Filament load issues of Anet A8 3D Printer

Some of the users of the Anet A8 3D printer may have faced filament load issues. Actually, filament load problem is common for 3D printer beginners. Don’t worry, it’s easy to resolve. We will talk through four situations and provide you some solutions.

Filament insertion of Anet A8

Inserting filament in Anet A8 may be a little tricky for beginners. If the driving cog and guide wheel are too tight, the cog will keep pushing the filament out of line.

Solution:

You can cut the filament under a sharp angle and pre-bend the filament. The curve of the end of the filament can help the filament feed into the extruder.

Under extruding

This situation mostly happens when the printer has been in use for some time. You need to check the feeder. Anet A8 uses a driving cog and a guide wheel to push the filament back and forth. The teeth on the gears bite into the filament to accurately control the position of the filament. When the gears are too tight, they might remove too much plastic from your filament, and your printer will under extruding.

Solution:

There is a screw and a spring on the extruder, which can adjust the tension between two gears. Just tighten the screw a little bit, then two gears will be less tension.

Anet A8 is not extruding

There are two possible reasons for this situation. You need to check the extruder and the nozzle.

Firstly, check the gears mentioned above. It’s common in many 3D printers that the loose gear may moves to the end of the motor shaft while feeding filament. And the filament can’t go forth without the gears pushing.

Another possibility is the clogged nozzle. For any reason, once the hot plastic sits inside the extruder too long, the nozzle of the Anet A8 may be clogged and the filament can’t come out.

Solution:

For the first possibility, you need to remove the extruder fan and move the gear back inside. You also can adjust the spring beside it to tighten the gears if it’s possible.

For the clogged nozzle, you need to heat the extruder to 200℃ to unclog the nozzle. And it’s better to contact Anet for professional help.

Now you can easily deal with the filament problem of Anet A8. And here is a recommended printable upgrades from Thingiverse for Anet A8, which can improve your filament load：https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2366523