Issues With Extruder

Hi there,

A friend of mine bought a prusa mendel kit and we built it together over the summer. We hit a snag once it was assembled and wired in that the extruder motor/extruder seem to not work properly when set to print. The kit was ordered from [mixshop.com], the software we're using was downloaded from [www.nextdayreprap.co.uk].

Through Skeinforge, we're able to manually make the extruder motor run, we're able to move all the axes, but when we ask it to print, it goes through the vertical and horizontal motions, but nothing is extruded. Because of this we haven't been able to print out the calibration cube. When we push the plastic through the extruder using our hands, a little filament is extruded.

We were wondering what settings are recommended, other than the defaults, and if you had any suggestions about resolving this issue. Please let me know if I can provide any further information, and I really appreciate your help!

Thanks!

-Adje

A much more common tool chain is Slic3r for the slicing and Pronterface to drive the printer. I don't know which kit you bought so it's unclear which firmware you are running. If it's a Mega / Ramps combo Marlin is a good way to go. Getting to an simpler tool chain probably will make the troubleshooting less frustrating. With Pronterface, you can check all the motors directly.

Thanks for your quick reply, I'll give that a try within the next few days and will post back with news!

-Adje