Filament Drive

[Amphagory]

Hi All,

So I went to clean the filament area and took apart the piece that holds the V3B. I did get a lot of stuff cleaned out and and clean the teeth of the filament drive (didn't want to remove the nozzle until I order a new one incase I break it) and put everything back together.

Got everything to temperature and did went to do an extrude test, but then nothing came out... the filament drive does not turn... so I been reading on the forum for errors and looked at these two things:

1) Put a mark on the motor shaft (on the back of the case) and see whether the shaft turns when you spin filament drive gear by hand. It does both ways.
1) Check all the cables etc... to make sure I didn't disconnect anything..

Wondering if there are any others things I can try to fix it... maybe I'll order a new drive as well with another V3b...

Hmm, just going through a bit of a bad luck spell here with the M2. But, still loved it as I know I can get it to do nice prints..

Mike

[benavery]

There aren't too many things going on with a filament drive it should be possible to chase down what is happening.
If the shaft turns when you hit 'extrude' in your software-of-choice then the motor is working. If not then check all the cables etc.
If the shaft turns but the gear doesn't, then that could be slipping (doubtful). Check the set screw.
If the gear turns but the filament *never* gets pulled in, then either the filament isn't making it through the top half of the extruder piece, or the gears aren't grabbing it. The former you can check buy pulling it off and seeing if filament moves through without the gear present. The later means either the tension is waaaay too loose, or something is broken
If the gear grabs the filament, but stops moving it after a while, and you can see it tearing a chunk out of the filament, then there is some blockage further down.

If you removed the hotend, then it might not be seated back in correctly, and the filament isn't making its way into the hole.
If it is making it that far, but jams further down, then you have a jamb in the hotend itself. There are other threads about clearing those.

[jimc]

to add to ben's list.

if you removed the hot end then you may need to send an M999 to the printer before you can extrude. also was your temp above 170deg? the hot end needs to be over that in order for the motor to move.

[Amphagory]

So an update... The filament drive works fine, but the filament is block somewhere... I feel the filament get pull down, but only a bit... when I retracted it, I see only teeth marks in about 1-2cm of the filament. So, it seems I have misaligned something, something is too loose or jam in the extruder.

I feel it's a jam in the extruder/nozzle... so I should just put it to temperature and take a wrench to the nozzle to take it off?

to add to ben's list.

if you removed the hot end then you may need to send an M999 to the printer before you can extrude. also was your temp above 170deg? the hot end needs to be over that in order for the motor to move.

[jimc]

if its only going in 1-2cm then a clog is not your issue. after passing the drive gear its either no going in the lower hole of the filament path OR the hot end isnt pushed into the groove in the right spot and the hole isnt lined lined up causing the filament to hit the top of the ptfe or peek.

[Amphagory]

Conclusion: Alignment was the issue. I fiddled with the extruder and the filament continued on it's merry way!

thanks again to all for the helpful suggests!

Mike

if its only going in 1-2cm then a clog is not your issue. after passing the drive gear its either no going in the lower hole of the filament path OR the hot end isnt pushed into the groove in the right spot and the hole isnt lined lined up causing the filament to hit the top of the ptfe or peek.