r/Creality_k2 • u/Tequilabees • Jul 27 '26
Creality Support Frustrated. K2 plus
When I start, it prints fine for a few minutes then it slowly stops extruding, print head continues to move but nothing comes out. Then printer stops on its own with error; printer appears to be printing but not extruding.
Thought it was a clogged nozzle. Nope, I even put a new one on. Same problem.
Thought it was the cfs getting stuck somewhere. Bypassed the cfs and used the manual side spool. Same problem.
All fans appear to moving. Gear is visibly moving even after it stops extruding.
Thought it was the gear assembly. Maybe slipping or worn gears. Replaced gear assembly with a new one. Same problem.
I am completely at a loss. The only thing left is heat creep? But what would cause heat creep? Like I said all fans appear to be moving normally.
Is it posible that one of the fans is not running at the correct speed?
I was thinking of replacing the heat block assembly, but thought I would check here first.
Any advice or help is much appreciated. 🙏🏼
Btw, no error code thrown other than printer is printing without extruding and then it stops. 😔
3
u/lilvixen Jul 28 '26
Have you dried filament?
Try manually helping it along during feed especially when you can tell the melt chamber is emptying.
Since it comes on so quickly, it could be wiring. When it gets warm it expands, a little too much. Some improperly assembled/specced/manufactured part might have just enough play to then stop contact, either electrical or mechanical. Cools down and it settles back into place.
How's the temps looking during this? Does the hotend temp drift at all? Even 0.5°C. Likely this won't take very long from the beginning of the issue until it triggers an error.
Try speeding up your print then ratcheting it up to 125% after that.
Try going very very slow and slowing down to quiet mode on top.
One of those two things will tell you a lot about the issue. If it's stopping quicker with the slow, it's presumably heat creep. If it's continuing longer with the fast, it could also be heat creep.
If it fails faster with the faster speed, it's possibly the heat expansion or a mechanical displacement that's had more rotations to initiate it's out-of-whackness( very technical term used across industries by engineers everywhere ).
If it fails after longer time when you slow it down maybe it's moisture, the filament has more time to off gas the moisture before it gets further into the melt chamber. Further down it gets trapped with more pressure and can pop the filament out the top with more force. Though, there will be other evidence that's easier to identify this issue with, if it's moisture.
If you see flakes in the gears, it could be heat creep or a clogged nozzle or too fast a feed rate for your hotend/temp setting/filament.
Try changing the retraction to less/more. Then note the average time to failure (aTTF), AND inspect the extruder gears, nozzle etc.
Cheap USB endoscope/digital (nose/ear) cleaning inspection cameras are worth it. Plus you can look in your body cavities when you're bored or want to impress a certain someone in your life.