This is probably the only thing I dislike about the original Snapmaker. I am consistently spending 10-15 minutes trying to find that little itty-bitty opening for the filament while my thumbs are exhausted from pressing that stupid button on the front. I have things I want to print and it will NOT let me insert the filament. I’ve used this filament before, so I know it’s not the issue. I can get a cleaning probe right into the opening, but not the filament. I’m thinking I just need to crank the temperature up to 250 or more in the hopes of melting any remaining filament residue. Any thoughts? Will Snapmaker ever release an upgraded 3D module?
How are you trying to insert the new filament? I open the hatch so I can see the filament and use needle nose pliers if necessary but other than that, no issues.
I’m doing it the same way I’ve always done. Is there another option? Open what hatch?
I would love to have the v2’s loading hatch. The v1 doesn’t have that. If you want to see what’s going on inside, you have to open it up and remove a cooling fan.
I’ve found that the v1 needs the filament to be perfectly straight for about 8cm/3". I was straightening about 5cm/2", which left me holding curved filament. I could never get it to line up. Much easier with longer straight filament. The manual says to cut a point on the filament, but it doesn’t say which direction. I have much better luck if the point on the filament is towards the front/button side of the print head, not the back side. With an empty nozzle, I usually only have to hold the button for about 30 seconds to get a good load and manual extrusion.
That’s for a clean filament load. If the filament breaks off inside the print head, there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll have to disassemble the print head to get it to load. Sometimes I can get the broken filament to flow by leaving the new filament flat on the bottom until it’s fed about a centimeter in and stops. Then I’ll make a point, and retry. But it doesn’t always work. And man, something about leaning down to peer inside the print module while fishing the filament around makes the button so much harder to hold.