I’ve recently experienced my first nozzle clog with my Vertex, but unfortunately solving it has proved a bit difficult. I’ve tried heating it up, manually feeding through filament, doing a cold pull etc but nothing worked, so as I bought a few spare nozzles a while back I thought it would be easiest just to remove the clogged one and swap in a fresh one while I tried to work out how to unclog the old one. Unfortunately I am completely unable to remove the nozzle from the heater block. Even with the set screw removed, the nozzle can be turned slightly with a spanner but removing it completely is impossible. I’ve tried heating it up with a heat gun but that doesn’t help.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Unfortunately I haven’t found anywhere selling the heater block on its own as a spare or I’d just be tempted to buy one and write the old one off, and I’m not prepared to buy a whole new hot end kit just for this one part.
Disassemble the head so that you can clamp the block + nozzle between a bench vice or something else to hold it steady. Than take a sharp screwdriver or better, a sharp knife and hold it on the split in the heater block. Hit carefully with a rubber hammer to bend the two parts a littlebit from each other…
Good luck
Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately despite enlarging the gap to the point I feared destroying the heater block, I still can’t shift the nozzle
Thankfully I had a reply from the UK velleman distributor that they are just about to add the heatblocks to their spares catalogue so I think I’m resigned to writing off both the block and nozzle at this point.
I’d like to know if there’s anything I can do with a replacement block to stop the nozzle seizing in like this next time. I’ve heard of people applying high temperature anti seize to threaded nozzles, but not sure it would help in this instance.
Any suggestions from Velleman as to what might have caused this or preventative measures?
What happens is that the nozzle is glued to the heater block by burned filament. And it sticks like hell so even with an open gap you can’t get it out. Actually I’m cleaning my nozzle without removing it from the heater block : I remove the peek tube and cut the remaining filament. Then I heat the heater block. once the goal temperature obtained I hold the heater block with pliers and I push a 1.5 mm hex wrench in the hole. The plastic sticks to the wrench and so it’s usually enough to remove the burnt filament. If it’s not enough I let the heater cool down and use a drill bit to clean the hole.
