A350 not loading filament - brand new printer

Just received my A350 and started with the black PLA in the box. It started printing the first layer and then stopped within a minute extruding anything and was just moving about the bed. I stopped it, unloaded filament and tried loading again, and now the filament load does suck in the filament at the top, but nothing extrudes out the nozzle anymore. Tried matchbox filament - still no dice. Support has been pathetically unhelpful in res/olving. this is a brand new printer - I have not been able to print even ONE test print yet. Any guidance?

Probably was too close to start, wouldnā€™t extrude and chewed up the filament.

Did you open up the filament door and see whatā€™s happening in there?
Is there old filament sticking out of the nozzle end that you need to pull out?
If you feed filament does it go into tube?
May need to heat up the nozzle 5 to 10 degrees more than printing temperature and try force feeding the filament by hand into the feeder tube.
Iā€™ve always been able to clear nozzle fine that way.
Otherā€™s have needed to use a piece of wire or a nozzle cleaning tool.
Could swap out for spare hot end or just swap nozzles.
-S

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Thank you very much for pointers - I did try heating it to 220C and forcing out the filament, and that worked, except the new filament still does not seem to load. And when it does come out, it bunches at the nozzle tip rather than come out straight as a filament string.

Just to make sure I donā€™t mess this up a second time with a second nozzle - I did an auto level, and the last point manually (using the calibration card as in the instructions). Is there something I should do differently this time around?

Sounds like thereā€™s still a little clog.
Heat up the nozzle (maybe even a little hotter) and try wiping the end with a rag.
That usually works for me.
Other people have had success using a wire or an unclogging tool. (which is basically just a wire) There is special cleaning filament you can run through.
I havenā€™t bothered. The one time I couldnā€™t unclog (maybe Iā€™ve just been lucky) I just swapped out nozzles. Theyā€™re cheap and easier than the hassle of trying to deal with it.

As far as calibration, a lot of people are having more success with it one step less than the push/no go/able to pull out. Calibration is setting a starting point, not the perfect setting. Different types (and less so among brands) of filament have different preferences for z-offset. You have to watch your first layer and make adjustments. I like using a 3 pass skirt. Gives me a chance to see what itā€™s doing, seems to ā€œprime the pumpā€ and get stuff going and the 3 passes makes it easier to remove.

-S

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Hello! Iā€™m having the same extruder issue. When I open the front door, I can see the gear spinning but its shaving small pieces of PLA. Almost like itā€™s not able to grab the filament consistently. Itā€™s also odd that the skirt and first few layers lay down fine, even after the same manual loading errors. After a few minutes it extrudes very randomly.

So I had some cleaning filament from a Monoprice printer I owned a long time ago. The question I have is - do I use the cleaning filament to do a cold pull? Or do I just run it through the nozzle? The stuff I see online seems to say you need to do a cold pull with that filament. If a cold pull, is that ok to do on a Snapmaker 2.0?

If you donā€™t have a complete clog you can run it through normally while hot. That may work, canā€™t really hurt to try.

I think ā€˜cold pullā€™ may be a bit of a misnomer, as Iā€™ve typically done it at like 80C or 100C or something. Just at the very bottom end of the filamentā€™s plastic range. PLA has a glass transition temp of 60-65C, anything above that should start to stretch and pull stuff out, just donā€™t pull so hard or pull sideways that you snap off the filament. Put the filament in hot, let it cool to room temp, then slowly heat it back up and start gently pulling - itā€™ll start moving eventually.

If itā€™s a really good clog, thereā€™s more ā€˜aggressiveā€™ cleaning measures, ranging from disassembling the hotend, unscrewing the brass nozzle, running thin wire through it, running a pin vise hand drill through it, and replacing the entire brass nozzle. At some point or another Iā€™ve had to do that on other machines, not 100% of all of that may apply to the Snapmaker.

Just to make sure, as soon as you open the front door it wonā€™t extrude properly because the wheel that holds the filament against the gears is attached to the door.
Follow what Brett said otherwise.
-S

Thought that might be the case - I see the spring mech in there. I just swapped out the Hot End Kit and itā€™s working great as we speak. Iā€™ll post when finished. Thanks!

Thanks for the input everyone! I swapped the Hot End and itā€™s working great now. Also:

  • Made the skirt 10 passes and adjusted the Z offset during. Had to raise +0.10mm. Printing well for 35 min. Will update ASAP.

Main variable here: New Hot End Kit installedā€¦
- Still not sure what happened with the first one, but I certainly understand Z offset much better now. Might be worth some extra info from our Snapmaker Team on the apparent critical element. :slight_smile:

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