How I cleaned the nozzles after print problems

[lawong]

I was printing a knob replacement for one of my appliance which was damaged by someone (unnamed) at home, and this is what happened: Here's a lineup of the original knob, going from failure to final success.

Knoba test1.jpg

So as my first and second print started to become "wispy" and I started to check everything, tried slowing print speed, and Filament adjustment but to no avail, it was not working... so I began to look at the nozzle. This is how to clean it:

To clean the nozzle:

Start with removing the nozzle (you need a long nose plier with cloth or leather to hold the heating block then you won't scratch the hearing block), use Repetier or MatterControl to manually heat up the nozzle to about 150C or so, then turn the nozzle with the supplied spanner to remove. Be careful not to damage the heater and thermistor, hold the short side of the heater block. You should also remove the Filament at this point, cut off a short length, about 100mm should enough.

Once the nozzle is off, (don't forget to turn off the heater in the software), hold the nozzle in a adjustable spanner or plier, get a flame (gas lighter should do) to heat up the nozzle, and push a short length of Filament you prepared earlier into the nozzle entry, wait until it melts, keep pushing until some comes out of the nozzle exit, take off the flame and wait for a while, test that the Filament is getting harder by moving it a little, once the Filament seems hard enough, give it a good pull to remove the Filament, see if there everything has been pulled out, if not, repeat the nozzle heat and try again. Once the tip is cleared, it's done!

This is what I got from the initial cleaning:

Nozzle Gunk.jpg

Under close inspection thru a strong magnifier, I can see scraps of metal in the tip of these Filament blobs.

The next step: Thorough cleaning of the nozzle

(For PLA) Try soaking the nozzle in Paint Thinner in a glass jar... or
(For ABS) Use Acetone (nail polish remover) for about an hour,

then use the supplied tweezers and Q-Tips to clear any surface plastics
Careful not to scratch the insides of the nozzle (which will cause more jams) and see that the nozzle hole is now clear by shinning a flashlight and look for a clear opening.

Dry it and fix it back to the extruder, heat it up to the recommended temp and feed the Filament for about 100mm to see that the extrusion is nice, clean, smooth and consistent in the extruded filament. Leave the tip heat up for a while to see if the drips and oozes are clean and not full of bubbles (which may indicate some presence of water / thinner / Acetone in the nozzle chamber), when the oozes are clear, good to go!

BTW, use the supplier tweezers to clean (wipe) the nozzle from oozes and drips just before the print starts, don't use cloth or paper towels as it will just get stuck (and bare fingers are too painful). Just check that the nozzles are clean before the start of the print or it will just stick to the beginning layers and might rip the print off the bed.

OK, that's it.

Please post your experiences, Fails and Success and we can compare notes to see if we can improve on the techniques.

[Enthusiast]

Are you saying that the nozzle came from the factory with metal shavings inside? Do you think that, prior to printing, we should first try to blow out/clean the nozzles and extruder?

Under close inspection thru a strong magnifier, I can see scraps of metal in the tip of these Filament blobs.

The next step: Thorough cleaning of the nozzle

(For PLA) Try soaking the nozzle in Paint Thinner in a glass jar... or
(For ABS) Use Acetone (nail polish remover) for about an hour,

then use the supplied tweezers and Q-Tips to clear any surface plastics
Careful not to scratch the insides of the nozzle (which will cause more jams) and see that the nozzle hole is now clear by shinning a flashlight and look for a clear opening.

Dry it and fix it back to the extruder, heat it up to the recommended temp and feed the Filament for about 100mm to see that the extrusion is nice, clean, smooth and consistent in the extruded filament. Leave the tip heat up for a while to see if the drips and oozes are clean and not full of bubbles (which may indicate some presence of water / thinner / Acetone in the nozzle chamber), when the oozes are clear, good to go!

BTW, use the supplier tweezers to clean (wipe) the nozzle from oozes and drips just before the print starts, don't use cloth or paper towels as it will just get stuck (and bare fingers are too painful). Just check that the nozzles are clean before the start of the print or it will just stick to the beginning layers and might rip the print off the bed.

OK, that's it.

Please post your experiences, Fails and Success and we can compare notes to see if we can improve on the techniques.

[lawong]

No I don't think so as I had the extruder problem as well and I took the whole extruder apart including the nozzle prior to any printing. I think what happened was that I was trying to adjust the grub screws a couple of time and if you notice that the side of the extruder is the ball bearing roller, that area I was trying to adjust the filament, is an opened area which you can just see the opening to the nozzle feed.

It was full of debris after a few successful tests and I was trying to clear the dust by blowing on it. I think bits of the burrs must have fell in at that stage though I didn't notice it. It was after when the prints were going badly, wispy and paper thin, that I decided to clear and check the nozzle.

I think if you are getting the same issues such as getting too thin of the extruded filament from the nozzle that you should try cleaning the nozzle.

I think this should be part of the regular maintenence cycle for any 3D printers, even when changing types of filament materials, that somethings may clog up the nozzle and give grief to the outputs.

[scottyblue77]

For me it was really good after some issues with the nozzle filament flow, it was too slow, to clean up the nozzles with a touch pen, haaten up the nozzle in pipe wrench and let drop the filament out of the upper part of the nozzle, not hold down the 0,4 , 0,3 or 0,5 side. and the without doing something an the thin part it worked perfect, now for more days. I do manuel fulminating with high pressure direct on the filament on the top of the extruder, after heating up the nozzle to 230C, then printing starts....

[xyz]

Am I the only one that did not have the spanner included?

[bolsoncerrado]

Spanner? wdy mean

[Fixx]

As I know; Spanner is only included with Nozzle Me Perk.