So I'm two hours into a large 30 hour print and I noticed the small lever on top of the extruder (See Pic) had worked it's way about halfway over to the unlocked position. I paused it and locked it back. About ten minutes later it did it again. This will cause it to under extrude if it's not all the way in the locked position. I come back 30 minutes later. Same thing.
Anyone have this experience?
Nope. But I had read about it before so I zip-tied mine locked, I have lots of small zip ties. Have you taken the extruder apart to see how the mechanism works? I did post some pics of a disassembled one if that saves you some time and energy!
Thatās a great idea using zip ties. Iāll have to figure out the best way to fasten them on. Looks like that will work. Thank you for thatā¦!!
I need to figure out why that happens.
Got the new updated extruder mechanism from Creality finally. It looks like there is a spring mechanism inside pushing the two gears together. Iāts pretty small and I canāt see really good close up to tellā¦ 
Maybe wonāt have to put the zip tie on any moreā¦ 
I just came across this: Extruder lock.
https://www.printables.com/model/573771-creality-k1-k1-max-bloqueur-de-levier-dextrudeur/files
Hey thanks. I downloaded it and will check it out next chance I get. You know the latest extruder Creality sent me in the Power Boost kit has a different setup for the filament and it doesnāt unlock the extruder any more. Works pretty good. Doesnāt have that little blue locking tab.
I have a K1 Max, how do I go about getting the newer mechanism? I certainly donāt want failures on larger long (time) prints!
I donāt see the updated extruder listed in their store. Someone mentioned it was āOut of Stockā
Maybe send out some emails to:
Send a message in the forum to:
If you search on Ebay or other after market sellers be careful as you might not be buying the newest upgraded versionā¦ 
In the meantime the āziptieā method that @Zerquetch mentioned did work. Just be careful going around the small extruder motor wiresā¦
Geez, Iād love to get one of those! How come I find out about this stuff too late?
A few months later: I purchased a K1 and took delivery on 1/3/2024, printed for 3.5 days but today the extruder became intermittent. When the print would start the left-side warm-up line would start very thin and after it returned to the top it left a steamer of filament toward the start of the print, when it started printing the object the filament was changing size from thin to thick and leaving floating streamers. I retracted the filament and checked the nozzle and filament path, both were good. I removed the extruder and disassembled it, it was full of chewed up filament. I cleaned the mess up then removed the filament tube from the cable guide, every time I changed filament I had to fight pushing the filament pass the 90Ā° turn into the extruder, not anymore. Iām adding a raiser with a hinged cover holder, there be plenty of room for the filament tube.
Thatās a good fixā¦ 
Glad itās working nowā¦ 
It took a couple of weeks but I finally had to change the extruder, while trying to unplug the extruder the āLOCKā lever was not un-locked and I marred the grears. The new extruder has a white, spring loaded, retainer so I guess it is the latest version, the one I removed was the flat color with a black retainer that required a clip. I did discover that my build plate was not at the temperature showing on the printer, it was about 17Ā° lower, by adding that to the bed temperature my parts started sticking to the bed without issues and everything looks very smooth. After three days Iāve not had to abort a job to clean up a spaghetti filament mess.
