Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I have the same problem. I got my printer about a week ago and all was well until this morning. I woke up to a half finished print, but the MK3 was correctly parked with no errors.
I couldn't get the filament out, using the auto unload function and the extruder stepper would just click when I tried to move the axis. Opening the tensioner I saw this:
How do y'all remove the filament from under the gears?
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
How do y'all remove the filament from under the gears?
Is that the Prusa gray filament? That's the only filament that's ever done this to me.
As for removing it I would heat the print head to a high temp (e.g. for ABS), then snip the filament above the gears and pull the portion below the gears out using a needle noses pliers.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
To remove the filament, I just preheated the hotend to PLA (215 degrees), and used pliers to pull the filament upwards, the whole filament will come out from the hotend. I had the exact same problem you have. I still have that clicking noise (the extruder motor is skipping because it cannot push the filament), and I think it is a general issue where the extruder motor heats too much, and somehow the filament gets soft before it enters the hotend which creates the bulky blob of filament at the entrance of the hotend, and things get worse.
I believe that Prusa is working on a new firmware that will better control the current to the Extruder motor, it should not get that hot (and it does get really hot).
Olivier
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I'm a bit mad that 3DprintingNerd just had the same problem we all had here and he just got a replacement from Prusa.
Prusa not only does not address our issues but gives a support reviewers we'll never and in doing so gets a review that doesn't reflect the real user experience.
Come on, the feeling that a viewer would get from that review is "this youtuber got a faulty printer and prusa provided a replacement fast. wow! great customer service!".
It's not a lone faulty machine. Customer service does not work that way.
Well...
I was writing to let all you know that even the "pro's" got this kind of clogs.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Second completely unplugging the filament sensor. It caused nothing but issues for me. It would stop mid print for some filaments when everything was going fine and demand to be replaced, restart the print and fail to realign well, screwing the print. The heat from it was a main contributor to the overheating hot end and melted filament post extruder but pre nozzle. simply turning it off did not solve the problem, but I've been able to print considerably better with it unplugged completely (90% failure rate with it, 70% failure rate turned off, no failures in 60 prints unplugged) I would suggest unwrapping it from the loom though, because mine has been interfering and the wires are getting chewed up. My extruder gear rust has been the largest issue since I unplugged it. The entire inside of that assembly is dusty orange now from brushing it out, still prints cleanly, just annoying. Bearings have started being a source of irritation, they've gotten successively louder despite being regularly oiled, so I guess it's time to disassemble the whole printer again, how fun.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Ok, I was sick for a while and have just got back to fixing this. My machine had filament jammed too badly for the suggested heat & pull method. I have had to disassemble the machine to the point of removing the extruder motor.
Now I'm having trouble trying to remove the heat sink. Can anyone suggest how to remove this?
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
(from Shane From Prusa Research)
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
(from Shane From Prusa Research)
Thank you gaston.d3. I'm going to try this this afternoon.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
The video link from gaston.d3 was the perfect answer to my problem.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Sweet. Shane made it look easy. 😎
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I have been having the same issue for weeks. Have replaced the hot-end assembly assembly twice. Filament jams up in the heat-break as well as the breakage up by the gears, I heat to 255 degrees to clear the bottom and use a pick set to pry the broken piece up from the tube. I was thinking firmware at first because the problem started after recent release. I have woke up to 6% completed when the display states 95%. Last week I removed Prusa Slic3r and reinstalled it with factory settings, just in case. This week I plan to reinstall 3.1.1 and hopefully go back to when the printer wou;d work properly.
Jim
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Have the same clicking / extrusion Problem especially with low layer height <150 Micron.
I installed the new firmware (3.2.0) and sliced the files with the slicer presets (1.39.2) and still got jams.
Because a lot of people suggest its a temperature problem, i placed a fan pointing to the extruder, the (cooled) extruder still jammed after 2 hours of 120 Micron or 20 Minutes at 50 Micron.
So i checked the screws for the extruder idler, the screws were so deep the i can't feel the head with my fingers, i adjusted the screws so my finger can fell the head. After that the extruder jams are happen only occasionally.
