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Finally printed a good test cube. Now clogged extruder

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Swoop_ds, Nov 1, 2014.

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  1. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    After mucking around withy printer off and on for a couple months, I finally got a test cube to print well.

    Following that, the extruder seems to be clogged.

    I've been looking around for step by step instructions on how to unclog it but haven't had much luck. The video that the FAQ in google docs points to doesn't seem to exist anymore.
     
    #1 Swoop_ds, Nov 1, 2014
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    well, I'd suggest:

    1) open up the extruder feed, heat the hotend and try pulling out what you can. (if that doesn't clear it then...)
    2) heat the hotend to a lower than normal temp (160-180-ish perhaps) take a strip of PLA and stick it down inside and give it a second then pull back out. (if that doesn't clear it then...)
    3) remove the hotend from the carriage (cold) and then heat it up and take the nozzle off of the hotend (this only works for hexagon and E3D and the like, NOT the old J-head). It unscrews from the hotend body. Use the wrench that came with the hotend if you have it or find one that fits the body and another for the nozzle. Obviously it is hot parts--be careful. Now you can totally get to whatever is jamming it up. Reassemble it hot and then remount on carriage once it cools down.
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Nov 1, 2014
  3. John Durr

    John Durr Member

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    Hello
    With my limited use of the printer, the method i used that worked was to go to controls of matter control program. preheat extruder, unlock stepper motors and then try to retract the filament. If it does not come out you will have to unscrew the 2 screws at the back of the extruder (watch out for the springs and washers) and then clear out what you can. Do not pull on the filament while it is hot end is cold. When it is hot don't burn yourself.
    Hope this helps a little as I just had a clog where my hot end broke and had to send a request for replacement parts.
     
    #3 John Durr, Nov 1, 2014
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  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    That sounds like what I was going for with #1. That has always worked for me as well, but #2 and certainly #3 will absolutely clear a jam. #3 is just so much more effort I would do it last...
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, Nov 1, 2014
  5. John Durr

    John Durr Member

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    Hi Mark
    When I first saw the post your answer was not there so by the time I finished writing mine you posted yours which is a more refined answer.
    I booked made this so if it happens to me again I know where to look for a good reminder of what to do.

    Thanks

    John
     
    #5 John Durr, Nov 1, 2014
  6. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    I took the back two screws that hold the filament in place off and poked around to no avail.

    Which screws do I need to take off to get the hotend out so that I can clean it properly?
     
    #6 Swoop_ds, Nov 1, 2014
  7. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    I'd try something else between 1 and 2. Heat it up to like 240 and push something with a diameter smaller than 1.75, an allen wrench works well, down into the extruder to force out any material. 9 times out of 10 this clears things up for me.

    You're probably plugged rather than clogged. A plug is just an excess of melted PLA that gets too far up the hot end. Some people call it swelled PLA.
    A clog would be an issue where something is actually stuck in the nozzle that you need to remove, which gets you to Mark's step 3.

    A few things you may want to consider before pulling the nozzle off:
    -cleaning filament is available now. If you happen to be in the US, I sell it as of today.
    -You can use the guitar string trick. Get a high e-guitar string, heat up the hot end, and floss the guitar string through to remove the blockage.

    Once you get everything cleared out, you should look into seasoning your filament to reduce clogs and blockages. Put a little canola oil on a few inches of filament before you feed it in.
     
    #7 Printed Solid, Nov 1, 2014
  8. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    Also, could I not just squirt some acetone down into the hotend tube that is now exposed? Doesn't acetone desolvd pla?
     
    #8 Swoop_ds, Nov 1, 2014
  9. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    no, this will just make a mess and potentially give you a safety hazard if you don't get it all out before you start heating again. Acetone doesn't dissolve PLA. It degrades it, but doesn't dissolve it completely.
    It does dissolve ABS, but you'd need a pretty good amount.
    Also, if you truly are blocked and not just plugged, whatever the blockage is may be something other than PLA or ABS.
     
    #9 Printed Solid, Nov 1, 2014
  10. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    I can't get the high - e guitar string to go through. Does that mean that I need to take it all apart? Which screws do I undo to do that?
     
    #10 Swoop_ds, Nov 2, 2014
  11. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    I took the hot end off by removing those two screws. It's plugged with black crap right at the top of the hotend. I tried burning the gunk with a lighter and picking at it, with some success. There's still a bunch in there but now the robo won't accept commands from mattercontrol and it's m105 command is reading all zeroes. So I guess the thermistor isn't working or there is a loose wire. (Or I wrecked something with all my lighter use...)

    SO now I have that issue which also means that I can't heat the hotend to get the gunk to come out....

    I'm trying to upload a photo of the clog but it's not working so here is a link to the photo:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By5y-rHBm-I7WGxvRDRVZGV3NG8/view?usp=sharing
     
    #11 Swoop_ds, Nov 2, 2014
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You should be able to remove the nozzle from the hotend body (if this is a Hexagon) and approach the clog from both sides then.
    It does sounds like the thermistor is toast so you are going to want to fix that while you have it down.

    (I would advise spares, I bought several -- they are cheap)
     
    #12 mark tomlinson, Nov 3, 2014
  13. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    If the m105 is showing ALL zeroes, does that still mean it could be the hotend thermistor? It just seems wierd that all values are zero. Are they easy to swap out?
     
    #13 Swoop_ds, Nov 3, 2014
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    What are you getting back? It should look like this:

    ok T:200 B:85
     
    #14 mark tomlinson, Nov 3, 2014
  15. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    I'm not at home but I believe it says:

    ok T:0, B:0

    But it seems to me there were more zeros than that.

    Also, last night it wasn't letting me control movement of the carriage (x,y,z), will that be due to the temperature readings or is that now another issue?
     
    #15 Swoop_ds, Nov 3, 2014
  16. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    M999 could very well prevent the printer from moving. It's essentially a catch all error that says somethings wrong so don't do anything.
     
    #16 Mike Kelly, Nov 3, 2014
  17. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    I didn't see anything about m999

    It was just showing m105 every few seconds and reporting zeroes across the board.
     
    #17 Swoop_ds, Nov 3, 2014
  18. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    If it's reading 0 then a M999 would have shown up unless you modified the firmware to reduce the min temp to below 0
     
    #18 Mike Kelly, Nov 3, 2014
  19. Swoop_ds

    Swoop_ds New Member

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    I will look at it tonight but I don't remember anything about m999. All I remember seeing was m105, the word "ok", and a bunch of readings that were reporting zeros. It also wouldn't respond to commands from MatterControl to move the print head around.

    Once again, this all started happening while I was picking away at the top part of the hotend. I wanted it to be hot while I worked, and it was for awhile but I noticed after awhile that it wasn't staying hot. That's when I noticed that it wasn't responding and that it was reporting all zeroes in the terminal.

    Finally, I haven't ever done any firmware tweaking. My firmware is robo3dr1v4 (I think that's how that's written, I know there's v4 at the end of the firmware version)
     
    #19 Swoop_ds, Nov 3, 2014
  20. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    I'm just telling you how things work. Doesn't matter if you saw the M999 but a reading of 0 would report that.

    Chances are good you have a loose thermistor (or 2)
     
    #20 Mike Kelly, Nov 3, 2014
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