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I have been printing toy cars for about a month now and my Ender 3 has stopped extruding plastic even when I insert filament, it has been about a day since it stopped working. Is there any tips for getting it working again?

I tried manual feeding which worked.

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    $\begingroup$ Hi Tom, welcome to 3DPrinting.SE! This is little info to work with, like in: "I put petrol in my car, but it won't start". 😉 Could you please elaborate on the question by making sure that your nozzle is not clogged, or the extruder lever is broken (common Ender 3 issue). If manual feeding does not work, you're nozzle is probably clogged. $\endgroup$
    – 0scar
    Oct 4, 2021 at 12:52
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    $\begingroup$ Check here for one possibility. 3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/15629/… $\endgroup$
    – Perry Webb
    Oct 4, 2021 at 19:27

3 Answers 3

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You need to figure out what is not working

  • Is the hotend getting hot? If not, melted filament won't come out.
  • Is the nozzle clogged? In your toolkit was a bit of thin wire for poking into the nozzle - try that and see what happens.
    You may need to heat the hotend, extract the filament, wait for it to cool, remove the bowden tube and push the wire up from below, if the obstruction is too big to come through the 0.4mm nozzle.
  • Is the extruder pushing/feeding filament? Undo the bowden tube at the top, tell the control panel to extrude and observe if plastic moves. An Ender3 V2 has the round handle on top, you should see it slowly revolving.
    If you can see the gears turning and the filament is not coming through, try snipping that piece off and inserting a fresh end. Also clean inside the pushing gears of the extruder, could be simple plastic detris laying about.
  • Are you having reel problems? Can you tug on the filament and have the reel turn? If not, it might be binding on the roll, or knotted/tangled.
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  • $\begingroup$ that's weird I didn't see a bit of wire in my kit. $\endgroup$ Oct 9, 2021 at 14:41
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My comment refuses to upload so I think it’ll be ok if I just put it here:

Thanks this fixed it I had to replace my hot end as the one had broken for some reason but now it is fully working again, thank you so much!👍

Sorry for all the mistakes in formatting, I am new I joined 3 days ago.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for posting this as an answer, if you could expand upon what you fixed (wires broken, temperature setting in slicer, etc ) then the answer would be even better. $\endgroup$
    – 0scar
    Oct 5, 2021 at 15:18
  • $\begingroup$ You're doing great! Remember you fixed the problem and shared that with the wider community. Keep it up ! $\endgroup$
    – Criggie
    Oct 9, 2021 at 22:27
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This happened to me once - no plastic would come out, the extruder was jammed. I was stumped as to what was happening, as I couldn't put any filament through the hotend, but it was definitely still hot. The problem: don't ask me how it happened, but a small screw had somehow found its way into the hotend.

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