In case it matters, I’m using Overture PETG. Far too often I have trouble changing filament, usually because a spool runs out. I first retract, but nothing is pushed out. Then I release the filament lock and take out the tube. From there the filament will be stuck. I manually set the temperature to 250, wait for it to heat up and give it a tug. The filament will break instead of pulling out. At that point I have to take off the extruder and remove the bit that is left.
It doesn’t happen all the time, but much more often than I’d like. Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong? It doesn’t take long to fix, but I have to abandon the print I’m working on when it happens.
Make sure the filament is dry so it won’t break so easily.
Watch when you first set the machine to retract to make sure it’s doing the retraction at 250°C. (for PETG) Sometimes it might default back to the PLA setting of I think 230°C. during a retraction which can cause a problem.
When you run out of filament you can pause the print (or it does it automatically) and do all the filament changing. Hit the play icon and it should continue the print where it left off.
After you unlock it and heat it up can you manually push it through..?
I think the filament is dry. It wasn’t more than 48 hours out of the wrapper, but I didn’t dry it before using. Normally I only do that when the spool has been outside the wrapper (like I am just changing colors now and then), but I have read that they can sometimes ship not dry. I do have a filament dryer and I will try that.
I did set the temperature to 250. I think the default is 220, which didn’t seem like enough. It will let me set it to 290 but I didn’t try that.
When you run out of filament in the middle of a print it moves the head off to the left. I can’t remove the left screw to take off the extruder with the head there, and I can’t move it without stopping the print. I think once this happens I can’t save the print. I certainly can restart the print if I don’t have to take off the extruder.
I have two probes, I think one is to push the filament down from the top, and that won’t work even when I heat up the filament. I suspect the broken piece is just above the nozzle so it doesn’t soften. I have some much finer ones that I think can push up through the nozzle. But where the print stops there isn’t enough room to try that because the bed is too close to the nozzle. I also can’t move that without stopping the print.
I’m thinking I should try to extrude first, then retract. Perhaps this has something to do with the nozzle having time to cool down before I retract. The retracting will heat it up, but if I extrude first and retract immediately maybe that would help. I’m grasping at straws, though.
It seems suspicious to me that when I retract nothing comes out. My prior printers did push out filament in this situation.
I have two things to try: dry the filament right out of the box before using, and try my extrude then retract idea. I didn’t have to do either of these with prior printers though. I had an Ender 3 and a K1 SE before this. Now I have two K1Cs.