Clean outside of nozzle?
I have had my Mini for a couple of months now and print using it almost daily. I'm noticing a buildup of what looks like burnt plastic on the outside of the nozzle. Do I need to clean this off? If so, how would I do that without damaging anything?
Best Answer by mGoleta:
I use a soft brass wire brush to keep the nozzle clean. I brush it while the nozzle is hot or still warm.
RE: Clean outside of nozzle?
I use a soft brass wire brush to keep the nozzle clean. I brush it while the nozzle is hot or still warm.
RE: Clean outside of nozzle?
I personally use a sock (personal preference); but I also check after every print and if necessary, wipe the nozzle (while still a bit hot) with an IPA wipe to keep it clean. I have printed now for just over 6 months and the nozzle is still pretty clean.
RE:
I also use socks on my 3D printers. There are times that they still end up with a blob of cooked plastic on the nozzle. When that happens the wire brush is very effective.
RE: Clean outside of nozzle?
I have been using a wire brush. It seems to work relatively well. It my case, it doesn’t take everything off though.
RE: Clean outside of nozzle?
be careful, if the wire brush shorts the heater wires to the thermistor wires, with the power on, your controller will be toast!
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Clean outside of nozzle?
be careful, if the wire brush shorts the heater wires to the thermistor wires, with the power on, your controller will be toast!
regards Joan
Sooooo, that's how I did it!!!! 😥 😥 😥
RE:
Ouch!...
If you are good with programming. There is a spare thermistor port on the motherboard. You could try redirecting the port allocation. And see if the controller is recoverable
Regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Clean outside of nozzle?
Until now I used pliers to clean below nozzle and on sides if needed.
Only once I used paper tissue, and that was not a good idea, took some time last paper piece got off.
I use a USB borescope camera as nozzle camera in addition to Raspberry scene view camera:
It gives detailed view of nozzle all the time, 640x480, only here scaled down to 320x240 animated .gif:
The animation start shows the problem when early extruded plastic gets in contact with nozzle, and gets lost on first line later. I think of adding 2nd borescope from other side to get 360° view of nozzle.
I have uploaded >20 nozzle camera videos to YouTube lately:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCXhm6uSgILX3lrUuaWirZGg/videos
Besides watching nozzle, I get much details of eg. single perimeter 0.4mm thick empty sphere ( initial line shows early extrusion problem as well):