Walked away from a print this morning and came back to a blob being dragged all over the printer.
The blob of pla was in and around the hot end sleave and just everywhere.
Is this salvageable or do I need a replacement hot end?
Printer is a creality k1
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I’d start with removing the smurf jizz.
You may be able to just heat up the hotend and remove the plastic with some tweezers, depending on how much of the extruder of covered.
This is the way. I’ve smurfed so badly the entire sock was covered. Still trucking.
I’ve heated an xacto knife with a torch to do more precise heating in more delicate areas before.
How much time do you have?
Ethyl Acetate or a similar solvent would strip it off while leaving the ABS parts in tact. Keep it in safe a container and reuse as a cleaning bath whenever you need to blitz your parts.
Chloroform also works but, you know, don’t breathe it in.
Does this hot end smell like chloroform to you?
😴
Thanks for the tip
Probably, heat up the hot end and try carefully removing it.
How much does a new one cost? This is a PITA to fix, so I would prefer just getting a new one if its not too expensive.
Looks to be about £30 I think. Although looking at the service video I can’t actually get to the screws to remove the hot end because they are covered in pla
Soften the PLA with a lighter and then peel it off. You don’t need a lot of heat for that.
Made a lot of progress but it is in the screwheads the attach the hot end. Ridiculous
If push comes to shove, you can heat up a screwdriver tip with the lighter, and use that to melt some of the PLA in the screw head enough to unscrew it.
Move the toolhead high off the build plate to give yourself room to work. Set the hot end temperature to somewhere in the filament’s melt range and let it soften a bit. Use needle nose pliers to gently pick away at blobs of filament, making sure not to damage any thermistor or heater core wires in the process. If you want to salvage that hot end, follow-up with a brass wire brush while it’s still hot, otherwise just remove enough goo to access the screws you mentioned.
There’s a massive blob stuck round the thermistor wires that is detached from the hot end. Tried to melt the blob but cant get the middle to heat up.
If the wires do get broken are they easy to replace ?
I’d get a new one at £30
Get a new one and then try to salvage this one, and keep it as a hot spare - pun intended.
If you do plan to replace it try the CHCB-OT hotend. Whichever one you end up getting remember to heat it up and screw the nozzle in while hot. I had them leak (between the nozzle and the rest of the hotend) if I didn’t do so.
The pla has been pressed up into the casing. You need to clean that all carefully anyways. If you leave the hotend warm, it will peel off pretty easily. I have done that a couple of times. Something shabby and sharp and something for grabbing like small pliers should do it.
@Starfarer hold up which #3dprinting filament should be called thermoplastic filament not blaming you but when thermoplastics are hard you can shape them , clay around , etc but I would however warn be careful of the heat
Sorry?
