Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament
 
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Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament  

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Charlie McLain
(@charlie-mclain)
New Member
Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament

Hello, I have recently got a Prusa mini as my first printer and have had some good fun with it but during only the 9th or 10th print the PLA filament just stopped coming out. I thought this was just the nozzle being clogged so put the temperature to 250 degrees but this did not work. I then tried some cold pulls to clear the nozzle and tested it by pushing the filament in by hand afterwards and everything was fine so I tried printing again but had the same problem. I then checked the extruder gears and they were clogged with filament so after some trial and error of cleaning the gears from the access doors I decided to take the cogs out and clean them thoroughly! I had to do this with the filament still in as the cogs would not grip the filament to let me unload it. I unloaded the filament by hand then put in back together and it worked for a short period (roughly 10 minutes)  before having the exact same problem. I checked the cogs and they were completely clogged again. I opened it up to take the cogs out again and found similar to the first time that instead on pushing the filament they were tearing into it and clogging it. I have added some pictures showing this. 

As I have said this is my first printer and I have not had it for very long so I am not very experienced with it yet so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Posted : 24/01/2021 6:24 pm
karl-herbert
(@karl-herbert)
Illustrious Member
RE: Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament
Posted by: @charlie-mclain

Hello, I have recently got a Prusa mini as my first printer and have had some good fun with it but during only the 9th or 10th print the PLA filament just stopped coming out. I thought this was just the nozzle being clogged so put the temperature to 250 degrees but this did not work. I then tried some cold pulls to clear the nozzle and tested it by pushing the filament in by hand afterwards and everything was fine so I tried printing again but had the same problem. I then checked the extruder gears and they were clogged with filament so after some trial and error of cleaning the gears from the access doors I decided to take the cogs out and clean them thoroughly! I had to do this with the filament still in as the cogs would not grip the filament to let me unload it. I unloaded the filament by hand then put in back together and it worked for a short period (roughly 10 minutes)  before having the exact same problem. I checked the cogs and they were completely clogged again. I opened it up to take the cogs out again and found similar to the first time that instead on pushing the filament they were tearing into it and clogging it. I have added some pictures showing this. 

 

As I have said this is my first printer and I have not had it for very long so I am not very experienced with it yet so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hello and welcome to the Prusaforum!

Prusa has set up help pages for various problems. Maybe you will find a valuable tip for you there. You are not the only one with this problem, which is discussed very, very often here in the forum.

https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/clogged-nozzle-hotend-mini_112011

A tip from my side: I would replace the original heatbreak with this one.

 

Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.

Posted : 24/01/2021 6:53 pm
remington
(@remington)
Eminent Member
RE: Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament

Looking at the picture it looks like the gears have chewed right through the filament!

When it’s trying to print and seemingly clogs up, does it make any noise, like a clicking coming from the gears?

Posted : 26/01/2021 5:33 pm
Charlie McLain
(@charlie-mclain)
New Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament

@remington

Not really, I have heard short periods of clicking but it is not a consistent thing. At the start of a print or loading/ unloading filament I have sometimes heard it click for a second or two but then it stops.

Posted : 26/01/2021 6:30 pm
remington
(@remington)
Eminent Member
RE: Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament

There is a tensioning hex screw on the under side of the extruded, might be it’s too tight or loose and either eating the filament being too tight or shredding it as it try’s to grip it being too loose.

 

when I had the filament being shredded I pinned it down to the retraction and speed of a particular part of a print ( large flat infill ) which I fixed by slowing the print speed down in the slicer profile. It took a long time to figure it out, but since then it’s been pretty spot on.

do you have any petg filament you could try?

Posted : 26/01/2021 6:41 pm
iBats
(@ibats)
New Member
RE: Extruder cogs clogging up and not extruding the filament

I had similar situation, in my case there were a few issues. 

  1. small extruder gear connected to motor was loose, there is a small screw on a side, I had to tighten it.
  2. PTFE tube in a heater block had to be replaced as it shrunk for around 1 mm and that cause clogs.
  3. there was a filament leftovers in heatbreak and I had to clean it up, cold pull didn't work, I used old PTFE tube to squeeze it out, I inserted it and pushed with Philips screwdriver while turning it around, be careful when doing it. 

So after tightening screw, cleaning heatbreak from filament and replacing PTFE tube, I had to make sure that heaterblock is 4.8mm from the heatsink. 

printer works like new after that. 

Here you can find video of before and after heatbreak cleanup https://twitter.com/IhorBats/status/1354988404644188160

 

 

Posted : 29/01/2021 5:47 pm
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