Hey Guys. I had a pretty dirty Nozzle so i decided to switch it out. upon doing so, i noticed something inside, so i used some tweezers and pulled this little guy out.
I can’t tell if it’s just clogged filament, or a part of the Teflon tube. If you can help me out, this would be great.
I don’t really want to pull my extruder apart to find out.
I’m using a Prusa mk2.5 using an e3d v6 hotend.
the PTFE tube should not fit inside a nozzle - but just heat it up to 240° (not more!) and press and smear. PTFE will stay out while the other stuff should become soft and deform.
Looks like a little plug of leftover filament. If it was ptfe tubing you would have had to get it extremely hot to melt it to where if formed to the profile of the inside of your nozzle.
It looks like filament to me if you just shut your printer off without pulling the filament back, it’ll just harden inside the nozzle. Then when you unscrew the nozzle, it twists the filament off inside of it. If this was PTFE tube, your printer would NOT have been printing. Also, does the color of this “plug” match the filament you’re using?
LOL. Sure it’s just your filament. Have you ever done the cold pull to clean the head between filament changes or to clean the out path? Research that. It’s actually counterproductive to change the head just because it’s not shiny. If it prints - better keep it as long as possible. All the threads are “soaked” in filament preventing leakages, the tip and insides are well polished from use, and the printer is calibrated to work with that head well… Finally, knowing your printer model would be always helpful for an on-target discussion from those willing to help with your problems…
You can use a discarded toothbrush on a hot nozzle to clean it up. Or a toothbrush from an economy pack. Nylon bristles do a good job of pulling off the carbonized material. I don’t change nozzles except to change size, to replace a damaged one or if it’s so hopelessly jammed that cold pulls can’t clean it. Keep that nozzle, it still looks good just going by the pulled plug.
