Difficulty removing clog  

RE: Difficulty removing clog

Hi,

I had the same problem with my Mini+. Here is what I did. I don't think you need a new hotend.

I heated the nozzle to about 230 degrees, then I removed the PTFE tube. I then removed the nozzle carefully while it was hot. I held it in a pair of needle nose pliers end took my tweezers and pulled everything out of the hot nozzle until it was clean and you could see through the hole in it. Then to make sure there was nothing left in the hotend I ran a piece of filament down the hotend to clean it out. Do it quickly so you don't leave anything behind. You should be able to look down through the hotend an see if it is clear of any material. If all is clear and clean replace the PTFE tube and the nozzle. I had to do this a couple of times before I realized that there was some junk in the filament that did not melt and not clogged the nozzle.

I hope this helps, it did for me.

Good luck,

Tom

RE: Difficulty removing clog

Hello

Thanks for the tip, just some questions for when removing the nozzle, should the hotend be taken out of extruder and can PTFE tube be removed before heating up the nozzle?

RE: Difficulty removing clog

No, leave the hotend in the extruder. just use an open end wrench to hold the bottom of the hotend so that it does not rotate while you are removing the nozzle. You can remove the PTFE tube any time. P.S. don't burn your fingers.

Tom

RE: Difficulty removing clog

Hello

Thanks for the help and sorry for the delay in reply, had to get wrenches to both hold hot end and nozzle to remove the nozzle.

Have checked the nozzle and that looks to be clear, currently trying to clean the hot end part with needle and see if I can manage to open what is blocking that part.

RE: Difficulty removing clog

I found I was having issues where heat made it to the top of the heat break and caused a blob.. the PTFE tube and heatbreak met - I bought Phantus Dragon Hotend and it has a longer heatbrake and better heatbreak issue gone.. not a problem since..   

Uses same heater and thermistor, and its a direct replacement to V6 so no issues. except works better.. 

Posted by: @xerith

Hello

Purchased a Prusa this fall, and generally it has been good to print with, main issue has been some clogging, but that I assume can be from me not doing correct when taking out the filament. 

But last week I was done with a print, told the printer to remove filament, filament was unloaded with no obvius signs of any issues. When i then tried loading the new filament it did not want to correctly load, it felt like there was something blocking for the filament.

Currently I have tried to use a needle through nozzle at 250 degrees with no filament coming out afterwards (when nozzle was cold needle could not get in) and I have also taking the plastic tube out looking for clog there, but nothing there either. 

Does anyone have next steps in looking for solutions before ordering a new hotend?

As far as my guess goes the clog seems to be above nozzle, perhaps somewhere near the fans are cooling.

RE: Difficulty removing clog

are the geras alligned and have you taken heat break and hotend out and have you done cold pull

RE: Difficulty removing clog

yes, when loading the filament it goes past the gears and into the tube, tried the cold pull, but the heat does not seem to reach the filament to soften it for sticking to clog.

the tube has been checked and it is clear of any pieces of filament and has now checked nozzle and seeing this is also open.

RE: Difficulty removing clog

thanks for the tip, will e looking into this.

RE: Difficulty removing clog

I doubt you needd new hotend if you've got the hotend bit out maybe take a photo also have you tried just taking the heat block the thing the nozzle attachs to the square one that might be your issue 

RE: Difficulty removing clog

Issue is bump that forms between top of heat break and bottom of PTFE tube.. happens after using ABS and ASA mostly.. Starts with just tight pull then eventually you have no choice but to take apart remove the PTFE and install a new tube . With the Dragon unit heat break is much better design and ends this issue..

RE: Difficulty removing clog

Been dismantling the hot end and seems to me that clog is either in hot end or the heat sink, think most likely it will need new of those two, but will try heating that piece up without fans cooling it and if i can get some filament connected to the clog.

Thanks for all the help with my attempt to fix this.