Extruder Clogged

I know this is a really common issue, and I’ve been able to clear all my other clogs, but this one seems deeper. I was printing with clear T-glase (which I have not had pleasant experiences with), and noticed it wouldn’t extrude anymore. I tried heating the extruder and retracting the filament, and nothing moved. It felt very stuck when I tried to pull it out. I then disassembled the unit from the mount and tried pulling with pliers. I dipped the extruder head in acetone and reattached the wire to heat it up, and the filament ended up snapping at the entry point. I then reassembled the whole unit, tried heating it up and pushing the filament through with an allen wrench, and also tried loading ABS and trying to print but still nothing. Not sure how much more I can disassemble the unit past what is shown in the picture. Any tips would be much appreciated!
Extruder CLog.jpg

I fought with my Budaschnozzle for months after I started switching material types between ABS and PLA. The best advice I can give you is to move to an all metal hotend. E3D or Lulzbot Hexagon both work great. I have never had a problem changing material types with those hot ends.

Also, a 0.5 mm nozzle on the hotend will greatly reduce the number of clogs you experience.

Here’s the full buddaschnozzle assembly guide that shows how to take it the rest of the way apart. What temperature were you printing the Tglass at?

https://ohai.lulzbot.com/project/9af024c0-56d9-4d05-b7b3-45974b401f01/

I have a Buddha for each type of Filament. One for ABS, One for PLA, etc.

The PLA Extruders have a fan attached that blows on the fins whenever the Hot End is on.

Before I ever turned my TAZ 4 on, I read every post in these Forums and the general consensus was that you should never mix filament types with Buddaschnozzles, so I set out to never do this.

I plan to do the same with all the Hex Hot ends I’ve been accumulating when I get around to switching over to them.

Kenny

Thanks everyone for your help. I’ll just get another hot end and not fix filaments anymore. Lesson learned :slight_smile:

Hmm… Is that ABS or T-Glase? Regardless, a hotend temp of 230-240C should be enough to soften either type so you can pull the filament out. The challenge will be clamping down the hotend so you can pull the filament while its hot.

Once that filament is out, try a manual extrusion of ABS to clear the nozzle completely of T-Glase. If it doesn’t clear, then there is probably a clog at the nozzle. You’ll need to search the forum for removal of the Buda nozzle. Once removed, soak in Acetone to dissolve ABS… not sure what dissolves t-glase.

You can swap most filaments without issue with an all metal hotend like the E3D or LulzHexagon. I am sure someone that prints multiple filaments can give you some detail. For example, you should have a dedicated toolhead for flexible filaments…

I print PLA, ABS, Nylon, HIPS, and T-Glase on my TAZ 5 with the same Hexagon A0 nozzle. When I change filaments, I typically run at least 100mm of the new filament through the nozzle before trying to print. When I first started, I read an article (somewhere, not on this forum) that recommended dipping the end of the new filament in olive oil before inserting the new filament in the extruder. I have tried that method, but to be honest, it did not seem to make a difference, but then again, since I typically do not have jamming issues that doesn’t mean much.

When the jam is caused by a power pop or fan failure, it is kind of hard to blame it on the filament. :wink:

The transition state for the T-Glas was able to move up into your PTFE tube and cause the filament to expand and grip the sides of the tube.
If you are able to remove the nozzle tip, with a lot of time, controlled heat, effort, and patience you might be able to clear the plug in the tube.