1 Topic by kryspybear

  • kryspybear
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Topic: First clogged, now no heat...

I've been browsing the forum here rather intensely over the past few weeks for help.  I'm trying to repair my friend's Solidoodle that he got just before Christmas.  Since he got it, we've never been able to make a good successful print, either due to non-calibration (at first) or due to the nozzle being clogged.  He did email Solidoodle support several times, but received little to no response from them. 
The first issue we noticed was that the ABS filament stopped feeding.  Plastic was leaking out the hot end, but would not actually extrude.  The more we tried, the worse things got, until finally only a tiny thread of plastic was leaking out the hot end.  We tried to unclog it with a wire, but the wire would not poke through.  We then heated up the extruder and I tried to unscrew the barrel to get to the clog.  as it heated up, the barrel swung away from the PEEK by itself, like plastic that was holding it together melted away.  I was able to clear most of the barrel (which was full of burnt plastic), but now I have two new problems.  There appears to be now-hardened plastic stuck in the threads of the PEEK so that the barrel cannot be reattached, and the heat core now won't heat up at all.  I can't unscrew the barrel from the heat core due to all of the plastic coating the top threads of the barrel (so I can soak the barrel in acetone), and I can't heat up the barrel to clear any more plastic out of it.  We're pretty frustrated at this point.  Any advice? sad

Other info:
  1. We have used black filament in the printer.
  2. We did leave the heater on while not printing.
  3. While I was cleaning the nozzle, I noticed a crumbly white powder possibly coming from the heat core.

Please help!

2 Reply by vince7c95 (edited by vince7c95 2013-02-05 23:57:37)

  • vince7c95
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Re: First clogged, now no heat...

I suppose you could re-thread the PEEK with the same threads and hope that cleans out the PEEK. I have not come across any methods on how to clean melted plastic out of the PEEK threads. In my opinion I would just order a couple new hot ends and save yourself the trouble of trying to clean it. If the melted plastic you speak of is from the PEEK you're gonna have to replace it anyway. Plus the new hot ends use aluminum blocks now instead of the ceramic heater core, which yes, are very fragile. I'm guessing the white powder you mentioned is probably the ceramic stuff crumbling away, though I don't think that would be enough to stop it from heating up.

Try not to leave the extruder on and idling as that will burn plastic in the nozzle and cause more of these problems for you.

I think for black filament you need to turn up the temp, but you should search around as there is a couple topics posted about this and I think it may have been John from Solidoodle who outlined a method for finding the best temp for whatever filament you may be using.

Also, did you try removing the end nozzle piece? If you remove that then you can unscrew the heater core downward.

Also search for heater core repair. I know there was one user here who posted instructions on how to repair and rewire the ceramic heater core. May help you out.

Hope this helped.

3 Reply by kryspybear

  • kryspybear
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Re: First clogged, now no heat...

This Solidoodle has the aluminum block heat core. I wasn't sure if it also has the ceramic stuff to help insulate the wires. Do you know if there's a way to check for damaged wires without a multimeter?

I can't remove the end nozzle. I tried that first and it's completely stuck together.

We might just have to order the whole hot end. My friend (and I) are just frustrated because we have had nothing but trouble with the printer since he got it.

Thank you!

4 Reply by vince7c95 (edited by vince7c95 2013-02-06 08:14:57)

  • vince7c95
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Re: First clogged, now no heat...

Ya, sorry about that. I forgot you need to be able to heat the hot end in order to remove the nozzle tip. Unfortunately I can't help you much on the other issues for checking stuff out, and I don't know much about the new hot ends as I've been using the old ones still.

You may be able to try this method of cleaning it out. I have never tried this method though, and I don't know how safe it is for your nozzle since you can't remove your heater block.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bTfl35zlHE