Build up of filament on printer head

[Tony 1]

Started about an 8 hour print before I left the office. Came in next morning and print was hanging from head and now the head has major build up of PLA filament around the nozzle and inside. Got about a quarter of the way done before trouble seemed to start taking place. Here are a couple of photos:

Is there any way to remove the plastic without damaging hardware? Or is a replacement head necessary? Appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[00D00B 58]

Hi,

First you have to heat up your nozzle. Don't necessarly heat it up to 200 degrees or more, just around 140 sounds normally enough to get the plastic softer.

Then remove the fan bracket.

Now you have to clean everything you can and when it sounds better, heat your nozzle to at least 210 and tear down the hotend, it will be easier to clean the upper part

[cowardc 1]

hi,

this has happened to my printers a few times do you know the cause of this and how to prevent it from happening again?

thank you

[chrisw 69]

do you know the cause of this and how to prevent it from happening again

 

Probably there's not enough pressure among those 3 components that are vertically in line between the top & bottom plates of your printer head. If you can reach in with your fingers and spin that aluminum cylinder which sits atop the white plastic coupler, then it's too loose. The way to tighten it would be to rotate the metal ring that has the visible holes (just below the white plastic coupler). You'd need to do that after cleaning, and while the nozzle is warm.... maybe 150-170C. The cylinder should be snug but not really tight. Too much pressure would deform the white plastic piece.

At first this explanation probably doesn't make sense, because the leak is happening below those 3 parts. But pressure for the lower joint comes from making those 3 inline parts fit more snugly between the top/bottom plates

[cowardc 1]

ok I will try this thank you for the advice

 

 

do you know the cause of this and how to prevent it from happening again

 

Probably there's not enough pressure among those 3 components that are vertically in line between the top & bottom plates of your printer head.   If you can reach in with your fingers and spin that aluminum cylinder which sits atop the white plastic coupler, then it's too loose.  The way to tighten it would be to rotate the metal ring that has the visible holes (just below the white plastic coupler).  You'd need to do that after cleaning, and while the nozzle is warm.... maybe 150-170C.  The cylinder should be snug but not really tight.   Too much pressure would deform the white plastic piece.

At first this explanation probably doesn't make sense, because the leak is happening below those 3 parts.    But pressure for the lower joint comes from making those 3 inline parts fit more snugly between the top/bottom plates

 

[ultiarjan 1,162]

 

@sandervg any news on an instruction to properly mount the head with the correct pressure? last thing I remember is you had worries on the dimensional accuracy of a 3d printed measuring tool, but maybe if you provide it with the correct dimensions, people can check it before use?

[seggyroro 0]

HI, Im using the Ultimaker 2 Extended + . Have faced the same issue today.Was printing on standard Ultimaker PLA Silver(out of the box). Left it for a 7 hour print and came back to find similar buildup. I'm worried about the wires, despite heating up the nozzle, the solid PLA mass still is stuck around the wires at the back. How do i remove the solid mass?

Did your issue get sorted out? If so, how?

[HarveyAndrew 0]

HI, Im using the Ultimaker 2 Extended + . Have faced the same issue today.Was printing on standard Ultimaker PLA Silver(out of the box). Left it for a 7 hour print and came back to find similar buildup. I'm worried about the wires, despite heating up the nozzle, the solid PLA mass still is stuck around the wires at the back. How do i remove the solid mass?

Did your issue get sorted out? If so, how?

 

I had a very similar but significantly worse buildup than any of the other prints. This was with both ABS (close to the printer head that I hadn't noticed) and then a ton of colorfabb clear co-polyester PLA filament. I started by taking all the screws out of the print head (unscrewed the handscrews off the top of the printer head, then removed the fan screws, then took the big aluminum fan bracket off the heat-up piece). This allowed me good access to the printer head (but the one fan is really annoying because when you heat up the printer head, it turns on automatically). Then I heated up the printer head to ~180 degrees and used a screwdriver (and a heat resistant glove) to get a large portion of it off. For the area next to the wires, I actually used some wire cutters to cut the filament off the wires (just - be careful with this one so you don't cut the wires). Then I used a file to get the remaining little bits off the printer head.

Additionally, I wanted to put a new printer head on (just to do a full reset of the head) but noticed that at room temperature the current printer head was completely stuck. So I turned the heat way up (200 degrees) and the printer head slowly started to come loose with a good monkey wrench and some pliers (I think the extruded material was leaking through the threads of the print head so it was stuck at room temperature). Waiting for the print head to cool down now so I can re-assemble but all the material seems to be gone at this point.