Unclog'n da Nozzle
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It lives! Its printing, but now the nozzle is clogged.
Another phase of 3D printing adventure begins. : ))
I tried the 'atomic extraction', I've poked it with an accupuncture needle, I've pushed in and out... And now, I'm taking it apart to see how its clogged. heh heh heh (yep that is a really big smile on my risque' snooker, because this is the first time in 18 months that this printer has done something other than crash into the table or having the TriGorilla controller board burst into flames, or the rod-end bearings clicking (back-lash) so loudly that my neighbors complained... Belts that don't line up, frozen bearings...? Now that I've replaced virtually everything that AnyCubic sold me (obviously a pre-production prototype)...its starting to work!!! hah hah hah....back to reality..unclogging my E3D-V6 nozzle..
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There are 10 types of people: Those who understand binary and those who don't.
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I usually use the "cold pull" method:
I unscrew the heatbreak from the radiator, and heat it to about 150-180degC, push some filament in, so it melts together with the clogged stuff, then let it cool down.
Start to heat it up again, start at 90degC and go up in 5deg increments until the filament starts to give, so you can gently pull it back out. If you are lucky, yhen you can get it all out, even from the tip of the nozzle.
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@3mm If it is a genuine V6 then best to start with very low retraction compared to what some slicers have as a default - I go for 2mm retract on a direct drive.
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I just had a doozy of a clog this morning, somehow I managed to break off a jam just above the neck of the heatbreak, heating up the heatblock on my volcano didn't soften it, even taking the cooling fan off and leaving it at 285c for 20 minutes wasn't enough to let me push the clog out. Ended up completely disassembling my smart effector and pulling just the heatbreak out of the hotend and then melting out the clog with a heat gun while pushing it out gently with a 1.5mm allen key.
Worst clog I've had in just over a year of printing, only one that's actually required more than just taking a direct drive off.
Everything is back together now and seems to be free and clear
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Thanks for the cogent replies y'all... : ))
Well, I'm sure I did it wrongly, and it looks a bit a messy but eventually I was able to unclog by accidentally employing the 'cold-pull' strategy, as everything else I tried ended with poor result. My fully customized kossel (was originally an AnyCubic, but none of the original parts exist yet it occupies the same physical space), employs a Bowden tube with a frame mounted 'extruder' driver located about 650 mm distance from the efffector. I can see the value of a direct drive in some instances.
I unhooked the Smart-Effector, and unscrewed the nozzle. I heated it with a hot-air rework tool. I pushed an accupuncture needle through it and it came out gooey but didn't unclog. After fiddling around for a time, I let it cool down, then reheated slightly, then pushed in a small length of PLA, let it cool down a bit and then was able to pull it out. That worked.
However, I chose to replace that nozzle it with a new nozzle. It was the nozzle that was shipped in the original AnyCubic kit of parts. I did not want to use the new authentic E3D-V6 hot-end nozzle for testing and calibration. The AnyCubic nozzle had crashed into the table many times over 18 months. So at least one part of the AnyCubic was useful, afterall. I learned a lot on that printer, I couldn't get it to work as a printer, but it was useful for learning how not to do things.
So now I'm in the market for good quality nozzles, there are many being hawked by vendors, such as, --stainless steel, titanium, ruby tipped ($400 ea), chrome plated copper...yada yada yada. When I have a better feel on things, I'll upgrade to something better than this bag of 0.4mm aperature brass units that some vendor sent me a while back. But I'll go through them first.
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