Stuck Filament, need some next steps
I had a print fail yesterday when I got back to the printer, it stopped extruding near the end of the print. I have tried the following to remove the filament line:
Unload filament, nope, so tried pulling it up manually
Heated up the nozzle , tried to manually push the filament down with stepper door disabled
Heated up the block to 280, removed the nozzle then tried to push out the filament
Just looking for next steps of what to try. The filament has not budged on any attempts.
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
Where exactly is the filament stuck? If it is in the PTFE tubing below the Bondtech extruder gears, I've had good luck opening the extruder doors and using a 1.5X150mm/6in brass rod to push down through the top, past the gears and into the tube to gently push filament down through the heated block. With the block as 285C and nozzle removed, with any luck, the stuck bit will pop out. I've got some additional notes here.
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
@bobstro
The filament looks fine going into the top of the PTFE tube, nozzle is gone so not stuck there either. Maybe fused somewhere in the tube? I just disassembled the extruder to see if I remove the the tube but its not budging.
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
Argh! The idea of the rod is to save you the hassle of full disassembly. If you poke a rod down through the PTFE, do you feel an obstruction?
With the nozzle up, you can also poke a rod up through the heated hotend to push stuck filament up out of the PTFE tube so you can grab it with needle-nose pliers as it pokes up below the extruder gears.
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
@bobstro
Yeah I have tried pushing from the top and bottom and didn't get any movement. I dont want to mess the hot end up :/ If I unscrew the heatsink, I should be able to remove the tube though right, cause its not budging with pushing down the black collet and trying to pull it out.
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
@bobstro
pulled the PTFE tube finally out, the filament is fused about 2-3 mm up into the tube from the bottom. I am on the original tube from probably 500-600 hours of use. Glad I bought extra tubes on my last filament order! Now to hope I can get the nozzle distance and stuff set correctly lol.
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
@bobstro
Crap so still not fixed. I put the new PTFE tube in , new nozzle, etc. Put it back together and loaded some filament. Never extruded, start to grind. I pulled the new nozzle out and it has 0 filament in it. So it got stopped before it could hit the nozzle, I tried pushing back up from the bottom and the filament popped back up above the ptfe tube, but I cant pull it out and I cant force it down with a rod. Does this mean I have something lodged in the heat break?
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
Final update, took everything apart made sure nothing was impeding, the stuff I just loaded was gunked in there but not enough that I thought it would stop anything. Loaded up filament and it extruded this time. Not sure what was stopping it after I replaced the PTFE unless just hitting it with the rod broke something up in the hotbreak. Anyways, up and running again, 3D printing adventures! =)
RE: Stuck Filament, need some next steps
Check that the extruder idler gear tension is sufficient and be sure nothing is constricting the filament feed path. I always check to be sure I can fit my 1.5mm rod through the PTFE, heatsink, heatbreak, and heater block before reassembling the hotend. It does sound like you did this, so I can only assume the issue is higher up. Good luck with it!