Nextruder nozzle clogged, how do you manage to free the nozzle?
This question maybe could seem strange, but I got my nextruder nozzle clogged for an unknown reason, I managed to free it by unmounting the whole heat block, un-mount the nozzle with part of the filament stuck inside and not reachable in any way, and the only way to free it was to use a bronze 1mm tick single wire, insert it inside while heating the whole part, let it cool down, the pull the wire out with as low heat as possible, plus I had to clean the inside of the tube with an almost 2mm copper full tube (1.95mm diameter), I barely managed to free the nozzle..
Does prusa intend to propose a tool to free the nozzle in such situation? or are we doomed to only pick another nozzle in the majority of the cases?
This is quite absurd to my point of view, and was only able to unclog it only because I had already the tools.
The Nextruder nozzle seems to have quite a flaw considering this. Even a tiny piece of dirt that managed to get inside, or a possibly damaged filament that gets stuck inside, won't allow you to free that same nozzle, and trowing away a whole part, to me, seems a bit excessive.
Maybe someone has a ready solution for that, apart from what I already said? Some way to clean it, apart from chemicals that could allow to dissolve the materials inside? (Ethylacetat for petg, acetone for abs, chloroform for pla?)
RE: Nextruder nozzle clogged, how do you manage to free the nozzle?
1. there is a needle included intended just for that use, at least with my XL it was (september 23)
2. I have an oven with self cleaning function (it heats up to about 500°) everything organic turns to dust, i just did it with my nozzle, the copper part got a black corrosion layer, which i sanded off, apart of that it worked fine, nozzle is free.
RE: Nextruder nozzle clogged, how do you manage to free the nozzle?
There are quite some polymers which do not burn ash-free - so yeah, it sometimes really turns to "dust" which actually can be quite hard to clean, especially inside a narrow tube like the new nozzles.
So I would instead favor a cold pull if possible.
1. there is a needle included intended just for that use, at least with my XL it was (september 23)
2. I have an oven with self cleaning function (it heats up to about 500°) everything organic turns to dust, i just did it with my nozzle, the copper part got a black corrosion layer, which i sanded off, apart of that it worked fine, nozzle is free.
RE: Nextruder nozzle clogged, how do you manage to free the nozzle?
I have had two Nextruder blockages on my XL within the upper portion of the connecting metal cylinder. Blockage is about a centimeter from the tube opening. I have not had any success unblocking it. I have tried to heat the tube and remove the PLA with a steel probe but this was unsuccessful.
I agree that this is a design flaw issue. Sure, using the wire for clogged nozzles will work but anything above this area away for the heat block poses significant problems.
I will try the "blast furnace approach mentioned above and see what happens. Nothing to lose now.
RE: Nextruder nozzle clogged, how do you manage to free the nozzle?
Proper heatgun with temp control + vise + accupuncture needle (cheap on aliexpress, I throw them away after one use). This has worked for everything but Nylons for me. Nylon dissolves slowly in Boronic acid (and not much else), you can speed it up with low-power sonication.
If the upper part is clogged (heatcreep, debris or from slowly pulling up too hot filament) I would try to heatgun it while pushing some more flexible filament through (like PETG), let it cool slightly, then pull fast (aka atomic pull).
RE: Nextruder nozzle clogged, how do you manage to free the nozzle?
I ran into this today. Been a while since I had a clog in the shaft but my luck ran out yesterday. ntdesign's advice proved very helpful. I used some spare PETG and basically did sort of manual cold pulls using the heat gun as they described. It took a few tried but I was finally able to unclog the nozzle and reinstall it. My previous attempts are trying to unclog a nozzle involved using an allen key and trying to push the clog through. nt's method I think is much superior. Here's hoping I don't have a clog again for a while, but if I do I'll go with their option first.