Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
Hello,
I recently assembled my MK2 printer and did a few prints all good. Today my extruder appears to be jammed. When I feed the filament in, it only goes in a little then gets stuck (it does not feed all the way in so it can start melting).
If I insert the little pin that came with the printer in the nozzle, it goes in just fine all the way. So it looks like the jam is somewhere near the "cold end".
Any suggestions on how to unclog? I was printing PLA.
I tried heating the extruter to ABS temperatures to see if it would just "melt" and ooze out, but no luck.
I tried forcing the filament during "Load FIlmanet" but no luck, it won't go in.
Any ideas as to what I can do? I hope I don't have to take the extruder apart 🙁
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
Take the 2 filament tension screws out of the extruder housing and lower the tensioner door down. Look to see if there is a piece of filament stuck near the top. I have had a small piece break off there when unloading the filament. Usually it is the last piece that was in the melt zone and it ends up too big to fit through the feed path after coming out of the PTFE tube.
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
It may be OK and it's just the tip of the filament is missing the hole with the PTFE in, inside the extruder. This happens regularly with mine. The problem is to go straight down and into the PTFE tube the filament needs to be absolutely straight, any slight curve and it can miss. So as Richard suggested open the little idler hatch buy undoing the two screws with springs on and you can guide the tip of the filament into the hole manually. Then close the idler and re-tighten the screws.
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
Thanks for the tip, that did the trick. Removing that side plate and pushing the filament down by hand caused some stuck pla oozing to come out the extruder. I am back in action 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
Another good tip if you get something stuck in the heat break (very end of the cold zone right before the melt point , ive done it mostly by running out of filament on not changing the rolls before i noticed it :P)
Anyway, the easiest way ive found to clear the clog, is to remove the extruder cooling fan (not the print fan) and heat up the hot end, dont let it run super long, but as soon as the heatsink gets almost too hot to keep your finger on it for long, the plastic stuck in there should be hot enough for the you to push through into the melt zone. Voila , clog cleared, Turn off the machine, reinstall the fan and your good to go.
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
My MkII was printing just fine, then I unloaded some ABS filament, now I can't re-load anything. (I have previously been swapping between PLA, ABS, Ninjaflex and FlexiSmart).
Take the 2 filament tension screws out of the extruder housing and lower the tensioner door down. Look to see if there is a piece of filament stuck near the top. I have had a small piece break off there when unloading the filament. Usually it is the last piece that was in the melt zone and it ends up too big to fit through the feed path after coming out of the PTFE tube.
I've tried this, and I can manually push filament into the tubing below the extruder drive, but it stops 50mm in. The extruder is at 255C, but there is now way that I can manually push filament any further than 50mm in.
Any suggestions?
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
David
Remove the extruder fan, heat the extruder and push some filament down. When the blocked filament has heated sufficiently, it will move; turn off the extruder heater and replace the fan.
If that does not work, then you will have to disassemble the extruder to remove the blockage.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
Thanks Peter
I'm now sorted. I wasn't sure how long it was safe to leave the fan off for; I found another thread that suggested 5-10 minutes, so I set a timer for 10 minutes. I was able to dislodge it after about 3 minutes of heating.
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
I've got this problem now. I have a jam about 3cm into the top of the hotend. No matter what temperature I raise it to I cannot get filament to push into it. Even using a sharp needle at temperature, it stops hard at the same point.
Is there anyway to fix this without fully dismantling the entire hotend / extruder including cutting all the cable ties? If not, it is a terrible design as filament jams are just a way of life on 3d printers.
Re: Filament is stuck I think? What to do?
I have a long ball allen that is smaller than the ptfe. I have cleared mine by sliding it down the tube and pushing it free.