Hi folks,
I’ve seen a handful of threads wherein people snapped a nozzle or otherwise damaged their hot end and secured replacements. My story is pretty similar and begins with some advanced leveling problems. Up to this point my Taz 6, with some pre-print prep, accurately measured the four corner disks. Without pre-print prep, the printer would MASH corners (not always the first one) down until it finally made contact or would give up and try to wipe itself again (despite being blisteringly clean).
Logically, I checked the continuity of the disks to the bed (A-OK!) and then the continuity between the nozzle and heating block (Meh?). It seemed that some old ABS was gumming up the threads so the nozzle and heating block didn’t always make great contact. I cleaned that up as best as I could with acetone and resumed printing. It didn’t seem to make a huge different besides the first or second run. I even soldered a 33AWG wire from the side of the nozzle to the edge of the heating block to ensure continuity. Same issue kept happening - the printer would MASH the nozzle into the disk as if contact wasn’t being made half of the time.
Fast forward to today: I get fed up with the behavior and I remove the SE extruder for servicing. I follow the (dis)assembly instructions on ohai and discover that some of the plastic parts have degraded over the years AND that the red thermistor wire to the heating block was floating! YIKES. I can fix that with a bit of solder I suspect.
So here I am, contemplating my options.
- Modify the stock SE Hot End with a 1.75mm hot end (~$100 and labor)
- Buy a tool head adapter and a new SE Tool head ($30+$295)
- Have Lulzbot figure this one out ($350+Shipping)
I am leaning towards shipping the whole printer to be serviced. Thoughts?
Best,
Ken
Q: Pictures?
A: Enjoy photos of “Scotty” and his exposed extruder