because I moved the PINDA probe and lost the Z calibration and I was printing too close to the bed.
After fixing this I had a failed print, still. So I wanted to switch filament.
Surprise, I could not get the new filament to insert.
The extruder gear was skipping over the filament like you were describing. I tried forcing the filament in, heating to 255 etc, nothing worked.
Unfortunately for me support was not very helpful so I got mad and took the damn thing apart.
There were filament debris stuck in the plastic tube that lead to the extruder core. After clearing that up and re-assembling the extruder it worked.
I don't recommend you do the same but keep it in mind as the "nuclear option" if the atomic cleaning doesn't work 🙂
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
Cristian
It can also happen that pulling out filament can leave some melted filament in the cold part of the hot end and when it solidifies, it will not soften.
Generally the answer is to remove the extruder fan and heat the nozzle to allow heat back up to the heat sink. Leave it a few minutes and it should soften the plastic enough to push in new filament.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
Ben, do you have another printer? I thought I recognised your nick from a different forum.
Main reason I ask is that if the retraction settings are set too high, the nozzle is easily clogged, especially with PLA because of it's friction coefficient.
I had a minor issue with that when accidentally using printer settings that work well on a bowden tube system (much more retraction) - all in all it was a mess.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
This may not be related to your problem, however I had a similar event on the kit machine I built. They problem was that the set screw on the filament drive screw was not tight enough resulting in skipping and the drive gear would move to the side of the tube. The Allen wrench supplied was just a little to small and would slip in the head of the set screw. Once I gat a correct allen wrench and tighten it up I have not had a problem.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
Regarding ABS: anecdotally, dark ABS colors seem to print better than light ABS colors. My roll of blue ABS has printed well every time, while my prints of white or yellow tend to fall apart. I suspect I wouldn't have problems with ABS if I put the whole machine in a build chamber (which I intend to do one of these days). Also I intend to try the medical grade ABS from Makergeeks; they say their ABS has no harmful odors.
Regarding the extruder jam: Sadly, I've now had a couple of significant jams on the MK2 that never happened on the MK1. To recover after the first time, I unscrewed the nozzle and pushed the stuck filament up the PTFE tube. Not fun. Tonight, I tried pushing in a thin steel wire from the top while the extruder was hot. (I used a single strand of outdoor multi-purpose steel wire from the hardware store.) It worked! The wire came out coated in filament. I'm hesitant to recommend that method to anyone who's not prepared to replace a damaged PTFE tube, but it was quick and easy.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
This may seem a silly question, but when you feed they filament in, are you just poking it into the little hole in the top of the extruder and letting the motor pull it in? If so it may e that the tip is missing the opening of the PTFE tube inside. I've had this enough that I'm quick to spot it and fix it. All you do is undo the tension screws and open the flap. Pass the filament in and use your fingers or the pliers to guide it into the PTFE tube and then close it all back up again...
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
This may seem a silly question, but when you feed they filament in, are you just poking it into the little hole in the top of the extruder and letting the motor pull it in? If so it may e that the tip is missing the opening of the PTFE tube inside.
Yes, I do only insert the filament string into the hole on the top of extruder. And it worked every time so far. Don't forget there is one important precondition for this method - the filament string must be cut with a slope of about 45 degrees to auto-fit into PTFE precisely.
Re: Missing layers and extruder motor not pulling in filament
I experienced a skipping extruder gear as well, but unlike some of the other posters in this thread, the load filament command was working flawlessly and in a raised position, everything was fine.
However, when printing (or attempting to print) I found that the filament drive was skipping. The solution was that my hotend was too close to the bed -- leaving no space for filament to be extruded. This was causing everything to back up.
I used live adjust to raise the hotend slightly and everything is now working well.