I want to replace my extruder. So I want to save the extruder for later use. How do I extract the filament left in the extruder after an unload. Since it no longer is attached to the gear assembly to feed it.
I wouldn’t be worried about the hotend having filament in it when you remove it. Won’t hurt it any. When you reinstall it and heat the tip up it will come out like normal.
Yeah, that little stub that’s left inside the top of the hot end is supposed to be there. A brand new nozzle will arrive with the same stub (because they test them). When a new filament is loaded, it feeds in until it hits that stub, and then it drives the stub out when the printer does it’s prime/purge prior to starting your print.
The only time you need to worry about getting that stub out of the hot end is if the nozzle is clogged and poking it from the outside with a needle doesn’t open it up. Then, you need to yank that stub out, doing a “cold pull” to clear out the blockage.
The process for that is to heat up the end of the 1.5mm Allen wrench that came with the printer, using a lighter, and when it’s good and hot jam it in to the top end of the extruder as far as it’ll go (which won’t be far before it cools off enough the plastic won’t melt out of the way). Then give it a minute or so to cool off even more, and pull like hell. The stub should come out attached to the Allen key. The end that was in the nozzle should have some carbonized gunk on it if the “pull” worked.
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