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Leaking Nozzle


rssorensen

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Posted · Leaking Nozzle

I've seen several people discussing leaking nozzle on this forum.

Unfortunately I haven't found the solution to my problem reading through the replies.

I have a Ultimaker 2+ and I use Cura 2.3.1. I've had the printer for ~ 6 month and I've had the problem for a long time but I'm not sure when it really started.

When I print something (either using PLA or PETG) material leaks out through the thread between the Olsson block and the nozzle. At this time I believe I've tried almost everything but without luck.

I have tried different material (PLA & PETG and different vendors - eSUN, GizmoDorks and Ultimakers) - no difference.

I have made sure that the nozzle is tighten using the Olsson wrench. That didn't help either; I even went one step further and tighten the nozzle - a tad more. Still - material leaks.

I have tried generating the G-CODE file both with Cura 2.3.1 and the "old" Cura 15.04.6. Same result (which didn't surprise be - but I thought I should give it a try)

I have tried different Nozzle sizes (0.4 mm and 0.8 mm). No difference.

I have tried adjusting the Flow. I'm not exactly sure what the Flow settings does but I guessed it reduced the amount of material fed to the block. Still - leaking.

I have replaced the Nozzle. I have replaced the Block and even the Thermocoupler. No difference ! It still leaks. I even replaced all of the above all at once (so everything were "new") but still it leaks through the thread between Nozzle and Block.

Now - I do admit that the Olsson Block and the Nozzle I've used for replacement is not the "original" block. I don't see the Olsson Block for sale on Ultimakers website so I've bought what I could find online from other resellers.

Any suggestion what else I could do would be greatly appreciated. As it is now - I have to clean my nozzle every ~ 30 minutes and that's even after I lowered the temperature to ~ 190C for PLA.

thanks,

Robert

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Hi there,

    One thing I did not see you mention (maybe I missed it), do you tighten the nozzle while it is hot? If you tighten when cold, then when the nozzle heats up it expands a bit, which would loosen the threads again.

    Though, by the sounds of things, that is not your main/only issue, if it is leaking that much.

    So, yeah, what DidierKlein asked. :)

    Good Luck!

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    > did you get a cheap Chinese block & nozzles is what they mean to ask :)

    > Indeed you should tighten the nozzle at printing temp, I use 230c

    > What material did you use to print the Olsson wrench? I'd advice PLA, if you know someone with a torque wrench, you can test the torque of the printed wrench, it needs to be around 0.4 to 0.5 Nm but I've seen more than one that produced less...

    best thing ofc is to use a real torgue screwdriver, like a "wera 7440" , but it's not cheap...

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    All

    Thanks for all the replies.

    Here are answers to the questions:

    DidierKlein :

    With respect to the leakage - the only place it can leak is through the thread between the nozzle and the Olsson clock. (I'll try to attach a picture)

    Where did I buy the replacement parts: I bought the Nozzles where I could find them (including eBay). Yes - they are undoubtedly mostly from China but then again - I did have leakage from the original block/nozzle that came with the printer.

    krys & ultiarjan :

    Yes I did tighten the nozzle with the Olsson when it was hot. I don't remember the temperature but I usually heat the nozzle to 220C or 230C.

    The wrench was printed with PLA and 100% infill as recommended. I have however not been able to verify the torque.

    IMG_0366.thumb.JPG.f5a0c85484a536117d9c5dccf1a43a6a.JPG

    IMG_0366.thumb.JPG.f5a0c85484a536117d9c5dccf1a43a6a.JPG

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Wow! I have never seen it that bad before.

    ... I got nothing. Sorry. But DidierKlein and ultiarjan know everything, so you are in good hands! :)

    Good luck!

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    I'm puzzled, i could understand a leak on one olsson block (problem in the thread or nozzle can happen).

    But i don't understand how the same thing could happen on two different sets (it could but no luck then). Are you sure that it leaks? It's not some material that is dragged by the material and sticks to the nozzle?

    By the way the nozzles are the ones you had with the printer? Have you contacted the reseller about this?

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    Posted (edited) · Leaking Nozzle

    Hi @rssorensen,

    thank you for your post.

    Could it be that you had a leakage in your original Olsson Block that came with the machine, for some reason. (Most likely because it was not tightened, or there was a brim or dirt in between). Then you replaced it by a Chinese version, which maybe did not meet the full specs, which caused a leak. And both leakages have different causes?

