Filament Stops Feeding...but Only Prusa
So I've been printing various bits in PLA lately. I have a few spools of the Prusa PLA and several of various other brands. None of the various filaments has caused me even a bit of trouble. I successfully ran off a few hours worth of a job in the Prusa Vanilla White a couple of weeks ago, then the printer sat idle. A few days ago, I went to print a completely different item, but about an hour after I started, I was hearing this clicking sound. I went looking for it and found that the filament just wasn't feeding anymore.
I stopped the print, unloaded the filament and reloaded it--it extruded just fine. I did a few rounds of "Correct color?" then started the job again. As before, an hour or two into the job, the filament stopped feeding. So I wondered about whether the filament was off just a bit because it sat idle on the printer (it's not unusually humid, but still), so I put it in a box with desiccant (where I usually store my filaments) and tried printing with some Hatchbox--the job that had failed twice ran without a hitch. So I ran a 24-hour job with the Hatchbox and again had no problems.
Then this weekend I decided to switch back to Prusa, but used a spool of black. Guess what? Same fail to feed after an hour or two. If I use the Settings option to adjust the motors, I could back the extruder up several notches, then forward, and it might start feeding just fine. Or if I unload and reload it would feed just fine.
I ran a couple feet of an extruder cleaner filament that someone had recommended to me a couple of years ago. Then I opened the tensioner--I found absolutely nothing amiss. Rubbed some swabs through the gears and they came back a little darker, but there was hardly anything there. blew it out with some compressed air, just to be sure. Loaded the Prusa black back in, kicked off another run...and within an hour or two it stopped feeding.
So then I just switched it to some Sunlu silver-gray color and ran a 32-hour job. Got through perfectly. Switched back to the Prusa white and tried again and again it failed. I'm currently trying a run with the Prusa Galaxy Green and waiting to see in a bit.
So the nozzle flows filament just fine. Other brands run just fine. Prusa has always run just fine before, but now only runs for an hour or two. I haven't made any changes to the printer since the last time I had run the Prusa filament; in fact, I hadn't even unloaded it and just did a job several days later. I mean, the obvious answer here is "don't use the Prusa filament." But I have 5 spools of that and only 1 of them is significantly gone; that stuff is a lot more expensive to get than Hatchbox, Sunlu, or 3d Solutech, so I'd rather not waste it. But more importantly: it used to work and now it doesn't, so something changed. This change could be the precursor to a larger issue; I'm assuming that one day soon, nothing will run through the printer, so I'd rather figure it out now. Other than a bearing problem on the x-rods back in 2018, this thing has been rock solid and given me ZERO other problems for 3 years, including several 72-hour or 96-hour jobs.
Any suggestions?
I put it in a box with desiccant
This is OK for maintaining good filament but it will not dry it. Look up threads on here about drying - this has been an odd year for humidity in a lot of places...
Cheerio,
Filament Stops Feeding...but Only Prusa
I got through a full 32-hour run with the Prusa green with no issues. I wouldn't think humidity would be the problem, but just in case, I've ordered up a dehumidifier. Thanks, Diem. We'll have to see if that makes a difference with the other two spools.
dehumidifier
I got through a full 32-hour run with the Prusa green with no issues. I wouldn't think humidity would be the problem, but just in case, I've ordered up a dehumidifier. Thanks, Diem. We'll have to see if that makes a difference with the other two spools.
I have added one to my workshop to reduce the effects of the Georgia environment.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
Try the spring of the extruder a little more pressure and a little less pressure.
How hot is the room or enclosure you are printing in, especially the temperature wen it fails. Keep a temperature gauge in the printer.
Try to print with a small fan pointed at the extruder motor to cool it down. i have a extruder fan on top of the motor blowing upwards to cool the motor. It could be the filamant gets to hot inside.
Try to print the same file with quality setting and speed setting, the difference is the power to the motor of the extruder. See last part of the setting in the prusa slicer , printer setting. look if you can see a different in printing.
Filament Stops Feeding...but Only Prusa
Try the spring of the extruder a little more pressure and a little less pressure.
How hot is the room or enclosure you are printing in, especially the temperature wen it fails. Keep a temperature gauge in the printer.
Try to print with a small fan pointed at the extruder motor to cool it down. i have a extruder fan on top of the motor blowing upwards to cool the motor. It could be the filamant gets to hot inside.
I've tried tightening the spring and loosening it--the full range of motion between "just barely close the door" to "this thing is really tight." I even tried just holding the door closed with my finger when it was being finicky.
The room is my office, an air conditioned space generally around 77F/25C at all times. No enclosure.
I haven't needed any auxiliary cooling--every other filament works fine, the Prusa green works fine, and even this filament worked fine until a couple of weeks ago. I've been running the printer almost nonstop for the last couple of days and the extruder motor housing is comfortably warm, not hot at all (finger test).
Try to print the same file with quality setting and speed setting, the difference is the power to the motor of the extruder. See last part of the setting in the prusa slicer , printer setting. look if you can see a different in printing.
I don't understand what you mean by "see the last part of the setting." The job I kept failing on was using the standard 0.05mm ULTRADETAIL setting in PrusaSlicer, which I've used on many jobs; I just added 15% grid infill. The job I was trying to get done with this has some fine details that I didn't want to get lost. Again, I successfully printed some of the same object with this print setting in Hatchbox, 3d Solutech, and the Prusa Galaxy Green. (They're not perfect but the more I see about moisture in PLA the more I think my filaments haven't been as dry as they need to be. Working on that now.)
I got through a full 32-hour run with the Prusa green with no issues. I wouldn't think humidity would be the problem, but just in case, I've ordered up a dehumidifier. Thanks, Diem. We'll have to see if that makes a difference with the other two spools.
Update: I got an Eibos filament dryer in yesterday. I dried the white filament at 50C for 12 hours. Then I retried printing one of the same files from before. This time it ran for about 3 hours with no problems (it did make some noises but continued extruding). In the last half hour, I went downstairs for lunch. Came up to find the print was done, but the last several layers did not extrude. I heated the head back up and tried advancing the extruder motor--just kept skipping (this is after the print head had been cooling for 30+ minutes, so the rest of the head assembly had cooled to room temp). I backed the motor up 5 or so steps then advanced it and it fed just fine. So pretty similar to the problem as it existed before.
I'm trying a completely different print file now. Not even close to the earlier object. Don't know anything else to try.