<p>I'm highly unconvinced that dust in the gearing is related to your problem. If the material is still being extruded, then "in the air" suggests the base layers may have slipped, or your belts are slipping, either of which will lead to a huge lateral offset, and thus the "printing in air" problem. It's possible but less likely that the extruder feed gear itself is slipping.</p>

<p>If you can post a picture of one of these situations, that would help a  lot.  </p>

<p>I will mention in passing that there are several models for filament guides at thingiverse.com . Putting one of these on your machine will eliminate scraping and the resultant dust.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-11T14:34:50.233Z
2017-09-11T14:34:50.233Z
Carl Witthoft
<p>Pictures would help, but I believe that the "dust" is not the cause of your issue, but another symptom. When the filament doesn't advance as fast as the job requires (for whatever reason), the drive mechanism erodes the filament as it attempts to drive it along.</p>

<p>Give us some basics: has your machine worked well with these settings on prints before? What is your material, temperature, print speed and nozzle diameter?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-12T06:34:39.063Z
Its been printing perfect before i upgraded the fan so i can swing it away from the extruder, because i dont have the best hardware for that job the fan wasn't perfectly aligned so my guess is that the filament got soft so the extruder gear takes some small chunks out of the filament. Last night i removed that upgrade again and put everything back like it should. Because of me not being able to push the filament back in, i couldnt test if this fixed it.
Granny
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-11T15:55:30.133Z
2017-09-11T15:55:30.133Z
Davo
<p>Yesterday evening i have been trying to print a few upgrades but after coming home after an hour, it is printing in the air because there is to much filament dust inside the extruder. Is this because the filament that is being extruded is getting to soft so the gear grinds parts off? I never had this problem before. </p>

<p>Printer:</p>

<p>Anet A8. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-13T15:42:52.030Z
This seems to be a problem with cleaning and changing the filament, also a temperature issue. Please provide an image of the soft filament. In some version of printers this soft filament looks like a worm or waves. is easy to fix it.
Fernando Baltazar
<extruder>
Extruder keeps jamming because of filament dust!
Granny
# Extruder keeps jamming because of filament dust!

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-09-11)

Yesterday evening i have been trying to print a few upgrades but after coming home after an hour, it is printing in the air because there is to much filament dust inside the extruder. Is this because the filament that is being extruded is getting to soft so the gear grinds parts off? I never had this problem before.

Printer:

Anet A8.

**Tags:** extruder

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This seems to be a problem with cleaning and changing the filament, also a temperature issue. Please provide an image of the soft filament. In some version of printers this soft filament looks like a worm or waves. is easy to fix it.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-09-11. Score: 2

I'm highly unconvinced that dust in the gearing is related to your problem. If the material is still being extruded, then "in the air" suggests the base layers may have slipped, or your belts are slipping, either of which will lead to a huge lateral offset, and thus the "printing in air" problem. It's possible but less likely that the extruder feed gear itself is slipping.

If you can post a picture of one of these situations, that would help a lot.

I will mention in passing that there are several models for filament guides at thingiverse.com . Putting one of these on your machine will eliminate scraping and the resultant dust.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2017-09-11. Score: 2

Pictures would help, but I believe that the "dust" is not the cause of your issue, but another symptom. When the filament doesn't advance as fast as the job requires (for whatever reason), the drive mechanism erodes the filament as it attempts to drive it along.

Give us some basics: has your machine worked well with these settings on prints before? What is your material, temperature, print speed and nozzle diameter?

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Its been printing perfect before i upgraded the fan so i can swing it away from the extruder, because i dont have the best hardware for that job the fan wasn't perfectly aligned so my guess is that the filament got soft so the extruder gear takes some small chunks out of the filament. Last night i removed that upgrade again and put everything back like it should. Because of me not being able to push the filament back in, i couldnt test if this fixed it.  

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