PLA Suddenly Jamming Mid-Print

[Ryuluce]

An update on what I've tried:

I took off the nozzle and cleaned it out using physical methods (I didn't do a chemical bath).

I also tried resetting the extrusion widths in the advanced print settings, but that didn't seem to help.

[Geoff]

An update on what I've tried:

I took off the nozzle and cleaned it out using physical methods (I didn't do a chemical bath).

I also tried resetting the extrusion widths in the advanced print settings, but that didn't seem to help.

I think it's the filament I'm afraid to say. PLA absorbs moisture rediculously fast, there is a slight fat section that won't go down the extruder pipe and gets blocked at the top, while the hobbed gear just keeps pulling away at it. See how you have that long stretched section? your PLA was a bit gooey and there was a bubble in it it got caught and the rest kept getting pulled down until it lost extrusion and stops spitting out plastic.

The fact it's pulling it tells me that the problem is on the top end, not the bottom end. If it was some old ABS stuck in there, you would just get a grind out and the filament would get blocked and you hear "click click click click" from the stepper motor. In this case, its not a problem of going into the pipe, it's a problem of a bulge in your PLA that won't go down the very first hole it needs to go into, the holy just above the hobbed gear.

[Ryuluce]

I think it's the filament I'm afraid to say. PLA absorbs moisture rediculously fast, there is a slight fat section that won't go down the extruder pipe and gets blocked at the top, while the hobbed gear just keeps pulling away at it. See how you have that long stretched section? your PLA was a bit gooey and there was a bubble in it it got caught and the rest kept getting pulled down until it lost extrusion and stops spitting out plastic.

The fact it's pulling it tells me that the problem is on the top end, not the bottom end. If it was some old ABS stuck in there, you would just get a grind out and the filament would get blocked and you hear "click click click click" from the stepper motor. In this case, its not a problem of going into the pipe, it's a problem of a bulge in your PLA that won't go down the very first hole it needs to go into, the holy just above the hobbed gear.

Hmm. That'd suck if that's the issue. Are there some good ways to test if that is definitely the problem? I don't have "popping" which I've heard is a common symptom of PLA hydration.

Though, I wouldn't be surprised if the moisture is the cause, because I do live in a fairly humid environment. But I was using the PLA before I started using ABS and it was working quite well for at least over a month without any special containment. Although, that was during the winter and subsequently a drier part of the year.

I just want to isolate if that is absolutely the cause, since that will allow me to more directly address the problem.

By the way, what do you mean by "pulling"? If you're referring to how stretched the filament is, I think that's because of how I pulled out the filament when I was removing the blockage. Most other times I removed the filament, it wasn't like that.