Extrusion stops halfway through, and PLA needs to be reinserted every time

[TUeStudent 0]

Hello,

 

I am trying to print multiple parts, but every time the extrusion stops halfway through a print. When I start a new print after, it will still not work. To get it to extrude again, I have to unload the PLA, cut off the top part, and re-insert the PLA before it will extrude again. 

Here is a picture of what the PLA looks like after it stops extruding:

 

Can someone help me fix this? I can only do print jobs of about 30 minutes before this happens, and I have to reload the PLA every time.

I can never do a print longer than 30 minutes.

The prints look like this when it stops:

 

The printer will still finish the print as if it is still extruding, but nothing will come out.

I am using an Ultimaker 3.

Thanks in advance!

[MariMakes 178]

Hey @TUeStudent,

 

Welcome to the forum! 🚀

 

You seem to have some heavy underextrusion. 😥

The first thing I do whenever I'm encountering under extrusion is perform a PrintCore cleaning.
You can find the procedure in the maintenance screen. Just follow the instructions that pop-up on screen. 

 

I expect you'll have quite some grinding so I also reccommend checking/cleaning your feeder. 
You can find the instructions here: (Be careful to not lose any parts while dissasembling)
https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011551340-Clean-the-feeders-on-the-Ultimaker-3

If it happends just on this printjob and not on others it might be related to your settings in Cura.
Did you change a lot of settings? Especially things related to Temperature, Flow or Speed? 
I reccommend staying as close to the default settings as possible. 

Good luck! Please let me know if any of these tips worked for you. 😃

[TUeStudent 0]

Thanks for the fast response!

 

I have tried the printercore cleaning multiple times already before making this forum post and that did not help.

I cleaned my feeder, just like you said, and I also lubricated the gears.

After this, I started a new print but just like before, it stops extruding some time after starting the print and again, the only way to get it to extrude again is cutting off the last few cms of the PLA.

This happens with every print, and all settings are the default settings.

 

Is there anything else I might be able to do?

Thanks in advance!

[MariMakes 178]

Hey @TUeStudent

 

50 minutes ago, TUeStudent said:

the only way to get it to extrude again is cutting off the last few cms of the PLA.

That really sounds like a clogged nozzle. If you use a light material, are you getting completely clean tipshapes? 

 

We have a dedicated page on our support website which you can consult. 
Perhaps there are tricks here. 

https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012112859-How-to-fix-under-extrusion

 

I think the next step is check the material quality (does it snap easily?) or feeder tension (is it not at the top or the bottom?).
Have you tried printing other printjobs? How did that work out? 

[TUeStudent 0]

The hot and cold pull were done correctly, and the PLA came out fine after that.

 

After some more research, I found this:

I took a closer look at my feeder and saw that I had this same issue. I'll see if I can print a replacement with the second extruder which does not have this problem, otherwise I will just order a new one.

Thanks anyway!

 

[MariMakes 178]

Yes! Happy to hear! 😄