Thanks, everyone, for your help and input, but I’m out of patience for now. I have ordered a replacement from Amazon and will be sending this one back. I know a lot more now than when I started a couple of weeks ago, even if I still don’t know what went wrong with the extrusion process. Maybe I just had the thing running too much. It was running for most of my waking hours for a couple of weeks. I now have 3 beds (original magnetic, glass, PEI), and more stickum than I will ever need (glue sticks, PVA, Bed Weld, Magigoo, blue painter tape). Replacement will arrive in a few days, which is fine. I need a break.
Glue sticks I use are Tesco home office, dead cheap, not sticky when cold, easy to wash off and lasts about a week of printing perhaps more. £2.50 for 5 sticks.
I haven’t needed any adhesion help since I started using the PEI sheet. Absolutely no issues with bed adhesion.
Good afternoon guys,
If you want I’ll add a bit to the conversation.
I had a Ender 3 S1 and I’ve had similar problems too.
I’ve never heard gears grinding before on my Ender 3, it always ran silent to me. (Maybe the design has changed from mine.)
I used to drive it my with a Sonic pad which I found so much easier and far more informative regarding levelness of the heated bed.
If you keep changing plates your printing on then perhaps the bed levelling could be an issue.
The standard levelling procedure was done with a piece of A4 trapped under the hot end.
That’s still the case with the Sonic pad, however the amount of fine adjustment is exceptional, and once completed ran as good as I could get it.
I noted that the test points across the bed could vary more greatly, so the internal control board has to compensate as it moves the nozzle across the X, Y, axis.
That 4 spring adjusted corners can be a faff.
Another point to consider, could the nozzle be screwed fully home, up to the internal thermal collar (assuming it’s the same design as the Ender3 S1.) The 2 items should touch each other within the aluminium block.
It does sound to me you’re becoming an expert 3D printer very quickly. Good luck trying to get the old machine back in the box, it took me ages after I’d sold it on eBay.
Printing on a raft, brim or skirt can give better results.
I’ve used Primafix Adhesive and it’s been fine for all my prints. It’s sold in 50ml bottle with a sponge top. At £10 a bottle I think it’s expensive but it gives me good results.
Kind regards,
XeroidKid.
That is pricey compared to the Tesco Home Office gluesticks that I use, 5 for £2.50, but I only use it as belt and braces.
This is an Ender 3 v3 SE with an automatic bed levelling function. Every day, before my first print, I level the bed (or when changing the bed from stock to glass to PEI, until PEI cured my adhesion problem—no more glue sticks or any other aid needed). I still level first thing every day. That doesn’t seem to be the problem.
Also, the v3 SE required little assembly, about 15 min with the help of a video, even with me being mechanically-challenged. I don’t anticipate much trouble disassembling, there aren’t that many pieces on this model, thank goodness. I always print with a skirt, it let me catch a lot of adhesion and/or extrusion failures early and saved time/filament. The thing is, it extruded fine for a couple of weeks, until it didn’t. And it generally still extruded fine, until sometime in the middle of the print. The point at which the gears clicked and extrusion stopped was always different. I couldn’t find a pattern, and it was really very annoying when it waited until 3 or 4 hours into a 7-hour print to screw up.
Replacement printer supposed to arrive Friday from Amazon.
Again, thanks for all the suggestions, they are useful knowledge.
It won’t be that that is causing the extrusion problem. I only relevel if I change the bed or disassemble the bed (me tinkering). I generally go weeks without relevelling, I turn off calibrate on every print, that causes problems of resetting my already level bed. Once it is set it stays set, until I play around with settings. You have new filament, have you tried another make? I use Sunlu or Jayo, I have used Flashforge that gives me problems, perhaps try another manufacturers filament on the next printer.
I have used the sample that came with the printer, and purchased Creality, Sunlu, Comgrow, PLA Max, Tecbears, & Anycubic spools in assorted colors (all PLA), whatever Amazon had on sale. The failure has occurred with 2 different brands, 2 different colors. All of those brands have generally the same standard recommended settings for temp, etc. and I definitely plan to start off with a different spool…the problem first appeared during hour 5 or 6 of a 7-hour print, which was the longest I had attempted.
I’ve been leveling often because I’m new to this, and I wanted to be sure that the auto-levelling was working as advertised. It doesn’t take long, and using the PEI sheet (which you can flex when cooled down to release the print), I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t throwing anything out of adjustment. I’m more confident about that part of it now, and will have to check it less, because I don’t plan to change beds.
The prints I’m doing are not very complex, basically trays to hold board game pieces, some shaped internally to hold specific game parts. If it printed the skirt and the bottom of the tray successfully (stuck to the bed) and started on the walls and the fill, I kind of expected it to complete, and it did for about 2 weeks. Until it didn’t.
Early on, I did have one reel of black filament that would not adhere to any of the beds, or any kind of glue. I bought another spool of black to replace it, but I messed up and don’t remember which is which. 
. I’ll figure it out eventually, but will stay away from black until I’m confident the new printer is working. 
Pretty much only print black, even some carbon filled. My worst reel was lilac for sticking. Intrigued about the 7 hours thing, could be heat creep, but I have had far longer prints without issues, except when I had a camera with AI fitted and it got dark, it didn’t like that at all, did a full on spaghetti nest but the print was still stuck down. Fingers crossed the new printer works well.
thanks for sharing your bad experience.
just looking for possible solutions from those with more experience who like to help…
Update (maybe the last ): Replacement printer arrived yesterday (2 days early !!). Assembled and test cat printed. Then completed the 7-hour job successfully, with absolutely no issues. Just finished a 10-hour print job today, also successfully, with no issues. Very pleased so far, hope this one lasts longer than 2 weeks. Case closed.
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