So i have had my printer printing for just over a week. I have printed on both extruders for ~10-15 hours each and have come upon my first clog on nozzle 2. I was using ESUN blue PLA, 195 degrees, 75% feed rate. I had been running fine at these settings/color/brand for plenty of prints then got my jam.
The filament wouldn’t unload…so i took the hot end apart, cleaned everything out, put a new piece of PTFE in (old one had clog in it), put it back together, and when loading, nothing came out and the extruder motor was clicking again. Again wouldn’t unload.
So i will take it apart again, im assuming the nozzle is clogged. As i know the nozzles are fragile, my question is what is the proper way to clear / clean the nozzle?
i have read that you can put it in acetone overnight, not sure it works on PLA thou you might need to use something like caustic soda (i have not tested this myself)
i normaly just take it out to the vice, and give it a good heating with a blowtouch, then clean it out with a 0,30mm piece of steel wire
[quote=“frich”]i have read that you can put it in acetone overnight, not sure it works on PLA[/quote]It doesn’t, only ABS. [quote=“frich”]thou you might need to use something like caustic soda (i have not tested this myself) [/quote]I did : it soften (but doesn’t dissolve) the PLA but it would take ages to clean the nozzle (same goes for ABS and acetone as the surface in contact is very small).
[quote=“frich”]i normally just take it out to the vice, and give it a good heating with a blowtorch, then clean it out with a 0,30mm piece of steel wire[/quote]Easiest way. You can also heat the hot end (so you don’t have to remove the nozzle which can be difficult) after removing the PEEK tube.
Sometimes when you remove the PTFC tube the fitting cuts into the tube and the small “particles,crumbs” (I don’t know the right word) fall into the nozzle and clog it.
If any other method fails I remove the nozzle and use a pipe lighter to burn the PLA off. (I did this once not sure if It’s a good idea but my nozzle is fine)
I also found out that the Insulin syringe needle is small enough to unclog a nozzle.
to get caustic soda to work you need a sonic cleaner with a buildt in heater. 3-5 hours. Both aceton and caustic soda is Chemicals that you have to be careful with. As a start i recommend a simpler solution. Get a gitarr/piano wire 0,30-0,33mm. Turn on the preheat function for what ever filament type heat your using. then push the wire from the top down until it goes thru.