What could be better than spending your saturday evening cleaning clogged nozzles?

What could be better than spending your saturday evening cleaning clogged nozzles? :wink:

Nozzles need cleaning about 1% as often as people think they need cleaning. Most of the time, you cool the nozzle down, then heat it up to 100C, and pull the filament out and clip off the end. :slight_smile:

Already did that a bunch of times, not working…

Most of the time yes but sometimes it needs to be cleanned deeper as well. Never add a clogged nozzles but I take care of it :stuck_out_tongue:

After finding a good filament wiper, I’ve had zero clogs in over a year on two machines. Just a little scrap of polarfleece in a binderclip.

I feel you. I had to fix a major clog yesterday where it wouldn’t print at all. Now I’m trying everything I can do to clean up the remaining mess in the nozzle.

soaking them overnight in acetone and blowing them out with dust off and printing all sat evening?

I could be wrong, but the first thing that my nylon did to my hot end was pull all the black ABS rubbish out. It might be a good “cleaning filament”.

PLA Is easier and more fun - toast the buggers with a blowtorch.

Ok, this is so annoying!! None of the extruders can extrude now… I have cleaned out everything, but still it´s like theres something in the way of the filament.
The filemant doesn´t slip, it has a good grip. Normal pressure on the drive gear. BUT, when loading… as soon as the filament is about is about to push out thru the nozzle, the motor starts “clicking” as it´s too weak or something… if i help just a little by pushing (very little force) the filament downwards it extrudes. I don´t get it?? Both extruders are behaving the exact way, is it a electrical problem?
Everything is clean, the filament diameter is consistent, there shouldn´t be a problem! Going nuts here, i need my printer right now!! =(

Have you tried turning up the potentiometer of the extruder? Only a TEENY bit. Like a 16th or a 32nd of a turn. You’re right about what the ‘clicking’ is. It’s the extruder motor powering forward, and then skipping steps back a step.

if you have a liner tube and are pushing the limits of your extruder it might have deformed inside. My budda has a little white tube if you overheat it it will melt and this can happen.

Also back it out and cut a bit off (length of extruder) if you havent yet, and try again.
Point being those little pots dont move super easy with a screwdriver. I would measure it before just cranking it up, i think its unlikely it just turned it self down, and for you to bump it you should be aware you did, it should have taken like a thumb planted on it and pressed.

+Anthony Morris I´m a mechanical guy who don´t like electronics that much hence my lack of knowledge. Also i think the mightyborad has electronic potentiometers and i have no idea about how to set them. Have to look it up now i guess.

+Addidis no Maybe it´s got an AI now… :wink: No, but it seems weird that this would just happen out of the blue and it´s the same thing on both extruders so it doesn´t sound like a mechanical problem. The extruders are all metal and there´s no way they could have deformed.
It has printed flawlessly since the day i unboxed it so it seems weird…

I really need another printer!

Ok, took everything apart again because i think it must be a mechanical problem. Everything cleaned out fine except for one nozzle.
It´s simply impossible to clean it out, it´s like there´s superglue in it… The only thing that differs this nozzle from the others is that i´ve been printing another filament brand in it… could it be a case of bad luck or is the filament bad quality??

Last time my nozzle was blocked I soaked it in acetone for an age, then I took a single stand from a length of flex and poked it up the nozzle, cleared the blockage fine. No amount of pushing with anything from the other side would clear it, but this gentle tickle back up the nozzle did the trick.

@Bracken_Dawson I’ve had it in acetone for 5 days now, trying to clean it with a needle twice a day…

Did you saw this one? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:56597

@Daniel_Noree , if you have any stainless steel brushes, if I’m having to clear a nozzle that’s used shitty chinese filament I take a single bristle and cut it off, then take a pair of flat needle nose pliers and poke the bristle up through the bottom of the nozzle much like @Bracken_Dawson suggested.

The other thing you can do is to use clear or tinted PLA filament. This has no additives to clog the interior of the barrel.

Agreed @ vic. Ive been printing red and painting it black and the painted black looks better than the black abs. Just test the spraypaint first.