<p>The extruder can't push anymore when the filament is past the extruder gear. If your filament has run out to that point, the print will <em>not</em> halt but print without a filament, meaning that the print will fail. You need to pause the print in time and then put fresh filament into the printer.</p>

<p>If the end of the filament is cut flat at the end and the new one is flat too, the new filament can push the old one out to the nozzle, reducing the waste to a minimum, if you can live without retraction for the amount of length that has to be used up. You could friction weld the two parts together to alleviate this.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-06T19:36:02.917Z
So that means there will be a minimum of ptfe tube length of filament loss for every spool, it's a bummer that they made the  extruder away from the hot end.
ABHIGHNA SHARMA
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-10T23:03:32.783Z
@ABHIGHNASHARMA you can design your own extruder; the direct drive extruder has the same problem, but here is needed to push the filament inside the cooling element, while the filament is broken or has ran out. If you don't want to push the filament flat to flat edge then "weld the edges" to add the new reel.
Fernando Baltazar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-11T01:32:46.430Z
@ABHIGHNASHARMA it has its own advantages: the extruder motor is not moving along with the hot-end, making the whole machine able to work faster without compromising on quality. Direct drive extruders are more expensive and slower unless you are willing to accept artifacts on your prints like ringing.
Roberto Lo Giacco
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-25T03:28:09.677Z
Regarding: "If the end of the filament is cut flat at the end and the new one is flat too, the new filament can push the old one out to the nozzle, reducing the waste to a minimum," it's a bad idea to rely on that. Retraction will not work until the old filament is all gone, meaing you'll get stringing all over the place during travel. Just discard the few tens of cm of scrap at the end.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-25T03:29:24.913Z
In theory though you could solve that problem by bonding the old and new filament together with a soldering iron set at ~200 C.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-25T06:31:06.237Z
@R.. You don't always need retraction, but yes, I will add that
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-06T13:38:28.643Z
2019-04-25T06:32:52.467Z
2019-04-25T06:32:52.467Z
Trish
<p>When the end of the filament is beyond the reach of the hobbed stepper gear, your print will stop extruding. Some printers (i.e. Prusa i3, Craftbot 3, etc) have runout sensors. These sensors can be a switch or some form of a circuit that is broken when the filament isn't there to close it (I'm no mechatronics engineer or anything, so my terminology may be a bit off). When these switches are tripped, the printer automatically pauses the print, allowing you to come and rescue it. Fancier printers like the Craftbot 3 will actually send you an email when your filament runs out <em>or even jams!</em> Of course, that machine is over $3600CAD, and well out of most peoples price range. The Ender 3, being around 300 dollars, is not equipped with a runout sensor. Switches and 3D printing files to make your own are either cheap or free.</p>

<p>And yes, some filament may need to be wasted if you do a swap. Direct drive extruders have the same problem but at a much smaller scale. If you just feed new filament into your machine, you will lose all retraction (which is annoying) until the second length of filament is in. At the point where the filament switches, (depending on your extruder and print speed) you may get a small patch of under extrusion. Nothing that will seriously compromise part strength, but it won't be super pretty.</p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-25T01:18:09.293Z
2019-04-25T01:18:09.293Z
Levi Giesbrecht
<p>When filament is too short for the extruder to push will there be a stop in printing on the Ender 3, meaning that I should replace the filament when the end of the filament is near the extruder?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-25T09:00:07.967Z
I'm sure I've seen this question asked before, although not explicitly for the Ender 3
Greenonline
<filament><extruder><hotend><creality-ender-3>
Filament Length too short for extruder to push filament
ABHIGHNA SHARMA
# Filament Length too short for extruder to push filament

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-06)

When filament is too short for the extruder to push will there be a stop in printing on the Ender 3, meaning that I should replace the filament when the end of the filament is near the extruder?

**Tags:** filament, extruder, hotend, creality-ender-3

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm sure I've seen this question asked before, although not explicitly for the Ender 3  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-04-06. Score: 4

The extruder can't push anymore when the filament is past the extruder gear. If your filament has run out to that point, the print will *not* halt but print without a filament, meaning that the print will fail. You need to pause the print in time and then put fresh filament into the printer.

If the end of the filament is cut flat at the end and the new one is flat too, the new filament can push the old one out to the nozzle, reducing the waste to a minimum, if you can live without retraction for the amount of length that has to be used up. You could friction weld the two parts together to alleviate this.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So that means there will be a minimum of ptfe tube length of filament loss for every spool, it's a bummer that they made the  extruder away from the hot end.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 you can design your own extruder; the direct drive extruder has the same problem, but here is needed to push the filament inside the cooling element, while the filament is broken or has ran out. If you don't want to push the filament flat to flat edge then "weld the edges" to add the new reel.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 it has its own advantages: the extruder motor is not moving along with the hot-end, making the whole machine able to work faster without compromising on quality. Direct drive extruders are more expensive and slower unless you are willing to accept artifacts on your prints like ringing.  
> **username_5**: Regarding: "If the end of the filament is cut flat at the end and the new one is flat too, the new filament can push the old one out to the nozzle, reducing the waste to a minimum," it's a bad idea to rely on that. Retraction will not work until the old filament is all gone, meaing you'll get stringing all over the place during travel. Just discard the few tens of cm of scrap at the end.  
> **username_5**: In theory though you could solve that problem by bonding the old and new filament together with a soldering iron set at ~200 C.  
> **username_2**: @R.. You don't always need retraction, but yes, I will add that  

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### Answer by username_6 on 2019-04-25. Score: 2

When the end of the filament is beyond the reach of the hobbed stepper gear, your print will stop extruding. Some printers (i.e. Prusa i3, Craftbot 3, etc) have runout sensors. These sensors can be a switch or some form of a circuit that is broken when the filament isn't there to close it (I'm no mechatronics engineer or anything, so my terminology may be a bit off). When these switches are tripped, the printer automatically pauses the print, allowing you to come and rescue it. Fancier printers like the Craftbot 3 will actually send you an email when your filament runs out *or even jams!* Of course, that machine is over $3600CAD, and well out of most peoples price range. The Ender 3, being around 300 dollars, is not equipped with a runout sensor. Switches and 3D printing files to make your own are either cheap or free.

And yes, some filament may need to be wasted if you do a swap. Direct drive extruders have the same problem but at a much smaller scale. If you just feed new filament into your machine, you will lose all retraction (which is annoying) until the second length of filament is in. At the point where the filament switches, (depending on your extruder and print speed) you may get a small patch of under extrusion. Nothing that will seriously compromise part strength, but it won't be super pretty.

Hope that helps!


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