Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
I bought a fully assembled I3 Mk3s printer a couple of months ago and it has been printing perfectly. But in the last two weeks I've been having most of the prints fail. Part way through, sometimes just a few layers in, other times in the middle or near the end, the head starts making a strange clicking noise and filament stops coming out of the print head. The printer continues on like nothing is wrong but without filament coming out. I have to re-start the print from the beginning after unloading an reloading the filament. I am not finding anything on the FAQ or manual about problems with the filament just stopping like this. Anyone else experience this?
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
Same problem here, I've had this extruder apart like 20 times now and am about sick of this, so I'm watching this thread...
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
After one of these failed prints, do a normal filament UNLOAD and snap a sharp photo of the melt end; and post it here.
ps: there are literally hundreds of threads here on the subject of jams and clicking extruders:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/?wpfs=clicking+extruder
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
I suspect you are experiencing a filament jam. Once you have posted the picture requested above, so a cold pull and make sure the PTFE is in all the way forward.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
Here is a picture of the last few times I've had to unload the filament, snip the end and re-load.
Does this help? I looked at the links provided but neither thread concludes with any kind of solution that I can see. I browsed the search results but still haven't found much that helps.
I haven't tried the cold pull thing. I thought I saw that in the manual but can't find it right now. After googling I've found some instructions to do this. https://help.prusa3d.com/article/lnbcnhg76k-cold-pull But the pictures don't match my printer, and it has directions that are incomprehensible. "open the extruder idler door" What is that? Where is it? They don't define their terms or show usable pictures so I'm not sure what to do here.
"Make sure the PTFE is in all the way forward." What/where is the PTFE? I know what PTFE is: "Teflon", but where do I look for it and how do I make sure it's all the way forward?
Thanks for the help.
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
You make a really good argument for building your MK3S from kit. At least then you know what the parts are and have a basic idea of what they do.
Please read this section of the assembly manual. It will help you - and help us help you.
https://manual.prusa3d.com/Guide/5.+E-axis+assembly/1055?lang=en
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
The assembly manual helped A WHOLE LOT! Thank you for that. I did a cold pull, and I'm going to run the machine to see if it works better now. Here is the piece I pulled out.
So the PTFE is a little white tube that is down inside the Hotend. I have not yet figured out how to make sure it is all the way forward. I don't see any positioning instructions related to the PTFE in the assembly manual.
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
Now I seem to be caught in some kind of loop where it wants me to unload and reload the filament before it can begin printing. Did I do something wrong?
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
You jiggled the filament sensor flag...
Disable Filament Sensor in settings until you get it figured out.
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
The cold pull tip looks fine. But this step in the filament at the heat break is indicative of the common heat break jam. Many of us resorted to replacing the Prusa mod heat break with the stock E3D-V6 version and the jams went away.
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
Interesting. I may have to do the same.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
I've done two successful prints since the cold pull. Maybe something I did worked. Still need to figure out why my filament sensor is not working any more. It detects when I push the filament in but rejects it when I try to print; But disabling the feature got me going.
I've googled the E3D-V6 but I'm seeing a whole bunch of results spanning many models of printers. Are they all the same? I'm not sure what I need to buy to fix my issue. It does sound to me like my problem has been heat break jams. At least I have a name for my problem now. Thanks for the help in getting this far.
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
It could have been just a dirt in the nozzle or somewhere above, and cold pull removed it. Try doing cold pull few more times, ideally with white or translucent filament (like nylon) to see if some other dirt gets stuck to it.
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
Several times, my PTFE tube has worked its way 1 mm or so and rubbed on the gears. Just check it and see if it is too far back.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
Having the same issue but no clicking. I assembled from kit and had one successful print and then filament stopped extruding about 60% of the way through my second print. I’ve cold pulled about 3 times and checked the location of the filament and can’t seem to find any issues. It’s almost as if it’s not pulling the filament down into the nozzle now regardless of whether auto is on or off. Can’t seem to figure out what the problem is.
Any suggestions?
RE: Filament stops coming out in the middle of a print.
I had a same problem. In middle of print extruder stopped print, it was doing it every print. Sometimes filament did not unload or load into the extruder. I tried to put into the extruder new PTFE tube and now is everything ok.