1 Topic by Irish

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Topic: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Got Solidoodle 2 up and running last few days and had a good print going yesterday until, foolishly, I turned off the bed heater. Thought that seeing the print was 3" tall already it wasn't needed. needless to say the part delaminated from the bed when it cooled down and I had to cancel the print.

Anyway, today it's a no go. I can feed filament but, like an old man, it has a weak stream. I can feed manually but after a bit it starts stripping. If I run a part it too will start stripping after a while. Basically it can't get enough through the nozzel and backs up so no more filament can be fed thus causing the stripping. Temp is good 190/200C. I've backed the filament out a number of time pulling it very slowly to extract as much out of the head as I can but still no luck if there is something foreign in there.

So, I'm looking for instructions on how to disassemble, if needed, the extrusion head and clean the nozzle. Is there a thread here that would give a basic set of steps? I saw one on assembling the entire head but I hope I don't have to go that far with it.

Thanks,
Irish

2 Reply by Tomek

  • Tomek
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-10-01
  • Posts: 710

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Check out the solidoodle wiki

(google "solidoodle wiki")

I know theres some information there. :-)

3 Reply by IanJohnson

  • IanJohnson
  • Moderator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-07
  • Posts: 2,815

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

See this thread for some instruction - http://www.soliforum.com/topic/255/clea … esnt-work/

4 Reply by Irish

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Thanks fellas. First I'm going to put some ABS, about three feet, in a commercial dehydrator I have for a few hours and try that. That fact that the same ABS was in the head and ran perfectly well then one day later won't got me thinking about the moisture issue. It's fall here and the heat is on so I didn't thing that would be an issue. But, we had heavy rains the day before I had the issues and we noticed the bathroom door was sticking, something that only high humidity causes. Better to eliminate that first I feel.

5 Reply by Irish

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Took some time yesterday and fired up the Solidoodle 2 as I just got a spool of LPA gold in. I was able to feed a feeble amount of ABS. I then backed out the filament and fed in the LPA. Temp both times was 195C. I never could get the LPA to feed anything out of the nozzle and after about six attempts I gave up on it. I'll go tomorrow to Grainger, store local, and pick up a roll of 1/2" Kapton tape. I'll then proceed to take apart the head and try cleaning the nozzle. Frim an aquaintence with a Make-Bot Replicator (kit type) its an issue with them also or probably the entire Fuzed Fillament commuinity.

The LPA was in a sealed envelope with the dehumidying salt so I figured it was still good and dry.

6 Reply by Irish (edited by Irish 2012-12-14 00:38:32)

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

I ordered Kapton Tape through the local Ganger store as they didn't have it. They sent me Kapton Film which of course doesn't have any adhesive on it. So now the right stuff won't be here until Monday.

In the meantime I've taken apart the Extrusion Head and found this is a real old machine by the way it's assembled. I cleaned out the nozzle but found that the threaded brass pipe piece is plugged. This brings up a question. The piece of threaded brass pipe appears to have a white liner which I'll assume is there as a guide for the filament and should be heat resistant. Questions is "how heat resistant" as I need to heat the tube in order to free the piece of filament that's stuck in it.

Any ideas on this before I go and screw up a piece?

7 Reply by IanJohnson

  • IanJohnson
  • Moderator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-07
  • Posts: 2,815

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

There shouldn't be anything in the brass barrel other than plastic.  Was white (or natural) the last color you printed?  The barrel is always going to have plastic left in it. When you back filament out of the extruder, it comes from the top of the melt zone in the barrel, and not all the way from the nozzle.  If you cleaned the nozzle with a torch, you can do the same with the barrel.  Heat it up enough to soften the plastic, and then push as much through as you can with a heavy gauge wire.  Then use the torch to burn out whatever is left. (Take it out of the black barrel first, of course.)

Generally, you don't need to clean out the barrel, since the nozzle is where all the clogging is.  It still is a good idea, just to rule it out as a source of trouble. 

If you are seeing something white in the brass and you weren't printing white, then there is a problem.

8 Reply by Irish

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Both the Nozzel and the Barrel have this white tube of sorts in them. It's a bit larger than a piece of the filament and thus the reason I thought it was a purposeful liner. Yes, I had been printing with white ABS and it started feeding poorly. I switched to PLA gold but never got any of that to feed through. That's what is stuck in the top end of the barrel.

Your response brings up more questions than answers I'm afraid. Big question is why is it hollow all the way from the top of the barrel down to the nozzel and big enough for a piece of filament to pass through?

9 Reply by IanJohnson

  • IanJohnson
  • Moderator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-07
  • Posts: 2,815

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

There is white PTFE (teflon) inside the black PEEK barrel, sometimes called the insulator, or retainer.  Then the brass barrel with the heat core on it, and then the nozzle screwed on to the end of that.   The teflon should be too wide to get into the brass.  The white ABS left in the brass barrel might have a hole through it.  You should probably get the nozzle, brass, and insulator apart and out of the printer to check it out.  Maybe whatever is going on in the barrel is the problem and needs to be cleared out along with the nozzle.

10 Reply by Irish

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

I have everything, everything, taken apart, all individual pieces on the worktable. yes, I realized the teflon insert in the PEEK and it's there with no issues. I could only see this with the part desassembled.

It was just that the white inside the barrel and nozzel was exactly like a inserted tube, perfectly round and top to bottom. Perfectly formed so to speak. The piece in the nozzel was not pushed down into the hole at the end. Basically it is a well formed liner the length of the barrel and the nozzel.

If it's not suppose to be there then I need to take steps to remove it. I just didn't want to melt something out that was actually suppose to be there. Solidoodle offers no information on this what so ever, nothing at all. Seeing the extruder is probably one of the biggest issues with a 3D printer you would think they would address this with some kind of CLEAR instructions.

Thanks for the input Ian. Although new to 3D printers I have many other pieces of equipment such as a laser cutter, etc. So I'm not unfarmilar with most aspects of these types of equipment, just the particulars.

11 Reply by Irish

  • Irish
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-12-07
  • Posts: 104

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Well, got it all burnt out. Yes, it was ABS.  Strange how it formed that tube. Anyway the Extruder Head is all re-assembled and waiting for the Kapton Tape that should arrive Monday.

12 Reply by IanJohnson

  • IanJohnson
  • Moderator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2012-08-07
  • Posts: 2,815

Re: Looking for How-To clean extrusion head

Kapton is the Duct Tape of 3D printing.  You will be glad you have it.