How to clean residue off the nozzle and heatblock

[zhaowuu 0]

Hi guys, I'm a newbie here. I bought the UM2 a couple weeks ago and it performed very well most of the times. This morning I woke and found the last night's print work totally ruined. The entire heatblock was covered with the PLA filament that I was printing with. I carefully took the heatblock apart and now I'm having a problem putting the hot end isolator back on to the nozzle. I think the PLA residues on the nozzle is preventing me screwing the isolator back on. I tried heating up the nozzle with a torch but I just can't get the residue out of those tiny gaps. Is there another method that you guys recommend?

I guess the worst case scenario would be getting a new set of nozzle and isolator.

Thanks in advance for the tips and feedback!

Zhao

 

[gr5 2,069]

The isolator is the white part - it's teflon. Don't heat it above 250C (don't use a torch on it). Maybe you mean the "isolator nut"?

You can burn out any remaining PLA or you can just turn on the nozzle heater to 150C and when temp is stable screw the nut on. Try not to burn yourself (use gloves and/or tools).

 

[randyinla 14]

Just left this same tip in another thread.

I clean around my hot end and aluminum fan shroud using a Dremel with wire brush tip on the lowest speed setting. Works beautifully and leaves the metal looking brand new. I too had a failed print go on for about 8 hours, coating everything from the hot end up in molten plastic. Took about 10 - 20 min to clean it all up.

Stay away from the bottom of your hot end with the Dremel. You don't want to reshape it by accident and ruin your prints!!