Nozzle clogging (Page 1 of 2)

Are you leaving the heater on in between prints? This can cause the filament to cook, harden and block the nozzle.

Lawsy, I am pretty sure that was the cause of my first clog, but ever since, ive let everything cool down in between prints.

Jooshs, Yep, the black ABS from Solidoodle themselves. Is there something wrong with this filament?

Thanks for that info. I have some more filament on order from 3Dprintergear which should hopefully arrive soon. I'll keep putting up with this until I can do a comparison. I just cant understand what I am doing wrong, which is the biggest issue. Half way through a print itll just stop extruding and start stripping the filament, then no matter what I do, its clogged and needs to be pulled apart.

And this is the second time it has clogged itself up today. It is about to go sailing across the room.

Have a look at my thread on hot end replacement. Due to the changes, I should be able to disassemble my hot end for cleaning without touching the jigsaw puzzle.

Photos taken but they were dodgy.

After printing a bit, I've had the same problem where plastic has oozed up between the thread of the brass barrel. I'll be heating up everything first before I disassemble to avoid too much trouble. Need to do the nozzle up tighter I guess, or use thread tape.

Will take better pics when I reassemble.

Looks like ill have to put my order in first thing in the morning. Its money I don't want to spend, but I can't get the damn thing unclogged

Thanks heaps for the info.

NEHoff, what colour was the filament you used and where did you get it from?

if you are watching the machine, then I've found it is possible that you can catch a clog as soon as it happens, pause the print.

reverse the filament until it comes out, snip an inch off the end and then resume printing again.

Unfortunatly if you don't catch it as soon as it happens then it's a lot more difficult, certainly you can't pause/restart the print.
and you may find that you have to take the extruder apart and clear the clog manually.

I've found that it's pretty effective to clear clogs by using a small alen wrench to remove the plastic, insert it into the cold end of the hot end part, then pull it out, it'll be coated in plastic.

if you use a 1.5mm alen wrench you can also use this to "push" the filament out of the hot end, you can apply much more pressure than the stepper motor can, literally forcing out clogs.

the negative side of this is that the extruder is extraordinarily annoying to put back together, it's like a mental puzzle and balancing act all rolled into one!

So, I just started having my black filament clog the extruder. Second time in about 30 minutes of filament use.  When I pulled the filament out, I found what looked to be cellophane (like what you might think of as non-stick tape like material) on the end of the line (the end that just came out of the extruder).

Whatever it is, it didn't burn and isn't melted, but I don't know if there are more pieces in the extruder that didn't come out.

Just thought I would add my bit in here...

I switched to the blue filament sample that came with my printer (looked to be about 4 or 5 feet in length) and started printing with that for a test.  After 1 or 2 small objects (about 6 minutes print time each) the blue filament began to get jammed also.

When I pulled it out it looked almost burnt, as if the extruder were getting too hot.  So I watched it again during another round of printing and found that during fill movements is when the jamming would start... like the flow rate was not correct and the material couldn't flow out of the extruder as fast as the extruder would try to push it in. During fill movements, the filament would get bent past the motor, but would relax as the pressure was taken off at the straightaways. 

Also, I noticed that the blue filament seems to "run" when the heater reaches about 150C, but I was printing at 200C.  At 150, I cant even make the extruder move due to protections.

Does that sound normal?  Is my extruder running hot for some reason?

Pretenda, is that the experience you were having?

I have purchased, but not received yet, an IR thermometer.
This one:
http://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-TM- … hermometer

So, when I get it I will see what the temperature is really doing.