Hi guys, I’m finding some difficulties to remove my FF Creator Pro extruder in order to clean it, and I can’t seem to find tutorials online. Does anyone has some tutorial/material/instructions on how to do that?
Best!
adding: I didn’t mention, but I also need to disassemble the nozzle to clean in as well.
Hey there,
It’s pretty straightforward. Unscrew the two screws that hold the extruder assembly onto the X shuttle that moves across the printer. You can find them underneath the shuttle. You’ll probably need a flashlight as things are pretty dark down there. Then the whole assembly lifts away. Next loosen the two screws at the top of the assembly that hold the black plastic plate down. One turn or so should be enough. Remove the screws that hold the fans on. These go straight through the heat sinks, a spacer for each screw, the aluminium bar that holds everything together and screws into the motors. When you remove these screws, be careful you don’t lose the spacers. Probably best to just slide the screws out about 20mm. Then you can unplug the motors and slide them out with with the extruders, leaving the heat blocks and nozzles in the aluminium bar. Pull the screws out fully with the fans and heatsinks and those pesky spacers. Now fully unscrew the two top screws - The ones you loosened before. The rear one holds the end of the cable and has a spacer that the ziptie goes around. Make sure you don’t lose that. Remove the black plastic plate.
Turn the bar upside down and you should be able to unscrew the nozzles. They shouldn’t be too stiff. If they are, you’ll need to lubricate the threads. You really don’t want to break them in their thread. When you take them out, be careful to slide the PTFE tube out of the remaining part of the nozzle. Soak them in Acetone overnight and make sure they’re clean before you refit them.
Now get the motors with the extruders. The big screw holds the tensioner. Be careful you don’t lose the spring when you unscrew it, or the short brass pipe that the screw goes through. Lift the tensioner away and you have access to the extruder gear. Use a small brass wire brush to clean the gear. That’s about all there is that you can do.
It all goes back together just about the way it came apart. You need to make sure you don’t have any filament in the extruders before you start and you’ll need to re-set your build plate once you’ve put everything back together. You may have trouble getting the spacer through the ziptie again. If you have one, it’s probably best to just cut the tie off and replace it with a new one. If you aren’t going to touch the nozzles, you should be able to tear the whole thing down without removing the extruder assembly from the X shuttle, which makes things quite a lot quicker and less fiddly.
Think that’s about it. I think I may have a maintenance manual somewhere. Drop me a line with your email address and I’ll see if I can dig it out.
Hope this helps you. You should be able to do the whole thing with two Allen keys and a spanner for the nozzles.
Cheers!
AndyL
Pot8oSh3D
Haters gonna hate - Pot8ers gotta Pot8! 
1 Like
iand64
4
Hi,
I had the same problem and figured it out through trial and error. Don’t know if it’s the approved method, but it worked for me.
You’ll need a socket set (for the nozzle) and padded pliers or vice grips for the extruder body.
The trick is to heat up the extruder to normal operating temperature, gently grip the extruder body with the pliers and carefully unscrew the nozzle with the socket wrench. If the extruder isn’t heated, it’s near impossible to remove the nozzle due to filament in the extruder/ nozzle. Also, be careful when removing the silicon tube.
If anyone has an easier/ safer/ better way, I’d be happy to hear it.
P.S. I will soon be ordering a spare nozzle and silicon tubing to reduce downtime when cleaning.
Ian.
And, sorry, I found a year ago that great video about disassembling the head but can’t find it. But you already got excellent instructions from @Krumbacher 
Thanks for the compliment @Benson. Would have been easier with that video! LOL.
Good point about heating the nozzles before removing the tips, @drhorriblephd. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. Maybe they were warm already but, thankfully I didn’t have any difficulty removing the nozzle tips. FYI, those tubes are PTFE and not Silicon. Or Silicone for that matter - Yup. They’re different things 
Hmm. That Silicon must have been cold! :-/
OK. I’m a nit-picker. So sue me! LOL
Cheers!
AndyL
Pot8oSh3D
Haters gonna hate - Pot8ers gotta Pot8!
