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Hi -

I have been having some problems with my prints and I changed my filament today to new (high-end) ABS. When I use the Load Filament button it will not come out in a straight line. Could this be the problem of the quality I am seeing?

As soon as I finish the loading (and the extruder is not extruding) it will become straight. You can see here in this video:

Hope you can help

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Yes I would say you have a slight blockage. I would purge the nozzle by taking of the fans and extrudes. Then when you get to the heating block. Push the filament through the hole using your hand and force it through until it’s cleared. MAKE SURE THE EXTRUDER IS HEATED UNDER THE PREHEAT SETTINGS.

This is is probably not recommended and there might be an easier way but this is how I do it on my duplicator 4x. See if others have different ways before trying this though as I don’t know if it’s the correct way to do it.

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To unclogg your nozzle you can also disassemble the hotend (remove the nozzle and everything that is heated and in direct contact with the filament).

Next up take a torch (or lighter) and heat up the removed parts, but be careful to not overheat them.

Take a small allen key or similar (all metal) thin and stiff tools to remove the molten plastic, if you heat the nozzle too high, you will burn the plastic and the removal would be nearly impossible so better go too cold then too hot.

If you have no torch you can also drop the parts into a bottle of acetone and keep that air tight sealed for a few hours. This method works ONLY if you only printed ABS, once you got a clogg with another material the acetone won’t do much or can cause damages due to unexpected reactions with the plastics.

Acetone will dissolve ABS and remove the clogg that way, you can also combine both methods.

Be very careful and don’t drop the hot nozzle into the acetone. Acetone vaporizes at fairly low temperatures (i think 60C or so) and you don’t want to instandly vaporize a lot of acetone by accident. Do only use acetone and similar solvents in a well ventilated area and using eye protection + gloves is highly recommended. Acetone is highly inflammable so keep the torch and other ignition sources away when working with acetone.

Following those safety rules is still worth it, since the acetone cleaning method is very reliable and doesn’t leave any marks or damage.

I’d advise you to have at least 1 or 2 spare nozzles laying around in case you get a clogg during a print for a 3d Hubs order, in that case you could swap out the components and you’d be ready to print again in no time.

If you don’t want to remove anything of the printer you can try the method of @georgeh1ll but I’d advise you to use cleaning filament (found at most resellers, like e3d-online.com) instead of ABS.

The cleaning filament is specially made to remove any other leftover material and since it usually has a very wide working range (180-280C) you won’t be able to clogg your extruder with this filament.

I hope this helps, good luck with the cleaning.

Cheers,

Marius Breuer

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Thanks for your advice and warnings. I have 2 spare nozzles and I also have acetone. I’ve only printed some PLA in the beginning and mostly ABS so I will try cleaning it that way.

All I need to now know is how to change the nozzle.

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Thanks, interesting method. I guess it is worth a shot. So basically you are saying take off the fans? Then preheat, and push the filament through until it forms a straight line again?

Do you know which bots to turn to remove swap out the nozzle? It looks hexagonal, can I just take a wrench to it or should I unscrew something else first? I have a Duplicator 4s.

Thank you!

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I would agree with the other comment or to either do it his way or use cleaning filament my way.

I have never ever actually removed the nozzle but I believe they are threaded. And I suppose you could just use a wrench. However I am unsure whether they are attach to the heat block permantly or have a thermal paste to help heating. I really don’t know. There should be tutorials on YouTube for this.

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it is a clogged nozzle