Kakrofoon

I just had a base layer roll up and melt over my whole hot end; I wound up having to use a knife get the element screw loose. I happened across this thread hoping to find a solvent that would work, and it looks like only break parts cleaner would even kind of work. I also read that PLA has a thermal degradation mechanism, and considering the hot end was a lost cause I pulled out a propane heater gun and tried heating it. The PLA basically wetted into the aluminum and brass and boiled off, and the residue appeared to be just pigment and cleaned up with alcohol. I did overheat the aluminum a bit (the surface got rough), but the nozzle and block still work OK. My setup is maybe 10 bucks, and made the nozzle look brand new - I've put another 20 hours on it since, with no issues.