Extruder leaking filament over hot end  

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Check step 17 from link below, you propably skipped it or didnt do it properly.

http://manual.prusa3d.com/Guide/5.+Extruder/56

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Yes, I had a same problem with my first print and step 17 is solution for this 😉
Clean it and then tie the nozzle. I must tight it when the nozzle was preheated.

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Thanks for the replies!

The first thing I tried was to unscrew the nozzle, clean up the excess filament, and re-tighten it once the extruder was preheated to 255. The problem still persisted when I ran the printer for an 1 1/2 hour print.

I will attempt this fix once again when I get home.

Is there another way I can ensure everything is tightened without disassembling the entire extruder? The seepage appears to be coming from above the metal box.

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

I'm also having this problem with my new kit, and it does seem to be coming from between the Hot End heating block and the orange plastic extruder cover. Is the heating block and it's heatsink one piece? I think I'm going to have to disassemble the extruder and look to see... 🙁

Just looked at the E3D site and it appears that the extruder hot end is made up of 4 parts, The Heatsink, The Heater block, a connector between the two and finally the nozzle... so there are a few places leaks could occur! Maybe something has come unscrewed? Guess I really am going to have to dismantle the extruder... what a pain! 😥

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

OK, I disassembled the extruder enough to get the Hot End out of the plastic parts and found that the Heatsink part and the the Heater Block were completely loose, and that's where the PLA was leaking out of. It is in a right mess! I've scrapped off what I can but it really needs a soak in something that can dissolve off all the residue, can anyone tell me what would do the trick (that can be bought easily here in the UK)? There is PLA in all the nooks and crannies and coating everything!

I've not had a lot of luck with my first ventures into 3D printing so far, I've only managed to print 5 successful test prints and had 5 failed test prints!

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Until I can take a couple of photos of my Hot End here are a couple of diagrams that show where the problem is:

I hope this helps.

UPDATE

I know the pictures above are for the V6 not the Lite6 but they were the best I could find. The orange extruder housing is burnt and deformed where the burnt PLA was stuck to it! Getting a bit annoyed now!

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Hi, you don't have to make the parts completely clean, just get off what you can mechanically. Heat it and tighten as much as you can, plastic will get out of the way. We have the tightening in our build manual, please check it out 🙂

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

I will try to clean the Heat Break threads and screw it back into the Heat Block and see if it still leaks.

If your response was aimed at me, I didn't skip any part of the assembly instructions. Everything was as tight as it would go! The leak was from between the Heat Block and the Heat Break NOT the nozzle.

The PLA is stuck over the end of the Heat Break threads NOT the nozzle threads.

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Just use bit more force, it does not matter from which side the plastic is leaking.

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

OK, all fixed(ish) now. I picked out what PLA that I could using the tip of a precision screwdriver, then got rid of the rest by using the brush brush accessory on my Rotary Tool (think Dremel). I was worried that it would damage the parts but it worked a treat! I then reassembled the Hot-End using E3D's assembly guide. I think I will need a new piece of PFTE very soon though as the end of the one in the Hot-End was a little bit melted where it stuck out of the Heat-Break a little and has swelled and I can't pull it up a bit to fix it. I don't think it was assembled correctly when it was put together at Prusa as the nozzle even when fully tightened showed about 5mm-7mm of thread, and leaked a little right from the start, also the PTFE tube shouldn't have been sticking out of the end of the Heat-Break.

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

You can ask for a free PTFE tube with every order from our webshop 💡

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

I bought this kit about 3 weeks ago and came upon the exact same issue, apparently the assembly manual left out the part where you should tighten the heat break or whatever that heat-sink thingy is called to the heat block accordingly. Funny thing is that the instruction do exist, but in a different manual here http://manual.prusa3d.com/Guide/How+to+replace+PTFE+tube/82?lang=en

It will be super nice to now update the manual with so many of us getting into the same issue.

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Actually it is in the manual: http://manual.prusa3d.com/Guide/5.+Extruder/56?lang=en at step 17, but it probably should be repeated later for those who missed it.

Peter

Re: Extruder leaking filament over hot end

Please be carefull using "a little bit more force". Because i just ripped my heatbreak into 2 separate pieces 😕