Clogged
I just got my first printer I few hours ago. Well actually my first PRUSA 3d printer. Actually two of them. I started right away printing. (I previously had a creality CR10S) So I know about 3d printing. Everything was doing well. So I left when I came back one of the printers was printing on the air and nothing was coming out. I am attaching some pictures. I did try cleaning the nozzle with the needle. I watched a few video tutorials and then I realized that I could open the side and look inside where the filament goes. by my surprise there was a clogged of filament. I took it out and then I saw the in the tube there was filament. I tried many options to move that filament down but there is no way. its totally stuck there. Why this ahppended to me? I am really sad that I just got the printer and its giving me a hard time. and its not working already. How can I fix this? I am thinking that I might to open the entire head to clean this mess up. but I do not want to do that. its there some video tutorial or information about how to fix this problem? and why did happen in first place?
RE: Clogged
Just now my second printer got clogged. This is sucks!! it didnt even finish printing!
RE: Clogged
To move filament through the first printer: keep the idler door open, heat the nozzle to 240c, use another piece of filament pushing down through the extruder and feed it into the hole in the PTFE, you should be able to push the melt through until the new filament is coming out. You can also use a piece of heavy wire - 1.5 to 2.0 mm, or a long hex wrench.
At your next jam (stop the print as soon as you hear the clicking), and if the filament hasn't been chewed off like the image above, do a normal UNLOAD and snap and post a photo of the filament tip that comes up. Also, record the room temp or enclosure temp where the printer is operating.
Also - what is the filament you are using? Are these kits or prebuilts?
RE: Clogged
@tim-m30
Yes I did try that many times but it did not help at all. its so jammed that I cant get it to move through. So I decided to open everything. (I hope that I dont mess this up) and I got to see the interior. Inside the PTFE tube there was a filament that goes all the way up to the extrurer head. I tried to pulled it out and it got broken in half. Beause the extrurer its cold so the filament its stuck there.
I am attaching a few pictures so you can see what I have done.
I need to heat this up. so the plastic gets soft and then I can pull the filament out. its that possible? can I turn on the machine now in this condition and not mess everything up? just to heat it up the extrurer and get the filament out?
RE: Clogged
Those wires a fragile, so tread lightly.
Did you heat things up before trying to push the filament out?
At this point, probably best to heat the nozzle to 285c, crack it loose being care to not short the wires with the wrench holding the heater block, turn off power then pull the nozzle completely while it is cooling. The old filament should come out with it and be removable. When you reassemble, make sure you don't move the position of the heat break, and add/refresh the heat sink grease to the heat break threads. Where it sits in the heater block is import to keep the nozzle from bottoming out.
And follow the E3D-V6 assembly procedure to tighten everything properly, and do the final torque when you have everything back together so there's no chance of breaking wires.
ps: I see there is a small nub of filament showing, as the nozzle heats to 285c, you might try pulling on the filament to see if it's come out. And whatever you do, the shapes on the filament are important to retain for diagnostic reasons: how that piece of filament looks will explain where the jam is happening.
RE: Clogged
@tim-m30
I did open the whole head. In both of my printers. There was a long piece of filament going all the way from the teeth that grab and move the filament all the way to the extruder. I was never going to be able to get it out. So I took it apart, cleaned it up and put it back together. and I have now both of my printers runnign again. I had to do some serious calibration though. and it took me for ever. but hear this out now. here it comes the interesting part.
While I had both of my prusa printers disassemble. I took the spool of filament that came with my prusa printers and I moved it to the my creality CR10S and I started to print with it. I have been printing with that machine for around 6 weeks. With absolutly no problem. and guess what. now its also clogged. by then I was thinking that my error was to use the CURA slicer to print in the prusa printer and thats why the prusas got messed up. because of the gcode, the retraction setting and bla bla bla.
but now I am almost sure that the filament its crap and thats why all the machines got clogged. in 24 hours using the same filament in all the printers they got blocked. can that be that the filament its so bad quality that all the machines got clogged?
RE: Clogged
Outright bad filament is pretty uncommon. Filament that has sucked up moisture is more likely, but that shows up as print quality, not jams.
That said, if new filament is working as expected, and the spool from Prusa jammed your other printer, you have a pretty good case for a bad spool. But that would also mean there are dozens if not hundreds of bad spools out there. They don't make them one at a time.
More likely is the filament isn't what the label says: e.g., marked PLA but really is really PETG. You can test the theory by slicing a small failed part using PETG filament settings... and if it prints normally, no jams, and sticks really well to the bed (hard to remove)...
RE: Clogged
@tim-m30
I guess thats the case then. The filament did clogg all 3 printers. I had to open the head extruder in both of my mk3 prusas and my cr10s. No I have all my machines back working again and I did through away those spools of filament. I have heard that a lot of people its having problems with the filament.
RE: Clogged
You should complain to Prusa but they would probably want to see the filament. I would think you would get a number of complementary items from them if the filament is truely bad.
i3 Mk3 [aug 2018] upgrade>>> i3MK3/S+[Dec 2023]
RE: Clogged
@bobstro
Drying? its pretty hot here and there is no humidity at all.
RE: Clogged
Drying? its pretty hot here and there is no humidity at all.
Was the defective filament manufactured there and maintained in those conditions during shipping? The silver FilamemtPM stuff is usually decent. Seal leaks can occur during shipping though.