Can I remove the bowden tube upper mount?
Hi everyone,
I got my Mini about six months ago and have had zero problems. It's been an absolute dream and a great introduction for me and my kids into 3D printing! I just ran into my first issue and I'm not sure of the best way to proceed.
I purchased a cheap spool of PLA for a large print job and had no issues with it. Life got busy and I left the cheap PLA in the printer for about a month without running any print jobs. I noticed today that the filament had snapped closed to the spool. I tried unloading the filament but a majority of it stayed in the bowden tube. After troubleshooting and inspecting things closer I found that the filament had broken up into various sized chunks inside of the tube. I tried purging the filament by loading some PRUSAMENT, but I think I may have just made things worse.
I've cleared all the bad filament out, except for a small section that is stuck in the bowden tube's upper mount. When I load new filament I can see it go through the gears and into the upper part of the extruder before it gets jammed. I can see the cheap filament inside the brass fitting, but I don't have anything that I can grab it with to try and pull it out. Can I simply remove the upper mount from the extruder and clear the filament or do I need to go through the entire process of removing and cleaning the extruder?
Best Answer by fuchsr:
Sure, why not try to remove the fitting and see if you can get things out. You can always disassemble it later, if needed, it's not much to it.
RE: Can I remove the bowden tube upper mount?
Sure, why not try to remove the fitting and see if you can get things out. You can always disassemble it later, if needed, it's not much to it.
RE: Can I remove the bowden tube upper mount?
Nobody can tell you how far you'll need to go to remove the broken pieces. The extruder is intended to be completely disassembled, if you can fix it by just removing that fitting then you're good to go, but you won't know until you try.
One of the take aways from this should be that you remove filament after you're done with a print. When filament is exposed to air and moisture it gets brittle. When I'm done with a print and I don't have another print for that filament loaded into Octoprint I unload the filament and put it in a zip lock bag with desiccant to keep my filament dry. This was successful enough for me that my original spool of silver Prusa filament lasted me 4 years and was used for the first print in all 3 of my printers.
Cheers
-Bob
Prusa I3 Mk2 kit upgraded to Mk2.5s, Ender3 with many mods, Prusa Mini kit with Bondtech heat break, Prusa I3 Mk3s+ kit
RE: Can I remove the bowden tube upper mount?
Hi,
taking apart the extruder and cleaning it, is not that much of a deal!
In your case I would defintely take it apart.
Here is a video to follow along:
RE: Can I remove the bowden tube upper mount?
Thanks for the advice everyone.
I ended up just removing the fitting and was able to push the bad filament out. It was just barely wedged into place. I probably could have pulled it out if I had some thinner tools.
I'll definitely check out that video (pretty sure my maintenance game is lacking). I haven't been concerned with storage conditions since I live in a pretty dry climate. Might have to change some of what I'm doing.
RE: Can I remove the bowden tube upper mount?
I probably could have pulled it out if I had some thinner tools.
It pays off in many ways to invest into some precision tweezers. I bought these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HPNKDC4, and I'm very happy with them. Also very useful to pull small threads of filament off the nozzle.