Not Extruding. Extruder gears clicking.
Hey everyone. New to the 3d printing scene. Just picked up a used MK3S+. I've had it for over a week now and it's been working flawless. However lately I had one issue with the extruder gears skipping teeth and no filament being extruded. Luckily I caught it on the first layer halfway through which is when the problem started. I stopped the print, pulled the filament out, reloaded it, and started the print again and it printed the entire thing (6H print) just fine. Was wondering what could have caused the issue? Also not sure when the last time the nozzle was replaced. Would you recommend replacing it and cleaning out the hot end? Thanks in advance.
RE: Not Extruding. Extruder gears clicking.
Has it done it since if you post pic of hotend and nozzle we could give advice on cleaning and tighten the idler gear door a bit if it keeps doing it
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RE: Not Extruding. Extruder gears clicking.
Typically extrusion issues like that means the gears aren't aligned right and/or you need more or less tension. Follow the extrusion guide on how to test the MK3S+ - typically you will need to manually insert filament and see if gears alight properly around the filament, and if not move the gear on the motor shaft. It can happen that it wasn't tight enough when you got it, and with some use it got loose and moved. There should be two screws on the gear on the motor shaft - make sure one aligns with the flat side and they need to be rather right - both of them. It's a bit of a trial an error.
Next is the pressure - there's a screw that goes through the extruder with a spring on it, that holds the "stationary" gear tight to the motor gear. It cannot be too loose and it cannot be too tight. The latter will make it hard to load filament, the former makes moving the filament harder as it can slip and that makes print fail as you aren't extruding as much as the GCODE expects.
Do extrusion test prints to judge if you're getting enough filament. It can be hard to do. Here's an old trick from when I started. Take a sample filament of at least 20cm and insert it. Make sure it's a color DIFFERENT from a permanent marker you have. Go up 100mm and make a mark. Now go to your settings, pick move axis and pick the extruder. Extrude 100mm using the know (be sure the hotend is on!!) and if you do not line up with the line you made something is off. With PRUSA I expect the firmware values work and do not need adjustments, so start by using the above principles to ensure there's a good grib on the filament, that it moves forward/backward given the length provided and you should have an indication if the gears are a problem. Particular if you get different results - try holding the filament a little tight (not too much) when extruding to see if there's a good grib.
There are several other extrusion calibration guides available - and mind you that if you're a build-it-yourself person having to use E codes yourself to adjust firmware values is absolutely what you need to expect (and use quite a bit of math).
- https://help.prusa3d.com/article/extrusion-multiplier-calibration_2257
- https://help.prusa3d.com/article/extruder-linearity-correction-calibration_2254
You can absolutely find other tips and ideas on 3D printing sites other than Prusa - but do recall that part of the price of your printer went to a more "intelligent" set of firmware that's tested with the hardware/configuration you have, so you should not really need to do E code adjustments and calculations. It's mostly going to be slicer parameters or mechanical issues you'll be facing.
Good luck.
The easiest possible cure is to tweak the extruder idler pressure - it might be slightly out either way.
https://help.prusa3d.com/article/extruder-noises_2013
Cheerio,
RE: Not Extruding. Extruder gears clicking.
Thanks for the replies. So looks like the issue, or a similar issue persists. The filament isn't being extruded consistently. Meaning some areas of the print are under extruded and some other areas are fine. I did two cold pulls with no luck. Filament appears to be coming out of the nozzle straight and not curling up.
You may have accumulatd enough debris in the Bondtech gears to be causing slippage. Clean them with a stiff paintbrush and compressed air blower then fine adjust the extruder idler pressure.
Cheerio,