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Extruding issues

printer_man58

Extruding issues
December 23, 2013 10:38AM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 69

My extruder is not working properly. When i try to print and extrude at the same time the extruder gears move very slowly and barely anything comes out. I am able to extrude directly from pronterface and manually

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jbernardis

Re: Extruding issues
December 23, 2013 12:02PM

Registered: 11 years ago
Posts: 1,320

The extruder gears SHOULD turn very slowly when you print.

But if nothing is coming out, check your e steps calibration . what value do you have for e steps/millimeter?

Also, do you prime the extruder before starting a print? I always manually extrude until I have a good flow, and THEN I hit the print button.

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printer_man58

Re: Extruding issues
December 23, 2013 04:18PM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 69

Thank you I think I will also do this from now on.

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uncle_bob

Re: Extruding issues
December 23, 2013 09:16PM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 1,433

If you are running Slic3r *and* you are printing reasonable sized parts *and* you tend to forget things ...

Tell Slic3r to print a skirt on the part. Give it a minimum amount of filament (say 10mm) to use on the skirt. That way it will automatically prime the hot end with each print. It will also scrub the print head before the print.

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jbernardis

Re: Extruding issues
December 23, 2013 09:58PM

Registered: 11 years ago
Posts: 1,320

I always have skirt turned on and I still manually prime the extruder.

You can also mitigate this issue through the use of start G code. I have start G code that pumps out a bit of filament before it even gets to the skirt. SO I actually use 3 steps to prime manual, start code and skirt.

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kfootball15

Re: Extruding issues
December 23, 2013 10:42PM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 102

I never actually understood what 'Skirt' meant? I saw it in the slicer program but didnt know what it did.

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printer_man58

Re: Extruding issues
December 24, 2013 12:24PM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 69

I also print a skirt, but for some reason nothing is coming out when i print. It only prints little droplets. It extrudes fine when i manually do it and when i do it in pronterface. Also a skirt is a little outline you print around the object.

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printer_man58

Re: Extruding issues
December 24, 2013 03:17PM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 69

Also the extruder gears don't move at all. They only move when I do it manually.

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uncle_bob

Re: Extruding issues
December 24, 2013 08:43PM

Registered: 10 years ago
Posts: 1,433

IF you only get bits when doing a skirt then something is wrong somewhere. What depends a lot on how much work you have already done setting up your printer. First place to look is extruder calibration.

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jbernardis

Re: Extruding issues
December 24, 2013 11:04PM

Registered: 11 years ago
Posts: 1,320

What slicer are you using? If skeinforge, a lot of people had this issue if they hadn't activated the dimension plugin. Without this, no extrusion g code is generated.

It might be helpful to see the first 100 or so lines of your g code.