Giant Ball of Plastic engulfed wires!
Hi everyone! I woke up this morning to this mess. It seems like I forgot to wipe with alcohol and had insufficient bed adhesion. The hotend was literally swallowed by a big fat ball of PLA. I did it as Prusa recommend and heated the hot end. After I did, I pulled on the blob with pliers really really hard. A large portion came off, but no matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn't come out. I then noticed the hot end temperature sensor wire was buried in the glob. Now I am worried the wires my be damaged underneath the plastic glob due to all the tugging I did. How should I remove the plastic around the wires without damaging the wires? I do have a very precise smd soldering heat gun, but I'm not sure heating the wires is a good Idea. As for the other plastic mess, I will use a steel brush. I have included pictures to better show my situation. Thanks for all your help!
-Yukon
Dogs are BETTER than Cats
RE: Giant Ball of Plastic engulfed wires!
Best to remove the hot end for the clean up. The wires are rated for a few hundred degrees - a cool heat gun probably won't damage them (400c max). But by appearances, a new hot end is in order and take your time cleaning up this old one; and salvage what you can as emergency spares.
RE: Giant Ball of Plastic engulfed wires!
Thank you very much! I'll do so. I just owned this printer for about a month. Does the hot end need to be replaced like you mentioned? I cleaned this hot end just a few days ago, so the horrible goop is from this single failed print. It doesn't seem like the hot end is damaged (just worried about the wires). Anyhow, I'll try using as SMD soldering heat gun
Dogs are BETTER than Cats
RE: Giant Ball of Plastic engulfed wires!
Use a heat gun to soften the blob.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Giant Ball of Plastic engulfed wires!
To prevent this,
Adjust first layer to be perfect, this helps object to stick better,
of course clean the bed with soap(after a certain prints, or with glue stick every print), clean always with alcohol.
Check object if it needs a big brim attach to the object, better hold on to the bed.
The after starting the object, check the first few layer, but also after 30 or 60 minutes, often then the print can come loose, because difficult model or wrong settings for this object.
A big brim attach to object, I use this for, at least 4 lines.
object with small attachment to bed,
big flat objects, can curl loose, these is always give a big brim, also pla.
With pla I printed a 4 mm thick square , almost as bed, it curl only a little , but at top, there is then to much filament, so top layer is not good.
I needed to print it this way because i was printing in different colors on top layer.
RE: Giant Ball of Plastic engulfed wires!
To answer the question "Do you need to replace the hot end?" ... no, not yet. But you are facing a bit of tedious work removing the blob and in the process chances are high you will damage the thermistor by breaking wires.
Removing the hot end from the extruder will lessen that chance, and allow better use of a heat gun to soften the plastic for removal without no worries about melting plastic you want to keep; and you have room to clean plastic from the heater block. And you don't necessarily need to pull everything - you can lay down some cardboard on the heat bed, and pop everything loose to allow access to the hot end, and let it rest on the bed while working. Just watch where the heat gun is pointed: most get hot enough to melt holes in any of the printer plastic.