Hotend covered in filament?
I bought my MK3S second hand earlier in the summer and was printing fine. I took a break for a few months and when I went to load filament, it would not come through the hot end. I decided it was time to do the upgrade to the MK3S+ (the upgrade kit came with the printer) and completed disassembly. When I opened up the extruder assembly and took out the hot end it appears to be covered in melted filament. I looked at pictures of the original parts and it seems like everything is fine "underneath" but just want to make sure there are not any concerns from the community.
Do you think this is fine as long as I can clean off the filament? Any tips for doing so? I was thinking of using a heat gun to help take off the layer of filament. Let me know what you all think and thank you for the time.
RE: Hotend covered in filament?
Most important is that you are very careful with the heater and thermistor wires and what you are using to clean it! A brush (with conducting wires) may cause a short on the thremistor or cartridge wires and damage the EINSY controller board.
1. Put the disassembled hotend in a 3rd hand or on something that doesn't burn
2. Power on the printer and in Settings -> Temperature set the nozzle temp to 200°C
3. Try to get some of the plastic of with a brush (careful at the wires)
4. If that isn't going of try a higher temp
5. As soon you have clean of the most, and the thermistor and heater screws accessible, power off the printer disconnect the thermistor and heater from the EINSY
6. Loose the heater cartridge and thermistor screw and remove both from the block.
7. Now you can use a hotgun and the brush get the rest off.
Alternative is to get a new E3D v6 block and Nozzle, and to be sure get a heatsink, heater cartridge 24V 40W and thermistor spare part. Sometimes it can be cheaper to get the Full E3D v6 instead of the parts.
Depending where you are located you can get these from Prusa (EU+worldwide), PrintedSolid(USA) or E3D(UK+worldwide)
You may find other cheaper options, but these may (probably) not be the same quality as the original from E3D.
It looks like you have molten filament running down from the top of the heatblock - this is usually caused by a wrongly installed (or replaced) nozzle.
As @3d-gussner says, be very careful around the exposed wires but for most of the clearup you should be able to work at 100° - 150° with a wire brush.
Your nozzle is showing some wear so buy a new one - make sure you get a genuine E3d part. Then see:
https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/changing-or-replacing-the-nozzle-mk2-5s-mk3s-mk3s_2069
Pay particular attention to the diagrams at the bottom of the page.
Cheerio,