Recovering from a massive blob.
An early forum post assured me “happens to everyone sooner or later.” For me it was sooner, my second print, the first after printing the little Prusa badge, which went fine. This one jammed with a huge blog around the extruder. The suggestion of a soldering iron to get it off was helpful. Now that I have cleaned off all I could, are there other things I should worry about? Is it okay to go ahead and try to extract the filament? Advice solicited.
RE: Recovering from a massive blob.
I would cut the filament above the PTFE coupler, open the idler and carefully try to remove the nozzle / heaterblock. Put it in a vise (clamp the block not the tube) and heatgun it until you can pull the filament out. Then carefully remove the rest of the mess (heatgun or soldering iron/soft brass brush). Make sure to free and unscrew the nozzle, if you let the filament work itself into the thread for a few weeks, you'll never get them apart. I would also remove the heater cartridge&sensor, to check the wiring for damage.
The cooling shroud looks dead, otherwise you'll probably be ok.
RE: Recovering from a massive blob.
Thank you ntdesign for your calm bedside manner. I have successfully extracted the heater block/nozzle assembly from the extruder, but it has been through a lot, so i have ordered a replacement. James.
RE: Recovering from a massive blob.
These can often fully cleaned with patience and possibly reprints of certain parts.
RE: Recovering from a massive blob.
The XL certainly is a massive beast. It will take time to learn all its nuances. Right now, mine seems to be upset that the heater block is removed from the first nextruder and hence it cannot get satisfactory temperature readings.
Is there a way to tell the XL to ignore an extruder so I can use the other four while I wait for my replacement part?