Printer extrusion issue with Repetier

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Adew
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Posts: 1
Joined: January 2nd, 2017, 11:19 pm
3D Printer(s): Hictop 3PD18 I3

Printer extrusion issue with Repetier

Post by Adew »

Hi, I have suddenly ran into an issue with my prints on my Hictop 3PD18 I3 printer. I am using repetier to connect and print and I am running on the stock firmware from the factory. I am currently having an issue where during my programs, nothing will extrude (PLA) although I'm pretty sure I hear the stepper motor try to push filament into the extruder. Earlier today, I was able to make a calibration cube, a boat, and a dodge viper all on the 3D printer with no issues. The only thing I noticed was that the first layer or two were bad and weren't smooth like the top finish was (kinda flaky flimsy). So I thought that maybe the bed was too low, so I autoleveled it (I do not have the probe), got my piece of printer paper, and carefully adjusted all 4 corners so that the paper could still move, but the extrude was pretty much on the paper. I also adjusted some speeds in the Slic3r configuration to try to make the finish better, but I don't think I changed anything that would mess up extruding. Afterwards, I tried to make the spinner in this and nothing came out of the extruder. I am fairly certain it wasn't too low, as no rips were made in the tape I had on the bed. Afterwards, I lowered the bed just to be sure though.


After seeing that it won't extrude, I assumed it was clogged. I heated the extruder to 200, unscrewed the nozzle, and used a safety pin to pull out any filament in the tip. I also used a copper wire to floss the nozzle. After flossing, I could see through the tip of the nozzle, so I knew that it was no longer blocked. Next, I made sure that the threaded portion of the extruder wasn't clogged by pushing the filament through. It was able to freely move. I put the extruder nozzle back on, ran some filament through, and saw that it was able to go through the tip. Initially it did curl around the tip, but it eventually had a even strand running down. So after seeing that I was able to get filament through the nozzle, I decided to try the program again. It still didn't push any filament through the nozzle even though I was just able to get filament through using the Prepare > Move Axis > Move 1mm > Extruder.

Another thing worth noting is that on the whole extruder there is the upper threaded part, the heater block, and the nozzle. On top of the heater block, I can see melted filament as if its coming up from inside the block and onto the threaded part of the extruder. I'm not sure when that happened and I'm not sure why.

Any ideas on what could be happening?
The only 2 things that were changed before the extruder stopped working with the repetier setup was the parameters in Repetier/Slic3r and the height of the bed.
doodady
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Joined: January 1st, 2017, 5:04 pm
3D Printer(s): Hictop Prusa

Re: Printer extrusion issue with Repetier

Post by doodady »

Just a remote possibility but I had an issue with the connector at the extruder motor. Basically one wire was intermittently connected and would work sometimes but depending where the head traveled the motor would jump back and forth instead of turning. Just a possibility. In my case the little wire terminal was not inserted into the plastic connector correctly.
rcabor
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Joined: June 10th, 2016, 8:38 am

Re: Printer extrusion issue with Repetier

Post by rcabor »

I had the same problem with it not being pushed in all the way. After I noticed that the extruder stepper pins were burnt, so I bought a new stepper motor and all is fine now. So I would inspect the pins on the stepper motor, and then reseat the connector.
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