Extruder very jammed
I just finished constructing the MK2S on Friday, did the calibration, loaded the included silver filament, and printed the prusa logo. All fine.
Last night, I started the castle on the SD card in the afternoon and went to bed after it was progressing nicely.
In the morning, the printer looked like it was finished, but the castle was only half built. The only thing odd was a blob of PLA where I didn't expect it (see attached photo).
So, I just figured I'd try again, so I removed the castle, cleaned the bed, and started the print again.
Unfortunately, nothing came out of the extruder.
I tried all the recommended courses of action, including raising the extruder temp to 295C and trying to use filament to push through. Nothing works.
I removed the extruder to get a closer look. When I try to put a piece of filament into the extruder, it only goes down to the top of the extruder (the length of the visible portion of the PTFE tube. I then removed the heater block from the nozzle body, and saw a brown/gray stub - please see the next picture.
What can I do now?
Thanks,
Ken
Re: Extruder very jammed
Hello Ken!
I have had a similar situation where the filament neither melted nor was able to be pulled out all remains of it from the extruder (but I have a different construction of nozzle). Here is a picture of what happened to my nozzle:
As you can see the filament has partly melted and formed a pillar that was not in contact with the walls of the nozzle. The smallest part of the pillar broke off and could not be pulled out and thus there was no chance of pushing in new filament to remove the pillar. I tried and tried to push in new filament but to no result. As the filament was made of ABS, I could remove it with acetone.
I think you can remove the filament by warming the extruder fins with a heat gun and stick the filament in a vice. Then you could wind a rope around the fins and jerk gently to get it out.
/Henrik
Re: Extruder very jammed
Shouldn't I also see the PTFE tube at this point? In some instructions I found to replace the PTFE tube, it said it should be cut flush with the bottom of the heat break.
Re: Extruder very jammed
Problem solved. The only way I could get the filament out was to pull on the filament at the bottom of the heat break. This pull the PTFE tube through also. I was then able to pull the filament out of the PTFE tube and reinsert the PTFE tube.