    Is there a way for you to measure the amount of force your printed tool applies? It is a great tool for guidance, but because everyone has to print its own, the quality/reliability can vary.

    nozzles.thumb.png.a317872f04d95f0f0c65eeb105c35e6d.png

    Is it me, or does your nozzle also look different? I compared it with an Olsson Block and nozzle I had lying around, and it seems like with yours there is this connection (doesn't look like filament), and there is a gap in the original one.

    nozzles.thumb.png.a317872f04d95f0f0c65eeb105c35e6d.png

    Edited by Guest
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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Again - Thanks for all the response and support.

    DidierKlein.

    I did not contact the seller about the issue. For a couple of reasons.

    I'm new to 3D printing and was assuming that I did something wrong. I did have issues with the nozzle dragging through my prints etc and at some point I changed my 0.4mm nozzle with the 0.8mm that came with the printer and I then changed both nozzle and block a couple of times and - I lost track of which are which.

    Am I sure it's a leak? Yes. 100%. I can sit and almost watch as it leaks out. At 230C (PLA) it takes 5 minutes - then I can see the material and within 20 minutes I need to pause and "clean" away the material. (I sometimes reduce the temperature once the bottom layer is done to ~190C and it does by me an additional ~10 minutes :-)

    SandervG

    I have not been able to verify the torque that my tool uses.

    I'm open to the possibilities of the Chinese block's doesn't meet some spec that the block Ultimaker delivers. Keep in mind though - I've tried at least 3 blocks and several nozzles.

    Regarding the pictures. Yes there is a gap. I'm not sure if mine looks different (and in the context of leak) what could be different. The nozzle seem to fit well into the block.

    All that said - perhaps my question to the forum is.

    When you replace the Olsson block - where do you buy them? And do you know what parameter to pay attention to?

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    All that said - perhaps my question to the forum is.

    When you replace the Olsson block - where do you buy them? And do you know what parameter to pay attention to?

     

    Hi,

    I see you are in the US.

    In which case you might want to look at / talk to fabrc8. They probably are the ones that made your printer anyway. :)

    The other source I know of in the US is gr5. They carry Ultimaker parts and also 3rd party mods.

    There might be other good sources, but those are the two I know and have purchased from. Plus they are both active members on this forum. :)

    Hope it helps.

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Since you are from the US, I would also recommend to check out Dynamism (its somewhere on that page) and fbrc8. Or at GR5's store. All good sources :)

    What you should look for, if reliability is important for you, is that you buy one which is a real Olsson Block, and not a clone. You could check if the threads are clean before you screw it together, but besides that it should be good.

    In the examples of above, there is a socket (from a wrench) included. I used a pair of plier on this socket to remove a hot nozzle (my fingers are not fire proof yet unfortunately).. but to insert a new one, I only used my fingers / hand to screw it in. There is enough time to screw it in and tighten it, before the cold nozzles heats up too hot from the hot heaterblock where you screw it in. It is not recommended to use pliers to screw the new nozzle in, as it is easy to apply too much force and break it.

    But 'handtight', or as tight as you can get it with your hands, should be tight enough.

    It is also recommend to do this with an empty nozzle / printhead. So no filament inserted. That way there is minimal oozing during the swap, which could get in the threads.

    Let me know if you have any other questions. If it helps, you could also describe step by step how you handle the process of switching nozzles.

    By the way, there should be an encryption on the original nozzles that tell you what size it is. I can't imagine getting good results by printing with a .4 nozzle when you set it to .8, or the other way around. But it should not result in such heavy leakages.

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Hi SandervG

    Thanks for your reply.

    I've followed yours and krys' advise and ordered an Olsson Block from gr5.

    That said - I'm still struggling to understand what in this block can make such a huge difference.

    The block's I have bought - some came with the wrench and tools both look and "feel" OK. I can't tell the difference and when I install the nozzle (before installing it) once the nozzle is in it feels tight and don't move at all.

    When I remove or change nozzle I do remove material and keep the block hot while I change the nozzle. Once the nozzle is changed I re level the build plate and insert filament.

    As I've indicated above - in one scenario I changed everything block, thermo coupler/steel coupler and nozzle Tighten everything (hot) with the Olsson wrench. Even that combo leaked immediately.

    I am aware that printing with a wrong nozzle compared what the slicer assumed is a no no so I don't do that but I did speculate whether somehow the feeder fed to much material to the nozzle (such that excess material had to be pushed out elsewhere) but I've tried to reduce flow and don't see a difference.

