No filament is coming out after the start

I was running a couple of prints then the filament stopped extruding. I started a new print and it lays down a few layers but again it stops but the printer head keeps moving. I check the nozzle temperature and it was still at 205.

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Wrapping the filament around the Z axis is going to cause problems. It’ll start feeding, then get too much tension for the extruder to pull on it.

Even without that loop, people have issues with the filament binding and causing extrusion issues. You can find some filament routing mounts on thingiverse.

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Why are you printing so far in the corner?
The most accurate and consistent place to print is the middle.

If it’s not the filament binding it could be that you’re printing too close to the surface and it’s keeping the filament from coming out properly. When this happens the gear starts grinding at the filament and then won’t extrude.

-S

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This is happening for me also, 100% of the time. Every print (without a filament wrap), especially from when I put the Snapmaker inside the enclosure and it changed the filament load point.

I would need to actually be able to print something in order to print filament mounts. I was hoping that something like this would have been found during testing. Have had this thing built for a couple of weeks, if the filament doesn’t snap, it clogs or otherwise simply stops extruding.

Try raising the Z-offset a little.

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Also try a different filament.
If it’s gone bad it can become brittle and won’t feed properly.

You can also try raising your nozzle temp. Higher temp makes it flow more easily(think of warm honey vs. cold)

-S

The PLA is not feeding into the nozzle.

Is the tube that the filament feeds into after the gears blocked?

If so, heat up the nozzle to 10 deg above what you’d normally use for that filament.
If you can grab some filament and pull it out do so.
Or see if you can manually thread and force filament into the hole. If you can it should start extruding. Then you can do a cold pull and pull out the filament and try loading again.
If it won’t extrude you may need to swap out your hot end.
Do a search for thermistor and thermal paste.
-S

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On top of the other (good) suggestions here - in Luban turn the ‘Retraction’ down to 1mm from the default 5mm, and a bit slower like 40 vs. 60 speed. With retraction too high I think everytime it does a non-extrusion move it ends up starving the nozzle more and more.

You can turn your ‘adhesion’ skirt up to 4 or 5 loops, make sure the system is well and fully primed before the actual print starts.

You might have to camp with the machine for your first prints. Make sure that the filament isn’t on the backside of the vertical rail after the homing move at the beginning, and help coax the filament along if the spool isn’t rolling smoothly. Then I’d recommend printing (once you can print of course) a filament guide and something to reduce the spool friction. My designs (not claiming they’re the best, but they’re fairly simple and have been working for me on an A250) are linked below.

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Thanks for all of your suggestions. I tried heating up the nozzle to 250 and pushing the filament through and finally got it cleaned out flowing smoothly but when I tried another print using the recommended changes in Luban. I kept the top of the enclosure off so I could make sure the PLA was rolling smoothly. The PLA(new from Snapmaker and was only out of the package for a week while printing other projects) stopped flowing again right at the start. I am going to change nozzles and filament.
I’ll do a search to see how I can clean it when its removed.

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At a certain point there gets to be build-up that just won’t come off inside the nozzle.
Especially if you’ve had to heat up the filament beyond it’s normal suggested range. Particularly if you’re switching between various types.
Like an oven or bbq stuff just gets carbonized and burnt on.
Nozzles are cheap so buy a bunch and don’t hesitate to swap them out.
Also the hole in a nozzle is incredibly small and doesn’t take much for it to get damaged (or a defect in manufacturing) and not work properly.
-S

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I think it started with my 5th print. I was using the same PLA. Can you buy the nozzles on Amazon or only through Snapmaker?

Amazon, eBay, matterhackers, other 3D sites.

Needs to be an MK8 nozzle. Stock extrusion size is .4mm.
You can buy larger but you’ll have to use Cura or another slicer and not Luban.

-S

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yea i agree that the brass “regular” nozzles are incredibly cheap, and if you are just starting out with learning about 3D printing, you definitely need to buy a bundle of like 10 or 20 of these. Trust me i’ve gone through my fair share with the SM1 and CR-10 mini in learning about printing, and you get to the point where you can recognize the difference between a fresh nozzle and a spent nozzle (i.e. when it’s worth cleaning and when it’s time to replace it).

with your SM2, you should have also gotten a replacement hotend which also should have a nozzle included. (i’m assuming, i did in the Toolbox). If you did, I would suggest taking that out, removing the hot end from your module and comparing the 2 (especially the nozzles).

especially if you’ve been pushing too close to the bed and slightly “scratching” the bed, the very tip of your nozzle can easily be damaged. Brass is a very soft metal (especially when heated), so scratches and deflections happen as a part of life (which is why the nozzles are very cheap!). Any hard bits from crappy filament (or old or defective filament) can potentially scrape or damage the inside of the nozzle, which then causes build up on its own. Doing a “cold pull” to pull some of that out before removing the hotend/nozzle will help you view the inside of it (some “cleaning filament” also helps when switching filament types, though not 100% necessary if you’re careful, or print with mainly a single type, or swap nozzles per-type).

Nozzles though are one of those consumable things with 3D printing IMO. Obviously not as much as the filament since that’s the end product, but even the hot end itself, the bed plate (or whatever you might print on, i use an Ultrabase), anything that heats up and touches the end product I expect to replace over time no matter how well I take care of it (which is really well). Just to set some expectations! :slight_smile:

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This thread might be of some use, there is a lot of good discussion about similar issues.

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I ended up changing the nozzle and now it works with no problems.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

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