PRUSA MK3S+ extrusion troubleshooting (I've tried almost everything!)
Hi everyone, I'd like to ask for your collective expertise on troubleshooting extrusion problems on my MK3S+.
Symptoms:
- Intermittent lack of extrusion or more rarely under extrusion
- Motor makes a clicking noise when this happens and seems to "jump back"
- No filament comes out of the nozzle most of the time
- Restarting the print sometimes repeats with the same problem, sometimes does not
- There doesn't seem to be filament grinding on the gears
What I've tried so far to address each possible issue:
- Greasing the extruder gears (gears binding)
- Replacing the hotend PTFE tube (friction in PTFE tube)
- Using different PLA filaments (not filament specific)
- Tightened extruder gear grub screw (loose extruder gear)
- Re-aligning the extruder gears (friction in filament path)
- Cold pulls (clogged nozzle)
- Running cleaning filament through the nozzle (partially clogged nozzle)
Other info:
- I'm using an obxidian 0.4mm nozzle that I haven't had to change in 10+ months. Doesn't appear to have any wear on it.
- I only run PLA on this printer
- I'm using gcode that I've successfully printed 100+ times for 2 years (this is not an exaggeration)
- The extruder motor grabs filament with good force when the printer is running a successful print
- Hotend fan is clean and blowing air but I don't know if it's blowing enough air (possible heat creep?)
It's baffling because it doesn't happen all the time and I can't isolate any other problems. If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear it!
This sounds like a filament related problem. Some need adjustments to the extruder idler, some pigments and inclusions are associated with more frequent (partial) clogging.
Check the diameter of the filament you are using - take a few measurement along a couple of meters and average them; it's rare these days but undersize filament needs the extruder idler to be tightened and the actual value to be entered in slicer - so the gcode for that reel may be a little different. Even rarer is surface dust/contamination building up inside the extruder and clogging the Bondtech gears - some filaments do deteriorate if kept too long.
Was there any visible debris in those cold-pulls?
Cheerio,