Cascading failures… from a ptfe clog to not even preheating.  

Cascading failures… from a ptfe clog to not even preheating.

Just got an MK3S+ kit and built it. First two prints went fine, but then I got a bad clog that has cascaded in to other problems.

For background, not totally a novice. I've had the MINI for like two years. I've fully re-printed it, and rebuilt it a few times for maintenance. It's worked very well for me. Never had a small problem on the MINI spiral out of control like this.

So I got a clog in the PTFE tube somehow. Then I couldn't remove the filament because the time when the gear runs for unload is so short, and the filament was stretching out. That resulted in a blob in the extruder gear, which I was able to pull out a bit, but the filament broke below the top of the PTFE tube. It's still stuck in there, as it seems to have expanded. I can't push it out from the top or really penetrate it with the acupuncture needle. So I tried to follow the instructions to change the PTFE tube — however because of the stuck filament it needed to be preheated to have any play at all. The instructions said to put the carriage in the middle of the X-axis, and pull the hotend out from the bottom and to the side… well then a 2" blue arc jumped from the hoteed to the power supply box.

Now the hotend is clogged AND the printer reboots any time it tries to heat the hotend. (Bed heats fine.) Using a hair dryer on the hotend shows it still reads the temperature change.

So… I come here asking for any guidance. How much did I break? What can I check?