Feeder/Bowden Tube Issue: No filament half way through the printjob

[neurospec 1]

Hi all,

Approximately 8 months ago, I purchased a new Ultimaker S3. Ever since, I've been printing daily at least 8h. The printer never failed and from the beginning also produced a superb print.

 

For about a week now, however, the printer has been acting up. I first had the problem that half way through the printjob, the S3 would simply stop extruding filament (the print head moves without filament exiting the nozzle). In the meantime, it's worsened. Now, half way through the printjob the bowden tube gets loose and rips itself out of the feeder.

I've been using the same three PLA filaments from Ultimaker (blue, purple and yellow) since the beginning. I never used ABS anything else. I fixed the bowden tube back in place and have also tried the following to fix the issue:

• Changed the filament
• Cleaned the feeder
• Lubricated the axles
• Changed the nozzle

 

So far, nothing helped. Anybody a suggestion how I can fix this? I also attach an image of the loosened bowden tube.

 

Thanks, N

Edited August 4, 2021 by neurospec

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @neurospec, thank you for your message and welcome to the community. It is very likely that the white clamp that is suppose to hold the bowden tube has lost its grip. Where the bowden tube is sticking into the feeder, it is hold in place by a clamp with a small plastic horse shoe underneath. (It is identical at the print head side) Please ensure the plastic horse shoe is in place, it ensures the gripping capability of the clamp. The clamp has 4 metal 'blades' that grip into the bowden tube. It is possible one blade got missing or bent and it no longer has sufficient grip. 

 

You can try to see if you see all 4 blades are there, but even if you think you see them I would recommend to get in touch with your reseller and ask for a new bowden tube clamp, they should be rather cheap. I am pretty confident this will solve it. 

 

Good luck! 

[Travis7s 25]

If you aren't using dual extrusion, then take the bowden clamp from the other feeder assembly and swap it in and see if that fixes it.

[SandervG 1,521]

11 hours ago, Travis7s said:

If you aren't using dual extrusion, then take the bowden clamp from the other feeder assembly and swap it in and see if that fixes it.

 

That is also a good tip if you can't permit yourself any downtime, but I would recommend to get some new clamps from your reseller regardless! Good luck! 

[robinmdh 100]

give the precursor to the bowden tubes coming loose being no extrusion there are some more checks you can do.

can you check if your front fan still spins while printing? if this is barely spinning or not at all you'll need to clean out the tiny bits of filament that can get stuck in there.
https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011635039-Check-for-debris-in-the-Ultimaker-S5-s-front-fan-of-the-print-head

Did you ever clean the printcore when this happened? There is a princore cleaning guide in the printer findable via: ⚙️-> maintenance -> print head -> print core cleaning

or alternatively have this useful guide wit visual examples of what the filament should look like though it was for the UM3
or this video for the S3 and S5  (note that you can also use PLA instead of "cleaning filament")

Edited August 6, 2021 by robinmdh