How can I get the clogged filament out of this heatblock?

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• pro_user@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  If you can connect it back and heat it up to regular printing temperatures, you should be able to do a so-called “cold pull” that should fix it.

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  • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I tried this, but the filament doesn’t seem to fuse or connect very much; I also tried with this thing

    Image and I also didn’t seem to be able to push it into the hotend through the extruder.

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  • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Thanks, I’ll try this.

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• Oxidant6283@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I use a heat gun to get the filament just soft enough , then use tweezers to pull off big chunks. A vice helps here, you can clamp the heat block while you’re heating, then use pliers or a wrench to unscrew the heatbreak and the nozzle. Once the parts are separated, you can drop the parts in a glass jar of acetone, and that will break down the filament so you can get the rest off with a brass wire brush. Just don’t dunk the thermal sensor or heater element in the acetone. The metal parts will be fine, but the insulation on the wires could be damaged depending on composition. I’ve saved and rebuilt several hotends this way - it’s great to not have to be ordering hotend parts all the time. 😁

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  • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I don’t think I have acetone, but if I try other things and they don’t work then I’ll try this.

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    • Oxidant6283@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      It’s readily available as regular old nail polish remover

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    • morbidcactus@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      What type of filament? Acetone doesn’t do much to things like pla or petg, stuff that works aren’t things you generally want around the house, industrial solvents and stuff.

      Cold pull as others recommended, nozzles are consumables, def should keep some around. Cleaning filament works pretty well in my experience if you have a partial clog. Have had some success soaking partially clogged nozzles in acetone (not the best but it’s something with long enough residence times), but that won’t get you up and running today.

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• IMALlama@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  My old i3 clone came with a 1mm steel rod I use in these situations. Leave the extruder on your printer, cut the filament off, heat up the extruder to a normal printing temp, and push the gunk through the nozzle. If you have a cold side clog you’re probably going to have to add heat from something like a heat gun.

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• JMorningstar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Blowtorch, just be careful of the wires and try to get the thermistor and heater out first.

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• _thebrain_@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  put them on a sheet of aluminum foil and put them on a cookie tray in your oven. set the oven to 450 degrees and bake it for a half hour plus. everything should melt out of it. you could even suspend it with a rolled up piece of foil under it. depending on the wires your thermistor may suffer but the heating element should be fine. tho, your thermistor probably will be okay too as it looks like it has silicone covering the wire.

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  • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    This sounds potentially dangerous

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    • _thebrain_@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I don’t know. I’ve use this method several times and I’ve never had a problem. I probably should have specified that I’m in the states so 450° f versus 200 or 210° c that your printer runs at isn’t a huge difference. Sure. You run the risk of some fumes, but your printer is already belting the plastic. In that temperature. You need to go a lot hotter than 400° in order to set it on fire. It’s a lot safer than using a blowtorch

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• MrEC@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I’ve used the torch and cold pull methods successfully, but have had great luck with a cheap set of acupuncture needles from Amazon. I would pre-heat on the printer and just poke the needle in there a bit and feed filament through.

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