Stops Extruding Midway - Solved

[aelzayn 1]

Hey guys,

Ive noticed that during my prints, at random times, the printer will just stop extruding and continue to go through the motions, but nothing comes out. Im using an ultimaker 2 with the standard PLA settings using the blue PLA provided by ultimaker. I really want to fix this, as it is making printing impossible. At the beginning of each print, some will come out and it will work fine, but them just suddenly stops. It also extrudes properly when extracting material then putting new material in and letting some come out. Please help.

-Andrew

 

[gr5 1,271]

Could be lots of things. The first thing that comes to mind is that the first layer or two are printed slower. What speed are you printing at (the speed isn't important - it's the volume of PLA per second - so whats the layer height and speed)? And what temperature. It's easier to get filament out at 240C than 220C.

Don't say "defaults" as these can change among firmware versions, plus the defaults in "quick print" for example also change between versions, plus I've changed settings so many times I don't know what the default used to be anymore.

Have you printed many things before this started? Are you near the end of a reel of PLA? The second thing that comes to mind is tangled, difficult to deal with, sharp curvature filament from the end of the spool.

The 3rd thing that comes to mind is clogs - but this doesn't sound like a clog as with clogs it usually only prints a tiny bit each time - maybe for 20 seconds. Not a whole layer.

4th: filament diameter might be 3.00mm instead of 2.85mm. That would cause this.

5: Printing at or below 180C would cause this.

6: If the 3rd fan on the head is broken - that could explain this - it should start spinning when you power on the machine (even before the lights come on) - it's quiet and most people don't notice it - it's at the rear of the print head.

 

[aelzayn 1]

Fixed!

 

[renthal 8]

Fixed!

 

It would help others greatly if you tell us what the cause and solution to your issue was if you don't mind.

 

[aelzayn 1]

In the back of the printer, where the filament is loaded, I played around with the placement of the piece of metal that spins to load the filament. It seems that the filament was sliding off of that and stopped loading.