Lulzbot Mini Extruding Issues

I have had my Lulzbot Mini for a few days now and have made a few prints. Originally, filament would not extrude and I fixed that by pushing the filament out using a wire. Now, it is not extruding again. I used a metal wire and pushed all of the filament in the hotend out. It still wont extrude. What should I do now?

Start with the basics as before:

Can you push filament by hand through the nozzle when it’s up to temp?

If not, but you were able to push some filament out with a metal wire, you can start doing some cold pulls. You could have some scorched filament in the hot end that’s clogging enough that the extruder can’t push through it.

If you can push filament through easily by hand with it up to temp, and the extruder can’t, check for clogged teeth in the gears. If they get bits of plastic in them from tension being too high or too low, they can’t grip and will strip away filament, which clogs them more. It’s a vicious cycle.

I just tried a cold pull and it didn’t work. When I pulled the filament back out, there was no pieces of debris or anything. I don’t think that the filament is even reaching the nozzle if that’s possible. The end of the filament also wasn’t melted at all when I took it out. Any ideas?

Measure the amount that goes in, compare it to the toolhead and see where the likely blockage is.

The filament could only go in about 1 inch but the wire could go all the way to the nozzle.

I think I have found the issue. The filament can’t enter the heatsink because the hole to the heatsink and cooling area is slightly misaligned with the hole that the drive gear feeds into. How can I align them correctly?

Loosen the screws holding the plate, hotend, and filament guide together.

Push some filament through the plate and guide to the hot end, and re-tighten with the filament acting as an alignment pin.

I’ve been having a little trouble doing this. Are there any guides or tutorials that could help?

OHAI: Open Hardware Assembly Instructions