The Tale of the Largest Blob
Hi Everyone!
I have been a Prusa enthusiast both professionally and personally for many many years now. I am an engineer and run a farm of 8 Prusa printers at work. The time has finally come for me and one of my poor printers.... I got "The Blob" on an overnight ASA print on one of my MK3S+ printers. The print dislodged and stuck to the hot end in a way which is actually comical. Below I have posted some pictures. I removed the fans to take a closer look at "The Blob", which I should probably name at this point. I am not going to be able to simply heat up the hot end and pick this one off as it is lodged all around the thermistor and heater core. It even creeped upwards as the ASA cooled on the outside of "The Blob". You can even see that it pushed the super pinda outward. So crazy.
The reason for me making this post is to share the amazing pictures of "The Blob", but I also wanted to know if anyone has any advice as to how to remove the entire print head in 1 piece, so I can start taking an inventory of what I am going to need to fix this thing. Anyone have a parts list? 😀
Also, is there a prize for "Best Blob"? Just kidding. 🙂
Thank you so much!
--Scott
You have a first class blob of doom. Search for blob of doom to see how others have dealt with them.
Before doing anything, look at pictures of a clean extruder and note the position of the rather delicate wires that are currently hidden, if you damage them you will have to buy replacement parts as broken wires can't be rejoined.
Luckily, with a print farm, you will be able to print replacement parts. https://www.printables.com/@Prusa3D/collections/54487
To remove it:
Raise the nozzle temperature to the printing temperature for the filament in question and allow it to heat for several minutes.
If you are lucky you will be able to prise the blob open - more likely you will need to add heat from outside with a heat gun to aid the softening, sometimes it's worth using a soldering iron to carve chunks off the mass.
Use needle nosed pliers to prise this away; remove it in parts if it won't release the wires.
Once you have the worst removed you decide how far you need to disassemble the extruder to get at all the blob or perhaps you can clean up in situ.
After the cleanup there will be overcooked filament inside the nozzle so at least a purge and probably a cold-pull will be necessary.
Cheerio,
RE: The Tale of the Largest Blob
Thank you very much Diem. That post is very helpful. I am going to attempt to dig it out, but it's going to be a tough one as this is ASA. 🙂 Soldering iron on low heat is also a great suggestion. I was mostly sharing for the fun, I was just kinda laughing at myself this morning when I walked in to that. haha!
Thanks again!
--Scott