"Clogged" Extruder Help
I set a print and came back a few hours later to this. It detected a collision but a little too late.
Is there a way I can repair this or should I just replace the entire hotend?
Err... jumped the gun a bit there
The way to clear that is to leave it on the printer, and heat up the extruder to the working temp of that filament (or one temp range higher). That way, it can easily be cleared without having to take anything apart. Now that you have it apart ... how about putting it all back together and starting at the beginning?
I suppose you could heat it up like you have it - but it won't have the cooling it needs ... and you'll burn your hands ...
Put it back together carefully. Then preheat. Then let it start falling off, and then pick pick pick (I use needle nose pliers, tooth picks, etc). You need to be VERY careful near the little wires - they break very easily - so try not to bend them at all as you put this back together to get it ready to fix.
RE: "Clogged" Extruder Help
Most 'Blob Of Doom' situations look far worse than they are. Yours is not nearly as bad as some I've seen.
Before making any repair/replace decisions I would CAREFULLY heat that up and remove the blob.
Since it looks like you have the machine at least partly disassembled, you can either wire it back in so you can heat it via the control panel, use a bench supply to heat it if you have one and know what you are doing, or use a heat gun to soften the blob and CAREFULLY remove it.
I've heard of people using an oven to heat/soften things like that but that is probably not necessary.
I emphasized 'carefully' since you will need to take care to avoid pulling/damaging the wires to the heater cartridge and thermistor.
Once you get the plastic off, you can inspect the hot end, disassemble it if you need to, and replace anything that's truly damaged, and get it put back together and working again.
Just remember to WATCH THOSE WIRES when heating and removing the blob.
RE: "Clogged" Extruder Help
I kind of took both of your advice . I couldn't get it back together properly so I created this jig to hold it. worked great!! let it warm up for a while and it started to fall off. Took some small snippers and needle nose and went to work. Really wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I'm glad I posted this because I was ready to just order a new one and not even attempt to fix that. THANK YOU!
RE: "Clogged" Extruder Help
I kind of took both of your advice . I couldn't get it back together properly so I created this jig to hold it. worked great!! let it warm up for a while and it started to fall off. Took some small snippers and needle nose and went to work. Really wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I'm glad I posted this because I was ready to just order a new one and not even attempt to fix that. THANK YOU!
RE: "Clogged" Extruder Help
I'm glad it worked out for you.
As I said, they usually look far worse than they are. The big issue comes if the plastic extruder parts are melted and/or deformed when this happens.
Once I printed an extruder part and mailed it off to another user here after he had such a meltdown and had nobody locally to him who could print a piece for him.
When I first got my printer I figured that if I needed replacement parts I could book a couple hours at our local makerspace and print them, but then Covid hit, and to be sure I printed all of the extruder pieces in black ABS and I keep them in my 'crash kit' of parts and supplies.
Pictured below is the worst I've had. A print broke off of the plate and fortunately I caught it early. I came in to the office to find the print head whipping the spoiled print back and forth, kind of like a futile attempt to walk a cat on a leash.
I heated up the nozzle and gently coaxed the mini-blob off.
