1 Topic by roli

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Topic: Extruder clogged at the beginning

I have an interesting problem with my Solidoodle 2 right now. During a print it started stripping filament and stopped extruding entirely. I tried extruding a bit of filament manually with mixed results. It either went out fine (but wasn't straight as it should be) or it was barely coming out and was curling in a small ball at the end. So I reversed the filament out to clean everything with a wire. But in the process of removing the filament a small bit broke off at the end and got stuck right at the end of the acrylic part/beginning of the PEEK tube. Problem is that I can't get it out. I tried what I normally do when such things happen - I tried extruding a small wrench. Problem is that it gets stuck at that bit too. So, any ideas on how to get rid of this thing?

2 Reply by Tomek

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

pictures help, though maybe others see it more clearly based on description.

3 Reply by roli

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

Well, I managed to clear it with a bit of work. It took me 8 hours to unclog the damned thing. I removed the nozzle (just the nozzle not the actual PEEK tube). Spend a few hours unclogging that. Then went on to unclog the peek element. I couldn't remove it because filament got stuck right between the acrylic and the peek. So I used a small drill to drill that fillament from the bottom of the PEEK towards the acrylic. Then I could remove the PEEK and properly clean everything.

So my printer is back to working state again but I still see it stripping filament and I am not really pleased with that.

4 Reply by 2n2r5

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

Try slowing your print speed down. Also, if you disassemble the peek and barrel, they can both be put in acetone to clean them up. That should make cleaning everything a breeze. Sounds like you might want to try that with you nozzle also. You might have a partial clog keeping the filament from feeding properly.

As a side note, you don't want the filament melting in the peek. You might want to think about putting a fan on the peek to keep that from happening. I am on my phone so I can't search but right now but IanJohnson had a picture of that somewhere on the forums of an example of that.

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5 Reply by 3d-oodler

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

I'm surprised you were able to remove the nozzle without removing the barrel from the PEEK.

When this happened to me, I had to remove the jigsaw and take apart the acrylic.

In addition to what 2n2r5 said, you might try lowering your extruder temp.  I got to this bad place by printing PLA @ 195C, not knowing at the time that the thermistor placement results in readings that are 30C off.

6 Reply by roli

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

Well, I did a few prints after that - one of them was a long 7 hour one. Everything printed fine but there is still a lot of filament getting stripped. When I removed the PEEK and the nozzle I cleaned everything as best as I could and I don't think that there is any unwanted filament left in the nozzle or in the PEEK tube. I think I clogged the PEEK when I pushed a small piece of broken filament into the extruder with a wrench - because the thing clogged completely when I pulled it out.

Now, I am not entirely sure what do you mean by the barrel. As far as I know the nozzle screws directly into the PEEK?

7 Reply by saymo606

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

nozzle screws into the barrel, the barrel screws into the peek.

8 Reply by roli

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Re: Extruder clogged at the beginning

Really? They look like they are a single piece. I tried unscrewing it but there was no chance that I could get them apart. Especially because that crumbling thing around the heating element is in the way so you have even less space to grab the thing.