11
votes
3D printer troubleshooting advice
A little over a year ago I was gifted a Geeetech A30T. I did a couple of prints with it, but haven't had a ton of use for it. My last print was about 5 months ago. I have another print I'm trying to do today, but the printer doesn't extrude. It goes through the motions, but that's it. If I set the nozzle to "Clean" mode, then some extrusion comes out. The load/unload motor for the filament spool works. I've tried unloading/reloading the filament spool. I did a manual level on the bed. Any suggestions on where I may be going wrong?
The first thing you should check is if you can push any filament through the hot end manually. Remove one of the PTFE tubes, heat up the nozzle, and try to push the filament through manually. If that doesn’t work, try to clean the front end with a long cleaning needle if you have one. You may have some burnt filament clogging the nozzle, and you may simply need to replace that nozzle.
I don’t know the design for the extruder or horned but cheaper models tend to give you really bad designs. Check the PTFE tubes to see if they have become gummed up; can you push filament through without any friction? If not, you will need to replace that tube. Check the hot end to see if there is a section of PTFE integrated because that may need to be replaced.
Check your temperature, would be one thought. If it's working during "clean" that might be because the temperature is set higher during clean mode than it is when you're attempting to print. What kind of filament are you trying to use? PLA will print at 190-210ish but filaments like PETG need 230+ to print properly.
I think this has done the trick. Two of my spools are PLA, the third is ABS. I was cleaning at 200C, but cleaning at 250C seems to have fixed it. I guess the ABS spool was gumming things up.
Seems likely, ABS similarly (though not as much as PETG IIRC) on average needs higher temps than PLA. Nice that it was a simple fix!
ABS needs really high temperatures, say 250+, if you tried clening or printing ABS with low temperature, that was your problem.
My last print was ABS at 250, but I hadn't done any specific cleaning after that, and the failing print was PLA. Pulling all 3 filament spools and then cleaning seems to have helped. I think I'm gonna replace the nozzle as well, just for good measure.
Giving it time to heat and pushing a bunch of filament through should be enough, yeah. Always something to psy attention to when switching filament materials
That's the problem - after printing ABS, there is still ABS in the nozzle. And when you start printing PLA at say 210 degrees, it won't melt the remaininh ABS. You have to flush the nozzle using higher temperature and PLA, this will get rid of the ABS and will fill the nozzle with PLA getting you ready to print with PLA.
Have you checked your spool for tangles?
No tangles, the spool is nice and orderly
Unfortunately you might have some filament melted inside the extruder clogging it up. If nothing else people have suggested work, try disassembling it and cleaning out and plastic bits that should not be there.