No PLA coming out on prints, nozzle seems ok.

[chenobble 1]

Hi folks

My UM2 suddenly stopped working between prints this weekend. When I go to print anything it does the standard heating up procedure including extruding a little PLA in the corner just before starting but then when it comes to print no actual plastic comes out. The feeder is turning but just grinding down the PLA.

I thought at first it was a blockage or a feeder issue but I re-loaded the PLA using the 'change plastic' procedure and it fed and extruded fine during that process.

Any ideas?

 

[IRobertI 514]

Since it extrudes fine during the start-up sequence and when changing material I'm going to guess that maybe the bed is a bit too close to the nozzle? You can check this easily by simply putting your finger on the bed as it's printing and gently pushing down so that the distance increases and see if plastic comes out then. If it does, you need to re-level.

 

[chenobble 1]

First thing I did was re-level the bed, but in case I didn't do it properly I tried what you suggested using one of the default models... I pushed down on the print bed for a second and it immediately started printing perfectly!

I now suspect there's a problem with the model I'm trying to print and that last time I tried printing something else the feeder had already ground down the PLA too much to print anything.

Thanks for the (surprisingly effective) suggestion!