i am still completely new so i dont know what to do but i had finished using the sample that came with the mini 2 and switched to a polylite pla filament roll i had previously bought. it worked fine for about 2 days until now the filament got stuck inside the tool head, it seems to be getting squished by the extruder gear thing and then getting stuck. i had set the tightness to the same level the manual had told me to but i dont know if i should have changed it. however, i have pulled out some while i had set the tightness to mininum and it still squished some the filament and got stuck. there also seems to be specks of shreadded filament on the extruder gear thing
(also it happened right before a print not when i was trying to change filament)
help
Is there sort of a half moon shaped divot where the gear meets the filament? If so it sounds like the filament is clogging and then the gear is grinding it down. Those little bits of plastic you see are where the gear wore away the filament. I’ve generally keep my idler tension pretty light, just enough to grip the filament. I open it all the way up when I change filaments and then tighten it until it starts to resist a little.
there are a lot of factors that can lead to a clog. What slicer / settings are you using? Common issues are printing too cold, letting the filament “idle” in a hot nozzle too long so it burns, having an initial z offset (distance from the nozzle to the build plate) that is too low so material can’t properly escape the nozzle, or using old filament that has absorbed too much moisture. If you’ve had your roll for a while and haven’t been storing it in an airtight container you may want to try drying it out before printing again. And make sure you clean all the debris out of the gears (I use a small paintbrush) so it can properly grip the filament going forward.
i just used the settings shown in the handbook that came with the printer, i may have left it in while hot but i got this filament 2 days ago and i just removed it and put it in to the airtight bag it came with every time im not using it
my main problem is also that there is a small chunk of filament stuck in the tool head and i cant seem to pull it out even when the half moon divot is completely clear of the gear thing so i am suspecting something but once again i am completely new and i may be completely wrong
Ah yeah it’s probably not a moisture issue then. I’ve managed to get the filament stuck in sort of a “no mans land” where I can’t push it forward but also can’t pull it out / a chunk breaks off.
My “try at your own risk” solution that I use when that happens is to heat it up, open up the idler (loosen the silver screw on the front), get a good light shining down into the toolhead, and if I can see the filament that’s stuck in the filament guide (little plastic tube below the gear) then I use the long end of a 2.5mm allen wrench to push it further down. Once there’s enough clearance for new filament to enter the tube (5-10mm) then I can feed fresh filament in and clear the jam.
That said, you’ve got a brand new machine, definitely reach out to Lulzbot support if you haven’t already. They usually respond in a business day and can walk you through the official steps to clearing things out.
Having a similar problem.
Taz 6, single extruder head.
Filament seems to work for a short period but before it can finish the first layer, it jams up.
I’d swear the nozzle end of the hot end is cooling down because if I pull the filament out of the head, the section near the nozzle is in its original shape while the middle section is thin (stretched from being pulled out of the extruder).
I have two separate single extruders. Both are exhibiting the same problem. I installed my MOARstruder and it worked just fine. I can’t imagine that both hot heads on my single extruder units failed exactly the same way. Something else must be wrong?
I took one of the extruders apart. heated up the head and removed the filament that broke off in it. I could see clear through the hot head (including seeing through the nozzle’s hole. Even tried swapping nozzles (also, one head has a stainless steel nozzle, the other has the original brass nozzle).
I’ve run PLA at temps 200-250 and ABS at temps 225-250. Get the same results.
Any suggestions?
Look at both your retraction distance and your idler tension. If your retraction distance is fairly high (a lot of profiles default to 6.5mm which is high for the Aerostruders) and/or your idler tension is very tight then you can have a situation where it retracts the filament and then can’t get it back into place. On my machine this yields to “clogs” where as soon as I manually push the filament down it’s fine again. A lower retraction setting and lighter idler tension fixed it.
Are you using 1.75mm filament? Mini and Mini 2 only technically support 2.85mm.