Prusa clogged nozzle
Hey. So i left printer overnight. Woke up 3 am as it was moving about and making noise. So what i did was that i paused it, but i left it on thinking it would be ok for 5 hours.
So when i woke up tried to unpause, it didnt print anything out and it was making this wierd clicking noise. I held onto fillament and it was making some vibrations. So at this point i aborted print. Then i did the usual stuff.. Tried to have it change fillament. Clean itself. Not working. Then i did the usual heating up and using syringe needle to clear clog. Nothing. I would only see small drops of melted fillament come out of nozzle. So then i started taking head apart where the gears are for fillament. And first thing i see is a lot of fillament blocking the hole where the gears rotate. And when i take it alart a little further to clear that blockage, i arrive at the heater where the fillament is actually melted then cooled solid inside that see though plastic tube or whatever.
It's next to impossible to get to it. So what do i do now?
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
It sounds like your nozzle is pretty screwed up now. If it’s impossible to clear, I’d recommend just buying a whole new hotend and nozzle altogether. Also, I’d recommend immediately cancelling and unloading the filament while the nozzle is still hot if something like this happens again, as to avoid a clog.
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
Looks like things blocked up and the bowden gears just "sawed" the filament in two. To fix it should be fairly simple:
I think you should heat up the nozzle to 100C, then push down the small black collet that is holding in the PTFE tube, at the same time pull on the tube with some pliers. You will pull out the PTFE tube with the filament inside. Hopefully the "nozzle end" of the PTFE tube will then have some filament sticking out so that you can pull it out of the tube from the other end. If that's not the case, just replace the tube. There are some spare PTFE tubes in the spares bag that came with your printer.
When inserting a new PTFE tube make sure that you're holding the little black collect "up" with your nails while pushing down the tube into the hotend so that it does not have and room to move.
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
I've had similar problem today. I've cleared everything 3 times. There are no cloggs anywhere eventually (I've checked nozzle with the needle and PTFE tube with 1.5mm wire - everything goes smoothly). Still the filament won't flow. I really don't know what to do. The next step would be buying a new nozzle or changing PTFE tube - but why if there's no cloggs...
Any suggestions?
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
Next time you get a jam, unload the filament and inspect the stub at the end. If the stubb is 2.2 mm in diameter (and not 2.0 mm), you are very likely suffering a heat break jam caused by a Prusa mod to the stack E3D-V6 heat break.
Here's what a 2.2 mm stub looks like: this is filament unloaded after a jam.
Left side is stub, right side where I nipped the filament with cutters.
ps: this isn't a cold pull. It's is a simple UNLOAD after hearing the extruder clicking.
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
Thank you for replies and suggestions.
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
I've had two clogs recently that seem similar to what you're describing. The solution I found was to open the extruder idler door to free up that side of the direct drive, then remove the nozzle and carefully push a 1.5mm brass rod up the heat block. It hit the stuck filament, and with a little force started pushing the filament up out of the PTFE tube. I only had to push a short distance, once it started to move I could pull the filament from the top. Then put the nozzle back on, close up the extruder idler door, and run some cleaning filament through to catch any debris. It has worked well both times.
Good luck!
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
I do both warm (Simple unload filament) and cold pulls to remove clogs. I have found since the MK3S I have less need for a cold pull.
--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
I've immersed the nozzle in ethyl acetate (it's dedicated for PLA [tetrahydrofuran is also recommended here: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/WWVRzOY1dX-clogged-nozzle ]). Maybe this will help...
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
Yes! It really worked! My filament is flowing well again 🙂
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
I've immersed the nozzle in ethyl acetate (it's dedicated for PLA [tetrahydrofuran is also recommended here: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/WWVRzOY1dX-clogged-nozzle ]). Maybe this will help...
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
Fortunately I didn't drink it 😉
I was careful using ethyl acetate. I pour a little into a wine glass, where I put the nozzle. I used gloves. The nozzle immersed in ethyl acetate was kept outside the house.
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
It's the inhaled part of the warning that is important. Were you wearing an organic vapor respirator?
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
Hello! I Share my experience:
Printing with OWL filament PLA, at 215 Celsius, High speed, like +250% feedrate: Nozzle Clog in the Middle of the print. I think it was too fast for this temperature.
Akupunkture needle from the botton did not worked. I have deatached the nozzle, then brougt it to the kitchen and put it hot in the herd. I have an electrical herd. Set it to 9, nozzle was pointig up, an then waited like one minute. PLA was coming from nozzle, cleaned that, repeat proces, repeat proces again, until nothing came left from the nozzle. Then clean with needle while the nozzle was very hot. Reatach nozzle to printer. Load filament normally.
Results: GOOD, I can print again 🙂
Greetings!
RE: Prusa clogged nozzle
A cold pull usually accomplishes the same nozzle cleanliness.