How much pressure/tension should there be on the plastic going into the hotend? I feel like there is too much pressure because the hot end is not functioning properly. Plastic does come out but with a crazy amount of work. How do i determine if the hot end is partially blocked? This is for the #makibox but I should be able to apply advice from any one.
For the hotend you should be able to push filament through it by hand when it is at temp. For the extruder. You should not be able to hold the filament back from the drive gear pulling it through when extruding.
OK then I’m confident it’s the hot end I have to look at next then
I am not sure how the makibox hotend is made but i would think it has a screw is nozzle. Possibly there is a partial plug that could be cleared. .
@Wayne_Friedt any tips for clearing it?
+1 on @Wayne_Friedt 's comments. While at temp you should be able to push filament through with moderate pressure. If using ABS then drop the nozzle into some acetone. I had PLA get plugged and I had to get nozzle to temp and then quickly unscrew and then try picking what I could out with a needle. Some people have said they’ve even used blow torches on the nozzle. I was able to clear mine with a needle while holding with needle nose pliers.
I can’t find a needle small enough. On the acetone tip, will that damage the electronics?
I should’ve clarified, the acetone dip is assuming your can unscrew the nozzle and only drop that in. I’m not familiar with your hotend, but I’d imagine you can unscrew the nozzle. Bring it to temp so it’ll be way easier to unscrew as there will be filament in the hotend. Otherwise it’ll be like trying to unscrew a rusty bolt.
Its probably around .4mm so you would need a stiff piece of wire from a wire brush or something like that. Ya shouldn’t put the electronics in acetone. Standard procedure for hotends, Heat the hotend up to temp before trying to unscrew the nozzle. When the nozzle is off you can soak it in acetone or burn out the filament with a torch. Would be good to get one of those little drill bits from ebay that are good for a clogged hotend.
My hot end is pressure fitted to a flex circuit so I think extreme heat and acetone are not an option. Damn. I’ll try the wire brush wire
I have successfully used a fine gauge guitar string to clean a 0.4 mm nozzle. Just clip a few cm off the free end and grasp it with pliers.
I can also highly recommend the cold-pulling technique described here: http://bukobot.com/nozzle-cleaning
Looks to me like there is a removable nozzle.
If it takes a crazy amount of force…could your temperature be too low?
The usual way of fixing a clogged muzzle is to heat it up very far, remove what’s on the outside. Then push filament through with your hand.
Retract the filament until It’s out of the hotend and let it cool down again.
A good extruder should transfer as much force onto the filament as possbible but not bite into the filament overly much, so the diameter and volume stays constant. (No filament dust from grinding)
Make sure to push any wire from the outside in, so the debris will fall out
What is “wrote”?
That,s what i was wondering
Stupid autocorrect, lol. I see @Wayne_Friedt was hit by it too
@Eric_Moy Can’t blame mine on auto correct. Mine was just plain ol bad typen.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll give me a try today
I always try to pull the filament (pla) out of the hotend when it’s just soft enough (<100 deg C) to pull out by hand. When I do it carefully, I get everything out, all the way down to the nozzle. It is also sticky enough to take a lot of dirt with it, so it keeps the hotend clean. This may not be possible with all hotends though…