Printing new parts for the extruder
Hello all,
This is my first post. When i first got the printer I had a overnight print fail. It was probably too cold. As a result I had about8 hours of black pla all melted in a big ball around the nozzle and bottom of extruder. I was able to get it off and have printed a lot since then with the occasional blob dripping down. So it happened again last night and when I had a good look at the bottom of the extruder a couple of plastic pieces have melted. My question is should I print them in PETG or ABS.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Kevin
PETG will print a fan shroud good for a few weeks at least. Use it to print a polycarbonate replacement as soon as possible.
Cheerio,
RE: Printing new parts for the extruder
If you are getting prints come loose and causing blobs then you really really need to sort out your bed adhesion (clean the plater and thoroughly degrease it and get your live z dialed in perfect) before continuing otherwise you are not going to get successful prints and you will continue to have these problems.
The parts fan shroud original is made from ABS but as Diem says a petg one will last a little while until you can get another printed in a higher temp material. Print a couple so you have a spare for the future just in case.
RE: Printing new parts for the extruder
One thing I strongly recommend is keeping a 'crash kit' of various things that you might need in the case of such a meltdown or other emergency.
Among various hardware items I would recommend printing spares of all extruder parts.
During the height of the pandemic, when I knew that I would not have our local makerspace as a backup, I printed all of the extruder pieces in ABS and kept them on hand. Fortunately I have not needed them yet.
RE: Printing new parts for the extruder
Thank you for the replies. I have ABS here so I will finish my enclosure tomorrow and print the new parts. I have some PC coming as well. I can see there is still some melted PLA around the nozzle base so I guess I will be reading a few manuals on disassembly.
RE: Printing new parts for the extruder
The hot end is not that difficult to take apart, inspect, and clean. Just be careful of the heater and thermistor wires!
Below I'm posting yet again the oft-posted diagram that shows how everything should fit.
The last time I had one of these apart, I 'chased out' the threads in the heatblock, filed off some residue on the bottom of the heatbreak, and installed a new tungsten-carbide nozzle. I also removed the various splatterings off of the heatblock with a box knife.
One thing that I think is frequently overlooked is that the bottom surface of the heatbreak and the top surface of the nozzle must be smooth and clean. If there's any residue in there, such as dirt or scorched filament remains, they will not seal together, and you will have a leak.
I think people frequently underestimate the amount of pressure that's in the nozzle area. The molten filament should go out the nozzle opening and only the nozzle opening. If there's any other path for that molten filament to take, it will find it and exit through it.
