(Edit) Really bummed....

[Tikishark]

I've been having an issue with my M3 that arrived this weekend. I set-up the printer on my network, everything went fine until I had to place filament in the extruder. My filament would not extrude at all. All I got was a loud clicking sound. I double checked my temps (220 degrees) and even removed the nozzle to make sure I didn't have a clog. As a last resort I even removed the extruder housing and checked the bearing and drive gear. The only thing I noticed was shredding on the internal portion of the printed part. I also adjusted the tension screw to see if that was an issue (with no luck). I know it's not the nozzle because I can hand feed filament through it (with the housing off) when it's at temp. Not sure what to do next? Thanks for your help...

* this post has been edited to remove certain statements I made out of frustration. In the end I can't fault MakerGear for this problem... It's just one of those things that happens.

[insta]

It looks like the filament drive isn't feeding into the hotend -- does that seem about right? You should be able to see the filament make it through the drive into the hotend in the tiny gap between the two.

[Tikishark]

It looks like the filament drive isn't feeding into the hotend -- does that seem about right? You should be able to see the filament make it through the drive into the hotend in the tiny gap between the two.

That's correct Insta.... The filament never makes it past the extruder. I pulled the fan and watched as the filament entered. It makes it slightly past the bearing and gear, but stops there. It never makes it into the hole that eventually leads out of the extruder housing (past the gap and into the nozzle). I even removed the idler bearing and manually guided the filament through it's natural pathway, most of the time it missed the second hole or became crooked. I'm not sure if the part was fabricated incorrectly, or there is something else at play? I also noticed that there is a nut or piece of metal inside the tube of the extruder housing. Everytime I place a piece of filament in the hole it catches on that nut. Probably not the cause of my issue, but it could relate to my extruder housing not being printed properly when it was manufactured. I have also tried to cut my filament at an angle and adjust the idle screw tension with no luck.

[willnewton]

I am not seeing the image in your second post for some reason.

It sound like you are having some issue with the printed housing. It is possible that there is an issue with that print. Perhaps you need to remove the hardware and pass a small drill bit through the housing to clean up and align the holes.

The issues you have reported with the fans and bed are not common and my first guess would be a shipping issue.

The issue you are having with the extruder head print is one that I had with an extruder housing that I printed myself, but not on a factory housing. I just needed a little cleanup where the filament reenters the housing guide just after the tension bearing to insure smooth feeding. After running for a bit, the filament will wear away any offending nubs and allow for easier feeding.

You may want to remove the printed housing, remove the idler bearing, feed the filament through it manually until it just pokes out the bottom, then reinstall the idler bearing and housing on the machine and start printing. The incoming filament will eventually wear in a smooth feed ramp as mentioned above.

This is also not a common issue. My guess is that you had a small misalignment, but further attempts at forced feeding may have deformed the filament re-entry point to the point you need to pass something through to clear the blockage. Especially, if you did not do the angle cut until later. Even if you do the angled cut, when you have a new housing, it may only want the angle fed in at a certain rotation until it is worn in enough to accept anything you feed it.

It is unfortunate to have these issues, but the feed issue is easily corrected with a little patience.

[Tikishark]

I am not seeing the image in your second post for some reason.

It sound like you are having some issue with the printed housing. It is possible that there is an issue with that print. Perhaps you need to remove the hardware and pass a small drill bit through the housing to clean up and align the holes.

The issues you have reported with the fans and bed are not common and my first guess would be a shipping issue.

The issue you are having with the extruder head print is one that I had with an extruder housing that I printed myself, but not on a factory housing. I just needed a little cleanup where the filament reenters the housing guide just after the tension bearing to insure smooth feeding. After running for a bit, the filament will wear away any offending nubs and allow for easier feeding.

You may want to remove the printed housing, remove the idler bearing, feed the filament through it manually until it just pokes out the bottom, then reinstall the idler bearing and housing on the machine and start printing. The incoming filament will eventually wear in a smooth feed ramp as mentioned above.

This is also not a common issue. My guess is that you had a small misalignment, but further attempts at forced feeding may have deformed the filament re-entry point to the point you need to pass something through to clear the blockage. Especially, if you did not do the angle cut until later. Even if you do the angled cut, when you have a new housing, it may only want the angle fed in at a certain rotation until it is worn in enough to accept anything you feed it.

It is unfortunate to have these issues, but the feed issue is easily corrected with a little patience.

