Troubleshooting: Anet A8/ Prusa I3 edition

Yay, I solved my power supply issues by modifiying a PC power supply. 

I followed 4 different videos plus procedures from 3 different forums/printer groups and can't seem to find an answer, maybe one of you guys can help me out. 

I'm faily certain I have Z setup properly. My bed is level 3 ways across, front to back, and diagonally. I have the tip of my extruder at what should be home set the height of a business card from the bed as everywhere tells me to. 

The problem is nothing is coming out of the extruder. 

First attempt at printing it was way to high. Lowered the z stop, tried again. Way too low, tore up the tape on my print bed. Now I've got it at a height to not tear up the tape, yet still close, and nothing is coming out, even in later layers. 

I'm just using the very windy sample spool of PLA that it came with. Extruder is getting to 210C bed to 50C, but nothing, not even stringyness is coming out and it doesn't feel like it's pulling the plastic at all. 

I pushed down the button and shoved the plastic into the hole as far as it would go, and I can feel the feed gear spinning, but it's not pulling anything through. 

Any ideas? I have gone through The official troubleshooting guide, and short of ripping the extruder apart incase the brand new nozzle is clogged, didn't really get anywhere

I'm just attempting the included sample prints. I could probably make something up and put a big skirt on it if it sounds like a priming issue, but I can't really decipher the out of order posts on thingiverse or know how to search the FB group very well. 

Does the filiment look "stripped" where it touches the feed gear?  We've had our printer at work do that when someone tried to print something when the extruder was coated in solid plastic (because some other idiot adjusted the extruder too far away and didn't stick around to see that their print never stuck to the bed so it just printed like a half pound ball on the end of the extruder).  I assume the filiment couldn't get out and the drive gear wore it away, you could see the mark.  We cut the filiment past that and it was fine. 

Has material ever come out of the extruder?  I wonder if there's an alignment issue.  You could try cutting the end of the filiment at an angle, and rotate it while trying to feed to see if it catches?

Unless they tested it at the factory, nothing has gone through it. 

I'll try cutting the filament before I pull everything apart. Honestly, the way they were with protective wrappings, there could be a plug in it that isn't mention in the instruction pictograph I just haven't found yet. 

I took off the fan to make sure the filament was going into the feed.  

And that ^^ was where the problem was. As usual, post on the forum and a blindingly obvious solution stares me in the face. 

It's printing ...something now. I couldn't read whatever the file was, but it's not the baymax. 

I need to make a build thread for this. Probably should have before I built it, but oh well. 

That "something" it was printing(sorry, can't read chinese just saw .gcode) seperated from the bed around 27%, and so far that is the only thing I've been able to print properly. 

I feel like I'm doing something wrong with the z stop but can't figure out what after watching several videos. 

I've changed almost nothing since Friday, when it refused to print and was staying 5mm above the heat bed while going through the motions. 

I took the nozzle off again, and put it back together without the fan and heat sink so I could actually see the filament and what was happening. In the skirt it printed was a bunch of burnt stuff, but it just finished the first layer of a print and looks good so far. 

I'm going to cut the heads of the screws that attach the fan and heat sink to where the filament feeds into the nozzle to make things easier until I upgrade to the Bowden extruder setup. 

I have noticed a 2mmm discrepancy between my x axis holders rod, so I'm going to fix that as well.

So everything taken care of. Multiple prints started from multiple sources. Every single one ends the same way, between 15 and 20% compete it just loses its mind. The bed starts going back n forth, X goes side to side, then Z raises 50mm. Sometimes it keeps trying to print up there, others it just moves around. The last time, I told it to pause as it was raising, then it just crashed. It kept bouncing around, but wouldn't respond to commands of any sort. 

Did this with the included sample prints, a home designed and home sliced object, 2 different things from thingiverse specifically for the printer, sliced with cura.

I use the sd card so it's not a bad cable which is what it sounds like initially. I'm using factory recommended settings and the same factory recommended outdated version of Cura. 

Just bumping this in case someone knows what my problem is...

What slicer are you using?

Yeah, sounds like a slicer issue

Would you believe it was the junk Chinese micro SD card?

I broke down and pulled out my dummy FB account and got onto one of the official groups. Screenshots of settings and gcode were exchanged. When that checked out, they asked about the SD card. It is now a class 10 32gb Samsung card, and its working great. 

Oddly though, I tried printing over USB. It was very very stringy, and went to the Y limit after every layer. I suspect junky chinese USB cable, but I don't have any cables with the fat end to try a different one. 

I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm at 36% now. I've never gotten past 18% without it either coming off the board or just going wherever it wanted. 

I kinda wish I didn't buy the dark blue filament. My painters tape is about the same shade, kind of hard to watch, especially with the fan nozzle I'm printing now. 

I'm using Cura for a slicer, for now, we compared settings and aside from the differences for his glass bed, they were the same. He sliced me a file with Simplify or S3d, and I have the Gcode, the only change he did though was drop the print speed drastically, at least as far as I can tell and he mentioned. 

Double post don't care. 

it FINALLY prints

Yes, it's berked up, and that's completely my fault this time. I paused it to cut out some stray plastic, and it didn't reset properly. Loose belts my guess. 

It's supposed to be a new fan duct for cooling the plastic as it extrudes, so the holes on the bottom and the slanted top are both supposed to be there. Looks good, better in person . But now I can start printing the much needed upgrades this thing needs

But the fact of the matter is it prints, and I'm now a very happy boy.