Please Help!!!

[Ludmasson76 0]

Has this happened to anyone else with their Ultimaker3?  I came into work after the weekend and was suprised with this disaster.

Does anyone know what wouldve caused this?

[gr5 1,399]

These are relatively common.  Although it has never happened to me after years of printing with UM3 and S5.  It's called a "head flood".  Don't panic.

 

Hopefully this is PLA.  If it's a higher temp material you may need an entire new head.

 

Contact your reseller.  They can help you out.

 

But basically someone has to get a heat gun and spend 30 to 60 minutes heating bits of pla and then removing with metal tools such a pliers, screwdrivers, etc.

 

Heaflood causes

 

One cause is that the head flops open because the magnets aren't making good contact.  But this is rare.  90% of the time the problem is that the part came loose.  If the part you are printing is wider than tall at the moment it comes loose from the print bed then this is exactly what you get.  The part slides around like a hokey puck.

 

Prevention

 

Never ever ever ever let a part come loose from the bed.  There are a lot of things to know.  I detail them all in my video here.  Yes it's long - but if you follow my advice you will never ever have a part come loose during a print.  You can hit the part with a hammer sideways and it should not come loose.  In the video I pick up the entire printer with a tiny print on the print bed (a normal size ultibot).

 

 

 

[maht 80]

Contact your reseller, they will be able to resolve this!

[Oliveros 9]

Happened to me more times than I'm comfortable to admit.

 

Not with an Ultimaker printer but with the 3 Monoprice Ultimate's I've had. 

 

It happens if a print is knocked loose from the bed and the filament is extruded into the air, depending on what happens, normally the filament starts to build up on the head and it just keeps going until the print is "done".

 

I've had it encase the entirety of the extruder heat, not just the nozzle or heating block but the entire thing, one of the first prints I attempted when I was just starting out, put it in overnight. 

 

It was an absolute mess.

 

I just heated the nozzle and pulled what I could off, then removed the nozzle and scraped the remainder, most of it isn't melted to anything, it's just been pushed up against other cold surfaces during the "print" and should come off relatively easy, it's the stuff on the nozzle that you need to heat up to remove.

[uncle_bob 20]

Hi

 

I've had it happen because a part separated (split) while being printed. Indeed that should never happen but it did :(. Like the others, I have also seen it happen from parts coming loose. I have not (yet) seen it happen on my UM3's or S5. I make no predictions about the future ....

 

The cleanup process is back and forth with the heat gun and the needle nose pilers / tools. Heat a little and then pull a little. If you get everything soft at once, it just will ooze around and get worse. If it's not soft enough, you will have to pull way to hard to get it off.  Depending on just what is stuck where, a few "strategic" cuts with diagonal cut pliers can speed things up. Be very careful if you take this route. You only want to cut filament and not some vital component that happens to be hidden under it !!

 

I like a "small tube" heat gun for this sort of thing. I also like one that does not get super monster honking hot. Multiple temperature settings can be a good thing on a heat gun. I'd be happy to point you to one I use, but mine has been out of production for a long time .... sorry about that. 

 

This is about as close as I can find in a quick Amazon search. Other than it turning up in the search I know absolutely nothing about it:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Heat-Gun-Vinyl-Heat-Shrink-iHGun-1-Accuracy-Temperature-Adjustable/dp/B0752Z4165/ref=sr_1_50_sspa?keywords=heat+gun&qid=1580412530&sr=8-50-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE1MlNERUlSRlY3R0wmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA3OTk3NjRIS0tZVDhXTFI0QVkmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDI3MjEwOTI4OEVCUUY4U0RHTzkmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGZfbmV4dCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

 

Things to check in the future:

 

1) How are the parts being held to the build plate? If I stop a test print and give the part a shove, how well is it working?

 

2) Are the magnets in place on the head cover? Does it snap nicely when it is shut? If it gets bumped by hand does it flop down?

 

3) Do prints turn into "spaghetti festivals" ? If so, figure out what is causing that failure (could be filament / settings related). If the print goes nuts, this can be the result.

 

4) Start back up with quick / simple prints you can keep an eye on. Make sure all is working well. Be very picky about what is going on ( = being a perfectionist at this stage is ok). Once you have a few dozen runs that all went well, relax and kick back again. 

 

Lots of fun !!!

 

Bob

 

 

[e23 1]

I've had this happen to me. I had to replace the head since it was ABS plastic which was too much of a pain to remove.

 

I've never seen it get that bad though mine was like 1/5th that at most if not 1/10th.

 

If you go this route try to salvage anything in case you need it later on.

 

BB - 0.4 nozzle looks like it can be pulled and saved and maybe the AA one to as well.

[uncle_bob 20]

Hi

 

If the "gunk" got into the fans and locked them up ... replace them. Having them lock up for who knows how long is not a good thing. Having them burn out / lock up a month from now means further damage down the road.

 

Bob

[e23 1]

3 hours ago, uncle_bob said:

Hi

 

If the "gunk" got into the fans and locked them up ... replace them. Having them lock up for who knows how long is not a good thing. Having them burn out / lock up a month from now means further damage down the road.

 

Bob

 

This is what I did myself. I didn't want to risk anything.

 

https://fbrc8.com/collections/ultimaker-3-spare-parts/products/print-head-assembly-um3x

 

You just replace this part.

 

metal rods and tubes should come out easily enough.

 

You don't have to order from them.

 

Sounds like he left the 3D printer go for the weekend at work. It's apart of the risk with something like that alone.

 

That's if OP can't fix his 3D printer.

 

 

Edited January 31 by e23