Thank you Will for your reply. I contacted MakerGear support this morning, and I've asked for a new extruder housing to be sent out. In the meantime, I think I'll follow your advice and manually feed my filament through the extruder (with the nozzle off) to see if I can cause a wear groove to form. Hopefully that will align everything. If your suggestion or the new part doesn't work, I think I'll just send in the entire machine for repair. If it wasn't brand new (only 2 days old), I'd try to do more instense fixes myself, but considering the cost, I'd rather leave those to MakerGear.

I've atteached the picture again (sorry not sure why it didn't show in my previous post).

[insta]

They're not attaching because you were trying to embed the imgur album itself, not the image. I've fixed the post.

Make sure you understand what Will is suggesting -- it does work, but it's confusing the first time it's done.

Remove the printed filament drive from the motor entirely. Feed plastic through it normally, top to bottom, until about 1/4"/5mm peeks out the exit of the filament drive. If you can't get this to happen, poke a small (1.5mm-2mm, 1/16") Allen wrench up through the outlet of the filament drive to clear and straighten everything out.

Use the filament stub to align the drive with the hotend, and cram everything back on. It will be tough, because you have to crush the teeth into the plastic. Get the filament drive attached, wiggle it a few times to ensure it's lined up, then snug the screws down. From here, you will be able to heat the nozzle and command it to extrude.

[Tikishark]

They're not attaching because you were trying to embed the imgur album itself, not the image. I've fixed the post.

Make sure you understand what Will is suggesting -- it does work, but it's confusing the first time it's done.

Remove the printed filament drive from the motor entirely. Feed plastic through it normally, top to bottom, until about 1/4"/5mm peeks out the exit of the filament drive. If you can't get this to happen, poke a small (1.5mm-2mm, 1/16") Allen wrench up through the outlet of the filament drive to clear and straighten everything out.

Use the filament stub to align the drive with the hotend, and cram everything back on. It will be tough, because you have to crush the teeth into the plastic. Get the filament drive attached, wiggle it a few times to ensure it's lined up, then snug the screws down. From here, you will be able to heat the nozzle and command it to extrude.

Thanks Insta.... I will give this a try this evening. I had a really good talk with a technician at MakerGear this morning. I think everything is going to work out. I've edited my original post to remove some of the comments I made out of frustration. I'm a middle school teacher and I have about 20 students waiting for me to print out their parts for an upcoming Science fair. I'm about two weeks behind due to my printer problems. However, I shouldn't have put my disappointment on MakerGear... 3d printing is still an inexact science and not everything can be controlled by the manufacturer.

I really appreciate the help and support both you and Will provided. I'll update this post as soon as I've got everything working again.

[insta]

Make sure you update us

[willnewton]

Nice of you to make those edits. You aren’t the first person to get a bit overheated when the printer first arrives and things aren’t going quite as planned. Many folks have to adjust their expectations a bit, as there is little in common with 2D printing.

Your patience will hopefully be rewarded soon. The first weeks involve a fair bit of learning, but you will get the hang of it and if not, MG and the forum folks will help you get it worked out.

Hints:
Start with simple stuff and learn to lay down that first layer at the proper “not too tight or loose” height setting. 20x20x10mm rectangle is boring, but you will be surprised how much you will learn as you tweak infill and perimeter settings. Just print half of it and stop the print. Change settings. Print half. Rinse and repeat.

Don’t obsess over printing directly on the glass, a roll of 3” wide blue tape will give you the “stick” you need so you can focus on other details rather than bed adhesion and it will be easy to change for your students. Later, you can try other surfaces.

Just focus on PLA filament for now.

If things are progressing normally, soon you will be dealing with your first clog. Ah, that brings back memories!

[sprior]

I had a similar experience for different reasons this last week after a friend and I modified my M2 from a V4 dual config to a single V4 which has a BLTouch bed leveling sensor - as part of this I installed a slightly customized extruder body which my friend printed out of polycarbonate. When I tried to extrude I got lots of "clucking" noises and the filament extrusion was skipping on test prints. We were quite frustrated and stumped. I had previously printed out extruder bodies out of ABS and even once out of PLA and hadn't had a problem, we were starting to suspect damaged extruder steppers, clogged nozzle, and even extruder current setting in Marlin. Adjusting that tension bearing didn't help either.

Eventually my friend suggested reaming out the extruder body mounting holes to add a little play when positioning the extruder body and installing the body pushing on it to increase the clearance between the extruder drive gear and the bearing, and that seems to have worked and I haven't hear a cluck since.

If you've got a replacement extruder body on the way anyway you might try this on the one you've got - it doesn't take much.