First of all, don’t worry. Chances are that you are not dead in the water, and that an easy fix is around the corner. Chances are that you may have a clogged extruder; if so please follow the protocol in the clogged extruder section of troubleshooting.
Another possible explanation could be that the gear in your extruder itself is not performing the way that it should. There are two quick circumstances that come to mind: the gear’s teeth are maybe clogged with filament particles or the gear has come loose from the shaft altogether; either way, it will not be able to accomplish the job it is intended to do: feeding the filament through properly. Please take a look and see if you suspect either of these to be the culprit. BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE FURTHER, PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR PRINTER AND DISCONNECT IT FROM THE POWER. The smallest allen wrench in the set included with the CraftBot is going to be the main tool that you will require to provide this described maintenance. Use the allen wrench to loosen the set screw which tightens the gear to the shaft. In the case that the gear’s teeth are stuffed up with debris, once the gear is removed by sliding it off the shaft, you may use a pin or hard bristled brush to clean out all the gak that has accumulated. To reinsert the gear (also in the case that it the gear being loose is the only problem), you will first of al notice that the shaft is cylindrical but with a flat side; this is the side where the set screw should tighten into, if you miss this side and get it locked up with the round side then you are just asking for future problems.
If you cannot extrude in the case that there is no obvious mechanical error (as in the machine just does “nothing” at all), then you are most likely dealing with a firmware error, or are in a heatup period where the machine just needs to get into place to work. If a firmware error is suspected, please consult the section on “Firmware Update“. If you still haven’t found a solution, then feel free to contact one of our representatives through our customer service.
