I have a brand new anet a8 I assembled and tried to test print a 20mm test cube. The extruder extrudes the first few layers just fine, and then quits extruding the PLA. Around the second or third layer. I noticed the stepper motor kicks on around the time of quits spitting our the pla, and I do not see any plastic advance when the stepper is running. I am using orange hatchbox pla. Things I have done to trouble shoot: 1. Tried to print at 180, 190, 200, 205 and 210 2. Tried multiple different files to print 3. Pulled apart the entire extruder to check for jams, none are present. 4. Double checked the fans, both work 5. The PLA will extrude manually when pushed through. I did notice that the gear that turns to push the pla through does not sit directly above the hole that feeds into the extruder, and I can not load the pla without taking the fan off and manually loading it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Check your retraction settings, most likely it’s that after the first layer is completed it’s retracting too far and then not going back into the hot end. On the anet the retraction should only be set to 6.5mm
Thank you I will try that!
so,
6.5mm distance,
30mm speed
Couple of things to try:
1. look at the gears to make sure there is not ground filament in the teeth this can lead to that occurring
2. If you have had the PLA around and open for a long time try a different roll as the PLA might have taken of moisture.
3. Slow down your print speeds.
Hope this helps let me know if you need any more help.
I had this issue with wrong retraction settings. 6.5 as mentioned below is much too far for a direct extruder, this is more a bowden setting. Try very low settings, use 0.5 or 1mm and increase if that’s not enough. Direct extruders really don’t need that much retraction.
You can also check the inner side of the heat threat. Perhaps there is something which could stop the filament from extruding if it is retracted too far.
Also check if the heatend end fan (NOT the part cooling fan) is mounted correctly. If the heat thread is getting too warm, the filament could get soft already in the heat thread and could clogg while it’s beeing pushed back and forward.
And keep printing PLA with 190 to 200 degree.
The settings I listed are what we run on all three of our anet a8’s, two ctc duals, replicator 5, UM3+ etc, 6.5mm is more a great all rounder in my opinion, since it just gets it out of the nozzle but remains in the heat zone preventing ‘cooling clogging’ never had any hairing or extrusion problems with that setting on any printer. Tried and tested. If it was something else then this setting would still stop any stress from things like fans and cold end problems anyway (one of our anets had a fan die but we needed the parts done and it ran fine regardless.) Also, you can say 190 - 200 but we have always used 210 since it allows you to print faster without any drawbacks. Takes some of the gross over glossiness of pla away too! Also, slightly over heating most plastics actually makes prints stronger and increases layer bonding!
Thank You! The gears are clean and the pla has been open for less than a week in West Texas ( extremely low humidity here)
When your print fails is there a crescent shape in the filament when you pull it out?
Honestly I can’t remember, I won’t be back to work on it until Monday. What does that imply?
I’m starting to think this is some sort of heat control issue. I pulled the heat sink off the fan that cools the feeder motor area, and I managed to get several more layers without it failing to extrude. Now that I can peak inside while it is printing, I am noticing that when it fails to extrude, the pla that should be getting fed into the hot end directly below the feeder motor bends and gums up instead of being forced down the tube.
