Answered Print head clogged

I tried running a print today and left it alone for 10 minutes. When I came back the printer wasnt extruding plastic anymore. I quickly stopped the print and the next hour and a hald involved alot of unscrewing and pulling things out of the printer. The result of which was me having the entire hot head removed (I have an R1 so i unscrewed the two screws on the side and pulled it out) and I am unable to seperate the print head from the metal body because the screw is just spinning around inside of it, and the entire thing is clogged with plastic.

At this point I just don't know what to do to clear the print head. Should I plug it back to the printer, heat it up and try pulling it apart? can't think of anythnig else to do to get this plastic out.

(Trying to upload picture)

 

first thanks forthe amazingly fast reply!

im currently trying to heat up the head and remove the plastic but the other end of the metal body (where its held by screws) heating up at all. though i guess thats to be expected because thats the whole point of the fins

 

You could always remove the screws and drop the hotend out, then heat it up and clean the internals out (though this is admittedly riskier).

If it's melted/solidified all the way up into the heat break/heat sink then salvaging the hotend is going to be tricky.

I used to very carefully drill the plastic out of the heatsink with a 1/16" drill bit (mounted in a vise on a drill press), then heat the hotend up and drive a paper clip into it as far as it would go to push all of the plastic down to the nozzle area. If you do this, do it multiple times with the paper clip to get as much plastic down into the melt zone as you can.

Then once it was clear run a bunch of nylon filament through it to clean it out until no more colored/scorched filament came out.

Then double-check slicer settings to make sure retraction isn't pulling back too far, and never shutting the printer off after a print until the temperature readouts said it was back at room temperature.

 

they got hot after a while in the end, i just wasnt able to heat up the heat sink enough to push the plastic out

is there any chance this hot end is still salvagable?

 

And just as a backup, could you post a link to a recommended hot end replacement?

 

That sounds terrifyingly risky, and much as I have access to those things, wouldnt it be easier to heat up the heat sink with a blowtorch and try to remove the plastic then?

 

https://store.robo3d.com/collections/parts/products/hexagon-hotend-full

 

Only if you remove the heater cartridge and thermistor first, leaving nothing but the metal components.

They won't take too kindly to having open flame applied to them long enough to melt the filament down to a near-fluid and having it run out the orifices.

 

yeah, i managed to seperate the heat sink from the hot head and i pulled out the cartridge and thermistor so how i just have the metal parts for each

 

If you've separated the heatsink from the actual melt zone portion of the hotend, were you able to extract the filament from the heatsink?

Usually when you take it apart like that the filament "stuck" in the heatsink stays with the heater block.

 

Unfortunately no... it stayed stuck in both. I feel like I should be able to clear the plastic in the hot end itself now though

For the heat sink, what about a PID controlled oven to heat it up to 220°C and have it standing so the plastic drips out?

 

Hooray possible solution! Thanks I'll try it out after the weekend

 

approximately how long should I expect it to take the plastic to melt out at that temp? just for an idea of knowing if it is or isnt working when I try it