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Our Anet A8 seems to be working but the filament won't come out of the extruder. We can manually push it through though. The gears seem to be working fine and it's warming up. I have read the other answers on this site but none seem to fix our problem.

Trish
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M F
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  • Is it a direct drive or geared driver? I guess it's a non-bowden? Does the extruder grinds the filament / does the extruder turn at all? – Valmond Jan 01 '18 at 21:05
  • Yes, the extruder grinds the filament but nothing/very little comes out. Not sure about your first 2 questions. – M F Jan 01 '18 at 23:41
  • So your filament can be pushed by hand? E.g there is molten plastic coming out of the heat end if you do so? If so, has the hobbed bolt grind a big mark on the filament? – Valmond Jan 02 '18 at 09:20

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From the comments/answers to your main question, the likely culprit is the hobbed wheel not catching the filament firmly enough.

enter image description here

The hobbed wheel I am referring to is the yellowish one at the centre of the picture. The problem could be due to:

  • the wheel being of poor quality, with blunt teeth
  • the wheel being of the wrong diameter (too small)
  • the spring squeezing the wheel against the filament being too weak
  • [judging from the picture, I don't own the A8] it could even be that the nut on the lever that is pushed by the spring (top right of the picture) is too far down on the threaded rod, and prevents the lever to move far enough to push effectively.
mac
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  • @MF did you add the fan on the extruder ? I had a hard time setting the spring correctly in place with the new screws when assembling mine. This could be the reason why the 'steel guide wheel' isn't pressing enough the filament against the hobbed wheel. – Tensibai Jan 03 '18 at 09:59