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When it rains it pours

So I went to put my filament (ABS or PLA) through the EZStruder and got it down through the tubing all the way down to the bowden on the extruder. When I click on extrude to push filament into the tip I cannot get the filament to move. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong or what I can post to help figure it out? I am at a loss!

Also it it moving when I click it and I can manually turn it. Just nothing will move.

Check to make sure the tiny bearing attached to the red lever arm on the EZstruder is lined up with the hobbed gear on your stepper motor. If it isn't, the filament won't sit properly in the teeth to be fed down the bowden with force.

You can get the extruder motor to turn but it won't extrude filament? I'm not 100% sure if that's what you're saying.

If the motor does turn but the filament won't move, check:

- tip of filament isn't catching on internals of hot end. Re-trim it.
- nozzle isn't blocked by something. turn it up and try again this can sometimes clear it
- hobbed gear hasn't moved or is slipping on the shaft. shaft slipping is good in some circumstances, but not in 3d printing.
- hobbed gear isn't too hot. I've seen a stepper go bad and heat the hobbed gear enough to melt the filament at the extruder!

let us know what it ends up being so we can learn.

So I am trying to take the EZStruder apart... (This was not built by me) and the hobbed gear is not aligned properly as I feared. I am having an extremely tough time getting the stepper knob off this thing. It is like stuck on. Any thoughts?

Cox wrote:So I am trying to take the EZStruder apart... (This was not built by me) and the hobbed gear is not aligned properly as I feared. I am having an extremely tough time getting the stepper knob off this thing. It is like stuck on. Any thoughts?

Funny... I'm in the same boat. A buddy helped me assemble mine, and the EZstruder was one of the things he put together... The gear doesn't line up at all, and any attempts to loosen the set screw are useless. I ended up sanding down the back side of the EZstruder parts to make them sit closer to the stepper motor, but I ordered a new EZstruder setup and am going to just drill out the damn set screw. I noticed this problem a while ago, and one thing that helped (if the hobbed piece is too close to the motor) is to strap the hell out of the clear plastic piece to push the tensioner bearing into alignment.

Ahhh its so annoying. I'll likely have to buy a new EZstruder.