6 Solutions on How to Fix 3D Printer Filament Not Feeding Properly – 3D Printerly - Latest Posts

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Ender 3 feeder problem free. 3D printer not feeding filament: how to solve it!

 

Sometimes, the PTFE liner gets worn out because of the excessive heat and this obstructs the filament not feeding properly.

This can also reduce the diameter of the filament more than the original. Double-check the PTFE tube ends on both sides and replace the tube if damaged. Idler Pressure plays a major role in filament not feeding properly by eating the filament at the feeder gear. If the extruder spring tension is high, it can scrape the outer diameters of the filament being passed and eats up the filament.

Keep the pressure at its normal level not too high or too less by adjusting the spring tension. Do some trial and error on spring tension adjustments. Many times, the teeth of the feeder gears wear out and cause slipping in the filament pushing. This interrupts the continuous filament flow and causes the filament not to feed properly.

Usage of cheap extruders containing low-quality gears and they get degraded overtime consuming these issues. If worn-out feeder gear is causing the filament feeding problem, upgrading your extruder to a high-quality all-metal extruder of direct drive type is recommended. Amazon has a great all-metal extruder CHPower Aluminum MK8 Extruder this can act as a great replacement for the low-quality factory set extruders.

Installation of this extruder is pretty easy and offers a good filament pushing pressure to enhance the printing performance. This extruder has a internal gear ratio and hardened steel gears that are CNC machined. All of these work in combination boosting the feeding strength and reducing slips. With the Zonatech extruder, you can print almost all types of filaments including TPU flexible filaments, and yet it offers high performance.

The Zonatech Dual-Drive Extruder is well packed and shipped without any damage. If you find that the extruder motor is clicking, then check if the filament is straight or bent. When the motor clicks it affects the flow rate of the filament. This in turn causes an obstruction to the filament feeding. Change the existing motor to the high-quality one and see if it solves the problem while ensuring the proper electrical connections to the device.

If you find it difficult to push the filament through the extruder, the easy solution is to clean it and apply some oil. This will ease the process of filament penetration through the extruder. On the other hand, if the extruder is really dry, then oil application would create the slip needed for an optimal operation. This fixes the problem of the extruder not pushing the filament. Sometimes, the filament on the end gets bulger than 1. If your filament is not feeding properly, you should reduce retraction settings, check your PTFE tube for clogs or damage near the ends, unclog your nozzle, check the teeth on your extruder for wear, adjust idler pressure on your feeder gear and check your extruder motor for instability.

Once you do a series of checks and correct them as you find issues, your filament should feed through your 3D printer just fine. You have to make sure your extrusion path is clear and free of obstructions, so your filament can feed through at the proper rate.

This goes anywhere from the filament flowing inside the extruder, to the extruder itself, through the PTFE tubing if you have a Bowden set up, through to the nozzle.

Once your extrusion path is cleared and allows filament to pass through smoothly, you should be a lot closer to the way of being able to feed your filament properly. The retraction settings mainly consist of retraction length and retraction speed. People usually have their retraction lengths and speeds way too high. The proper way to do this is to find the optimal settings for your 3D printer, whether that is from researching online or doing it yourself.

I would get a small test print and print it several times using different combinations of retraction speeds and lengths to see which one delivers the best quality. Now come to the PTFE liner, if you observe that it has worn out because of the heat, this can be one of the reasons for the filament not feeding properly.

This could even clog the filament to become smaller in diameter than usual. Double-check the ends of your PTFE tube, especially on the hotend side and replace it if necessary. You will find such trouble with the filament not feeding properly if the filament has been eaten away by the feeder gear. If the idler pressure is not enough, it could also be a cause that the filament is not coming out of the extruder because of less pressure. Trial and error your spring tension on your extruder, where your filament comes through to.

This is a pretty quick fix so you can test it without too much hassle. I mean, when the temperature gets too high, it can start melting the filament before the perfect time. Thus, the softened filament stays inside the nozzle for a longer time and gets clogged at some point.

This is something you may not notice but can seriously damage the whole printing process. When you start the printing process, dust or dirt stuck on the nozzle can burn up and stay on the nozzle. This issue can go unnoticed, unlike the bad temperature one. I will discuss that later on in this article.

Sometimes the issue is as simple as using cheap quality filaments. With cheap quality filaments, you can only expect to save money. If you are hoping to have flawless results from these filaments, then I am sorry to say, you will surely be disappointed every time. As a result, they will eventually end up clogging up your 3D printer. When there is not enough space for the filament to work around, it gets stuck inside the nozzle.

Also, the fact that the print bed is too close makes the filament smear all over the bed. Essentially, what you end up with here is a mess of filament. The filament may also try to get back inside the nozzle with the lack of space. This results in clogging up the nozzle too. So, these are the typical reasons that can cause your filament to not feed properly in your printer. Luckily, you can either solve these issues or avoid them with some definitive measures. The only solution you can try is to clear up the clog on your 3D printer nozzle most of the time.

There are several ways to do it. You can do some things to prevent the clogging, and then there is, of course, unclogging the nozzle. I will go through both of them.

There are two parts to this thing. Or it will simply be a fully clogged nozzle.