I just bought a new Ender 3 printer. And I haven't managed to get a successful print from it yet - each time it jams in the middle of printing, if not at the very start. I am using 1.75 mm PLA filament with a 0.4 mm nozzle, and have tried several nozzles and two filament spools. Any common rookie setup mistakes I ought to check for, or other things I should be looking at?
Mine was doing that and the hotend was berkeleyed.
Nozzle temp? How old is the filament?
What slicer do you use?
Thanks for the responses so far! Nozzle temp is 200-210 degrees C, used Cura slicer for a Benchy as well as trying the cat.gcode that came with the printer (unknown slicer, but figured a file they supplied would work). Unsealed one filament today and the other a week ago.
It does look like the extruder is trying to push the filament and slipping. This one doesn't have any particular upgrades and is an out of the box setup, original firmware and everything.
Maybe bump temp 5 degrees but that's probably not causing it. Prusa's default temp settings are pretty good. Don't know about cura but they're probably pretty close.
Filament probably isn't wet. I wouldn't reuse a nozzle I suspect of being clogged. They're cheap, so I always toss them if I suspect them at all.
Maybe check the tension on the extruder gear or if the teeth are clogged. It could be extruder causing no feed or clog causes slipping, hard to say.
Does it give like a "tick, tick, tick" when printing? That would be the extruder being too close to the bed. You shouldn't be smearing filament on the first layer.
And here I was going to post a snarky comment about how about changing the music it's listening to...
As with everything, the proper tools need to be used. I like Prontrface for debugging and such. You'll want something that you can connect to the printer and run gcode with.
I would make sure its extruding properly above the bed. Gcode it up an inch or more and have it push out filament once its warmed up. If it does that fine, then you'll need to make sure its doing so at bed-level. That is likely going to require levelling the bed. One of the things I hate most about my Ender 3.
I do second the thought on checking the tension of the gear on the extruder.
Turbo_Rev said:Filament probably isn't wet. I wouldn't reuse a nozzle I suspect of being clogged. They're cheap, so I always toss them if I suspect them at all.
Yeah, I went through SO many nozzles with my Ender 3. I was buying them in bulk.
Meanwhile, I'm still using the original nozzle for my Bambu P1P, almost a year and over hundred prints later.
There doesn't seem to be a way to set the tension on the extruder, but trying to apply more tension manually doesn't help.
I had set the bed at a height where you can just slide a sheet of paper under the nozzle. The jam can happen after reaching a half-inch layer height though.
Manually moving the Z axis up and trying to force filament through the extruder doesn't work; it remains stuck until I clean it out or swap nozzles. I think this may be a similar issue to ProDarwin's problem where the plastic melted too far up in the hot end and got stuck. Any ideas for hot end upgrades? I'm using the one that came with the printer.
MadScientistMatt said:Manually moving the Z axis up and trying to force filament through the extruder doesn't work; it remains stuck until I clean it out or swap nozzles. I think this may be a similar issue to ProDarwin's problem where the plastic melted too far up in the hot end and got stuck. Any ideas for hot end upgrades? I'm using the one that came with the printer.
Had that happen, too. My solution was to take the hotend/extruder assembly off, take it apart, pull out the slug of melted PLA, then reassemble with a new nozzle.
Tried that once, wasn't much of a slug in there. Problem came back pretty quickly.
Thinking of ordering this - a new hot end plus a direct feed instead of a Bowden cable to reduce friction.
From my reading, that isn't a true "all metal hot end", and the problem you are having now can absolutely resurface with that one.
Careful with the Ender. It is a capable machine, but it can be an endless rabbit hole of upgrades/fixes.
How new is new? If its new enough, have you considered returning it?
When I was starting out, I had a bad PETG clog that I ended up disassembling the print head over. There was all sorts of carbonized gunk in the heating element. A wire barrel brush (.22) handled that. Once I realized Prusa default temps are fine and they I need to stop needlessly tweaking everything, I never had a problem with it again. I also learned to keep my filament dry but anyways. Not saying those are your causes but it might not be a bad idea to take the head apart and see what's going on in the heating element.
What brand of filament are you using?
This one is brand new. Ordered online and I had just thrown out the box, so a return would be complicated.
The current spool of filament is Comgrow.
Successfully printed a Benchy after a video sent by Crealty's tech support suggested I check the cut of the PTFE tube. It wasn't perfectly square, which was likely my fault as I'd thought it was damaged and trimmed it a little.
Interesting. Im curious if the issue reappears with a longer print. Try something larger or put several benchys on the bed. If it works then, id say you got lucky... then its onto the normal upgrades :P
I would ditch the junk tube they sent and replace it with Capricorn tubing. It's more heat resistant, and smoother inside.
Then search youtube for TeachingTech and binge his videos. He also has a website that takes you step-by-step through the process to really dial in your printer. The Ender is a decent starter, but I would recommend against upgrades. By the time you've done all the upgrades to get it printing well, you've spent enough to buy a truly good printer.
Update - downloaded Freecad and tried to get started on seeing if I can re-create some of the unavailable Chrysler electrical connectors. Freecad is definitely not in the same league as Solidworks, Inventor, or even Alibre Design, but it worked well enough that I was able to do this:
Finding suitable contacts will be the real challenge, I suspect. I don't plan on using the printer for production; if I want volume, I'd use it to make molds instead.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Fusion360 or Solidworks Maker would both be a huge step up from Freecad if you have previous experience with a good CAD package. Well worth the $50 a year for Solidworks Maker.
RacetruckRon said:In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Fusion360 or Solidworks Maker would both be a huge step up from Freecad if you have previous experience with a good CAD package. Well worth the $50 a year for Solidworks Maker.
Thanks, I hadn't heard about Solidworks Maker before. It looks quite interesting. However, this project is something I do eventually plan on commercial use. And I don't like Fusion 360's extensive reliance on Autodesk's servers; they make it tough to maintain your own local copies. I figure I'll see if I can make money on this project first, and if so, probably migrate to a better paid CAD package.
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