Yesterday I learned that using a torch to try to unclog a 0.2mm nozzle is … exciting. My printer kept reporting that the extrusion motor was overloaded and running the cold pull utility resulted in a clicking extruder as it ground down the side of the filament.
I attempted to heat up the nozzle with a torch and push the filament through. After about 20-30 seconds or so of heating with a torch the pressure built up and violently ejected the nozzle tip from the rest of the hotend. I’ve done this before with my Creality printer nozzles but I think in this instance the filament clogged in the heatbreak creating an airtight seal. I can only assume the pressure built up as the filament began to burn/off gas which led to the resulting … excitement.
Yea that makes sense in retrospect. It just didn’t occur to me last night that pressure could build up li ke that in the nozzle. I’ll be sure to use a needle/hex wrench in the future.
I had a tip come out of a X1 hot end during printing, so it could have been a manufacturing defect that got exacerbated by your heating. The tips are usually heat shrink-fit so best not to over heat them.
Quit peeing on my Cheerios! I have been taking the end out and firing it up (after I turn off my oxygen of course-what’d you thinks I was-an idjit?) torch that little puppy up and Oh Black Betty ram that jam! In all seriousness, thank you for that PSA, you probably saved me from heartbreak if something went bad…
Indeed. The built in heater does such a good job. I did have a couple of cases where the filament snapped at the top. They are particularly tricky to unblock.
gonna sound unhinged but at one point my nozzle was so clogged that i just took the smallest drill bit i owned and quite literally drilled down into it; stopping just before the actual nozzle tip.
my logic being “well it isn’t gonna get any more broken than it already is”.
worked perfectly; been using the nozzle ever since.
So the nozzle tip shot out like a small caliber bullet? Glad you weren’t hurt.
I took a difference approach with clogging or suspicious clogging. I replaced the nozzle with a spare, and marked the bad one as “To be unclogged later”.
So far there hasn’t been another clogging. I may not unclog that bad one at all. If there is another clogged nozzle, I would simply replace it with a new one.
Yeah, pretty much like a bullet except with far less velocity. The sound was the most violent part. This was with a 0.2mm nozzle and I didn’t have any spares, but in the future I will be using the needle approach and not the increase the pressure inside the nozzle until something comes apart violently approach.
The needle included is for 0.4. I’m not sure a 0.2 needle exist or would even work because it would be very flimsy so you’re probably left with the hex wrench method or cold pulls. I’ve been there and was lucky. I only used cold pulls, several of them. IIRC on the first cold pull the extruder just clicked but somehow it melted together (filement was cut iirc) so I got a lot out anyway (the printer did not abort the cold pull routine). That was unexpected and a relief.
I don’t have a torch, but I do use an air gun or soldering iron from time to time.