Defective Filament?

[JohnMHammond 0]

I've been struggling for hours trying to correct an extrusion problem, going through all of the typical steps to no avail.

Finally I noticed that the problem was not in the print head, but in the system that pulls the filament up into the Bowden Tube. Then I noticed that the remaining filament on the spool was totally smooth, rather than being textured on part of it like the filament that I had already used.

This is the filament that came with our Ultimaker 2. Is this typical? Does it make sense that this would be causing the problems I'm experiencing?

[gr5 2,229]

The "system that pulls the filament" is called the feeder. Inside that you can see the "knurled sleeve" which slips onto the feeder stepper motor. This knurled sleeve has a diamond pattern that creates the pattern you see in the filament inside the bowden tube. This is all very normal.

Can you give more details on your extrusion problems? Is it extruding at all? Try heating the nozzle to 150C and then just pulling the filament out through the feeder - you might have to cut power if the feeder is powered but usually it is not powered. It should not take much force but the machine is tough and feel free to pull with 10 pounds force as nothing will get damaged.

It could be something is jamming the filament in the bowden and you might have to remove the bowden at both ends by removing the horse shoe clip and then pushing down on the outer ring bowden holder while lifting the bowden firmly.