Step 15 Securing the Extruder idler
http://manual.prusa3d.com/Guide/5.+E-axis+assembly/510?lang=en#s8193
Example of jammed filament (Prusa Black PLA @ 210 °C)
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I switched from Pursa shop black PLA to Verbatim Black PLA, 20 hours+ printing not a single jam or click.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I have used Prusa Orange, Hatchbox RED and White, IC3D Black and White, same issue with them all. Plan to install older firmware this weekend and start anew
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I Just got the same jam as everyone else. I have been printing for about 45days no problem. After I built prusa diy enclouser . It started. The filament was Prusa pla silver. It happened after about 1hr of printing. I think pla is getting to hot.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I have no surround for the printer and have moved the location around the house to eliminate drafts as the issue
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Hello,
I too have gotten this problem now since I moved the printer into the enclosure. Reading this thread I do think my screws for the bondtech gear spring thing was way to tight. I have removed the top of the enclosure and loosened the screws a lot now.
I have only had two prints of the same thing clog at the exact same z height so I don't know how serious my problem is yet. If the piece gets printer OK now I will put the enclosure top on again and see what happens. If it still prints OK I guess it was the tension on the screws.
Will report back when I have printed some more stuff.
Regards
Magnus
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
I too have this problem.
On regular prints (>=0.15 layer height) the clicking went away once I loosened the screws on the bondtech gears.
What I haven't been able to do for the life of me are small prints at small layer heights. I wanted to try 0.05 so I printed a ring, this was the first time I had a problem, on the lcd it showed something about heat safety (not sure, my wife got that one) and it stopped half print. Tried again the next day (after some succesfull 0.15 prints) and it didn't go past the first few layers
After another couple ring tries at 0.05 (default prusa profiles, other rings and small things) I gave up on that layer height and tried 0.10.
Here you have some of my failures there are many more but couldn't even get anything to photograph (no jams but sometimes at .05 it didn't even extrude filament)
This is the only thing I've been able to print at 0.10 for the moment and it isn't precisely succesfull
I'm now printing something a bit bigger and so far no clicks and no stops, let's see if it ends well (100% infill and it has lots of gaps)
In my case seems related to small prints when I get those exact same clogs and have to open the bondtech cover, cut the filament and use the pliers to get it out. I've used the needle on the nozzle, cold pulls, anything from 205 to 220º... nothing works, every time I try a small print it happens again.
I've seen people printing miniatures with this thing.... I don't plan on doing that but it should be able to print at .05 or at least 0.10 .
[EDIT] All of this with Prusa Silver PLA, 3.2.1 and Slic3r 1.40B
[EDIT2] aaaand as I'm writing this I see that after pausing that print to take a photo it is "printing" in mid air without extruding anything.... awesome.. 😥
Some of my failures
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Hey Yall,
I have resolved my issue by installing heatsinks on the extruder motor, and reducing bed temp by using buildtak instead of PEI. This lowered the extruder temp, and the ambient temp inside the enclosure. I can now print PLA in my enclosure, without the issue many of us are having. In my case, and I believe anyone printing PLA in an enclosure with this problem, heat IS culprit.
So you can cool the extruder motor, lower ambient temp inside the enclosure by lowering bed temp and/or increasing air flow. Once you get the temp down, you should be golden.
Re: Clicking printhead - filament stuck?
Hello,
I too have gotten this problem now since I moved the printer into the enclosure. Reading this thread I do think my screws for the bondtech gear spring thing was way to tight. I have removed the top of the enclosure and loosened the screws a lot now.
I have only had two prints of the same thing clog at the exact same z height so I don't know how serious my problem is yet. If the piece gets printer OK now I will put the enclosure top on again and see what happens. If it still prints OK I guess it was the tension on the screws.
Will report back when I have printed some more stuff.
Regards
Magnus
Printing the exact same gcode file without the enclosure and with loosened screws made the print pass.
Will try it with the enclosure to so I know if it is the enclosure causing to much heat or the screws that was to tight.