Hello everyone
I’m new to 3d printing and have little experience so far.
My X1C has printed around 20 smaller components out of PLA, PLA-CF, PETG and PAHT-CF so far.
Here is a picture of my BL C1C 0.4 nozzle after about 25 hours.
Is that normal?
How does your nozzle look?
What’s the best way to clean this?
LG
Frank
Not unusual. You can heat it up and wipe it clean with a thick cloth.
Filament buildup on the nozzle is usually a sign of moisture absorption in the filament. PETG and PA are particularly “hygroscopic”. The moisture in the filament turns to steam in the extruder and it causes the plastic to “overextrude” and that can result in build up on the nozzle.
If you’re new to 3D printing, get yourself a filament dryer (or use the printer to dry) and dry your filament and this will be less of an issue (though the build up you’re showing here isn’t really enough to be a problem).
Yummy. 
I clean my nozzle whenever I see a significant accumulation of material – and before as well as after each print with PETG since this material loves to build up massive blobs around the nozzle when it is not in prestine condition.
For this I
That usually does the trick. On your nozzle it appears like there is already some burned material, maybe PLA having been overheated while printing PAHT-CF. Not sure if you can remove that with the soft wire brush but it is still worth a try.
THANK YOU - I am happy - especially as a beginner - about every tip here.
I will first get a filament dryer and a brass brush.
As recommended, I moved the toolhead to the front.
Then put the magnetic cover aside and pull the silicone cover down.
At 230 °C, some PETG filament still comes out of the nozzle - even if the extruder is not running.
A lot can be removed from the nozzle with a thick cotton cloth. Unfortunately, I don’t have a brass brush (yet).
But the cotton rag helps a lot here.
I’ll report back when I have a filament dryer and brass brush.
Regards
Frank
PETG loves to do that… even with perfectly dried filament it tends to ooze a little.
Don’t worry too much if you cannot remove all the residue. My experience is that some filaments – especially PETG – like to build up at the side of the nozzle much, much more when there is already some „fresh and sticky“ residue present. If some burned traces remain on the steel surface, this will most likely not happen and should not concern you. It’s like with a grill: they only look really clean once in their lifetime – that is when they are brand-new and unused… 
I made it a habit to look after the nozzle after each print and remove any traces right away in order to keep it from accumulating too much or even creep all the way up and under the silicone sock (I almost never have to remove the sock). As a result, even with the treaded PETG-CF I have not seen any „dangerous“ amounts of material bulding up besides the nozzle during a print yet. No guarantees, but here this strategy seems to work. 
In the meantime, I often wipe my nozzle with a cotton cloth and some isopropanol at approx. 200°C from different directions.
However, I keep getting something like this:
On the subject of filament dryers:
I can’t decide between the single coil and dual coil dryers.
My current favorite is this one:
Anyone have a suggestion for a filament dryer?
LG
Frank
Hi Frank,
I have coated my X1Cs nozzles in this repellant and it works really well, I can fully recommend it:
Re the filament dryer: I use this and am absolutely happy with it:
Downside to this dryer is that it can only achieve 70C which is too cold to properly dry Nylon. For this I use my home convection oven at 80C for 12h and then (after removing the dried filament 
) do a full pyrolysis cycle that heats the oven to +450C to literally cremate any and all possible residue that might evaporate from the filament during drying.
This, however, is extremly energy inefficient so if anyone can recommend a dryer that achieves +80C, I’m grateful for a recommendation.
Oh, great! Thanks for the suggestion. I never heard of something like that. 
I received my filament dryer and some brass brushes yesterday. The dryer is a Sunlu s2
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09WQLH1PQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
I will try again in the next few days with dried PETG filament and then report back.
By the way, all my parts printed with PLA in the meantime look very beautiful.
The nozzle also looks clean when printing with PLA…
Frank
Hey, I was also going to get something to better clear the nozzles as I also have that issue pictured, thank you for asking about it before.
Did the proper drying help, and what brushes did you get?
Regards
Hi Twack3r,
I don’t believe that you need to dehyrdate nylon at 80C. It will dehyrdate at 70 or 60 just fine.
Compared to other filaments nylon can handle higher temperatures thus most recommend dehyrdating at a higher temperature because it will be quicker. Dehyrdating at 80C will be faster, and some people even recommend 90C.
JT
