Cannot bridge

Hi,

I have issues bridging. PLA, printed at 205 degrees C, bed at 40 degrees C, speed 40mm/sec

I have attached two pictures (the same, one with flash, one without). The pictures show the first layer of bridging, over the big circle on the left.



I am using a fan, like this : [www.thingiverse.com]

Any idea as to what could cause this situation ? The filament doesn't seem "elastic" enough. But if I reduce the temperature, I cannot extrude properly, too much force is required. I believe my melting chamber in the extruder is a bit small.

The printer is a Sunhokey Prusa i3 from China with the stock extruder, it looks like a E3D V5 clone but I'm not sure. I've seen people bridging successfully with this printer so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Please help ! Thank you

That sounds like a high temp to me. I was doing PLA at 185. How big is the circle? Maybe you have a clogged nozzle or need more current to the extruder motor.

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Newbie with Folgertech 2020 i3.

Hi,

Thanks. How hard is it supposed to be to push the filament into the extruder by hand ?
I've been trying to extrude manually and I found it's really, really, really hard to extrude.

The motor has more power than the filament can handle : I see the extruder gear moving and then all of a sudden it goes back before the tension of the filament is so high that the gear cannot grip anymore and it kicks back... so I don't think motor current is an issue here.

I know the nozzle is not clogged because I used a pin gage and my 0.4mm extruder measures 0.41mm all the way up to the heatsink of the extruder.
My theory was that the extruder does not heat the filament enough, but many people are using those E3D hotends and do not complain so I don't know... I can try to order one of those Volcano nozzles but it seems totally overkill.

A few years ago I had a MendelMax printer with a BudaSchnozzle (I've sold it) and I never had any problem of that kind... any idea ?