I would suggest setting your hot end to 80-90 degrees. At that temp, PLA becomes rubbery and pliable without being a melty burned out mess. You can then clip and remove the blob with care and proceed with breaking it down.
For other types of filament, you want to be just above the glass transition temperature and below the melting point. (usually it’s a bit above your heated bed temperature.)
papalonian@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m not sure what you mean by stripped threads. Metal is stronger than plastic, there’s nothing the PLA blob can do to cause physical damage to your hot end besides damaging cables. And I don’t know what threads would be exposed to even be damaged.
I mean if you’re wanting to buy a new hotend by all means get one, but don’t do so thinking you have to because of this. I almost wanna guarantee everything still works as long as your cables are intact.
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
True but, with pressure, water can cut metal. I’ll be heat softening it with my PCB toaster oven to see if I can recover it. If it’s just a leak, and no electrical damage, as you mention, it’s probably ok.
Probably, I’ll still get a new hotend, even if there’s no breakage because I think that the PTFE feed tube is a bit of a weak link.