    By the way - I have measured the width of the material that's extruded prior to a print and for a 0.4 mm nozzle it's 0.48mm. Not sure whether that's to be expected.

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Well it can look and feel similar on the outside, I don't think that is the most difficult part if they want to reverse engineer this item. But it could be that the specs are off on the inside. Like where does the nozzle connect with the heaterblock? Are there any gaps internally?

    These questions are kinda hard to answer in hindsight though.

    Your steps for switching nozzles seem ok.

    'As I've indicated above - in one scenario I changed everything block, thermo coupler/steel coupler and nozzle Tighten everything (hot) with the Olsson wrench. Even that combo leaked immediately.' Was this an original set or from China?

    ' (such that excess material had to be pushed out elsewhere)'

    If your nozzle / hot end is completely sealed off as it should, than even if there was too much material it should not be able to create a leakage. I think the most obvious way would be to go up towards the bowden tube.

    0.48 sounds a bit big to me.

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    After cleaning, but before assembling it again, it might be a good idea to check tightness with compressed air and a gas pipe leak detector (spray can), or with water? Then you can see if there are still any leaks.

    I don't know if adding heat resistant copper paste on the threads is a good idea? or some similar anti-leak and anti-lock stuff? Like they do in chemical industry?

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Hi rssorensen,

    I'll think it is the flat flange inside the "Olsson" block that's skewed, might be the Chinese block(?). Same thing for the nozzle, the flat part going into the "Olsson" block need to be right.

    Imagine a vertical line passing through the assembled unit (from the middle of the front filament and through the mouthpiece), the two flat flanges should be angled 90 degrees with this vertical line.

    This two flanges is the actual sealing between the nozzle and the heat block.

    Maybe the first nozzle had a skewed flat (?) -then the problem started.

    Good luck.

    Thanks.

    Torgeir.

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    I wonder about a couple things. Maybe @SandervG or others might have some insights:

    1) None of what has been suggested so far would explain why the original true Olsson Block that the printer came with would have such severe leaking to begin with. If it had not failed, or other blocks would have been bought, I assume. :)

    2) If the new Olsson Block from Gr5 comes in and the printer still leaks, then what? I.e. if it is not the nozzle that is the source of the problem, what else could produce similar symptoms?

    Anyway, the above comments just got me thinking about these a bit.

    Hope it helps. :)

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    Hi to all

    Hi rssorensen ,

    Just my 2 cents

    In machining process, this is a well known problem for tapping drilling blind hole !

    5a33262e0385c_rubynozzlemount.thumb.jpg.cc7fb6371ba8c4e882b93d95e2b1696c.jpg

    5a33262e0385c_rubynozzlemount.thumb.jpg.cc7fb6371ba8c4e882b93d95e2b1696c.jpg

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    Posted · Leaking Nozzle

    All

    So I thought I would share an update.

    While I still haven't received my new block from gr5 I did find my "old" original block (the one that came with the machine). It still had the nozzle - all covered in filament - inserted so I decided to give it another try.

    I did not print the Olsson wrench before I started to experiment so I thought that perhaps the first leak were caused by my inexperience and the fact that I hadn't tightened the nozzle correctly.

    I heated the block/nozzle with a heat gun and mounted the block along with a new nozzle in my printer.

    My printer now prints with out leaking! In fact - it prints beautiful!

    All in all - a lesson learned for me!

    Everyone - thanks for all your comments, advise etc.

    thanks,

    Robert

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    Posted (edited) · Leaking Nozzle

    Had exactly the same problem with an Ultimaker 2+ and it was causing a lot of issues. However, it was relatively easy to fix in the end. Here is what I did.

    Remove the nozzle and with some fine wet and dry remove any residue from the flat end of the screw thread.

    Heat up the assembly without the nozzle and scrape off all the melted plastic. I then used a small flat bladed driver bit to scrape around the inside of the assembly where the nozzle would seat. Hold the assembly with pliers otherwise you'll burn your fingers!. I spent about 5 minutes gently removing any residue inside where the nozzle goes.

    Put it all back together while hot and bob's your uncle. No more issues.

    I suspect that when inserting the nozzle cold, plastic, which is on the end of the nozzle thread end and inside the assembly where the nozzle seats stops it from closing up brass to brass. Once heated the PLA that was in the way melts and a small gap is created between the nozzle inside end and where it seats allowing PLA to freely flow.
    Been running it for days since I did this with no issues.

     

    Edited by slim8589
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