Hotend encapsulated in PLA mess
Hello,
See the attached images for a view of what happened. Here is a short summary:
A PLA print didn't stick to the build plate and I did not notice it in time. The PLA started to build up around the hotend and this went on for about an hour. Any tips on how to try and recover the hotend? Or is it a total loss? My main concern is the fact that some electrical wires (temp. sensor?) even got caught in the PLA mess. I'll be happy to hear any suggestions on how best to proceed.
Thanks in advance.
Re: Hotend encapsulated in PLA mess
If you raise Z to around 100 - 120 using Settings | Move Axis then you should be able to work comfortably under the hot end.
Use Settings | Temperature to heat only the nozzle to around 90 degrees and use tweezers to pull away PLA once it softens. Be very careful around the heater cartridge and thermistor wires. You do not want to damage/break those.
A little bit of patience and you should be able to clean the things up nicely.
cheers,
Bill
Tagaytay City, Philippines
Founder member of Philippines Prusa Printer Owners FB Group
Sponsor Pillars of God Academy in Bacoor
Re: Hotend encapsulated in PLA mess
This is a common failure IF YOU DON"T HAVE GOOD LIVE Z SET or a DIRTY BED.
To fix, you need to carefully heat the extruder and mechanically remove (tweeters, needle nose pliers, etc) the blob. It is common to break the thermistor wires when removing, so be careful.
To prevent this from ever happening, please follow these steps to get the machine set up correctly.
Once you have things set up correctly, you will never have a failure like this again (but don't feel bad - many people get one when starting out - I know I did.)
You can search the forum for "blob" and find lots of photos so you can rate yours. Mine was much worse.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: Hotend encapsulated in PLA mess
I had literally just cleaned the printbed before the print, but I also had been playing with the live Z after switching to a new slicer. I guess I should have known to stay close to the first print with a new slicer. Lesson learned.
Anyway, the suggested approach worked like a charm, thank you for helping me out so quickly!