Hot end disaster

[AlwynTurner]

After several weeks of printing track links in PETG my Creality ender 3 plus started with nozzle jams and bad prints. I have been printing petg at 235 degrees nozzle temperature, and so I decided to change the nozzle, maybe it was getting bunged up. Unfortunately the nozzle has welded itself to the hot end and nothing I can do will move it, I tried vice grips and all it did was round off the nozzle. So now its time for a replacement hot end which luckily is on £16 from good old Amazon Prime next day delivery.

It seems that brass nozzles and PETG at 235 degrees don't readily coexist.

Alwyn

[RobW]

I assume freezing it didn't help?

[AlwynTurner]

I tried everything, that nozzle is tightly welded to the hot end. By the time I'd finished the hot end was pretty mauled too so replacemnt was by far the best option.

Alwyn

[Son of a gun-ner]

Well, Brass doesn't melt below 930°C, therefore unlikely it would have welded to anything at the temperatures required to heat and melt plastic. I am guessing you used a flame on the nozzle? Those little pocket lighter fuel torches can be quite useful for light applications. Even a larger than normal tipped soldering iron should deliver enough heat to melt any plastic, because it has to deliver enough heat for the upper melting point solders which are around 450°C

I'm guessing the nozzle was basically hot glued in place. Because I don't get those problems with my mig welder that uses screw in brass nozzles that reach higher temperatures.

On a good note, at least the hot end was a reasonable price

[RobW]

I had wondered if Alywn was eating curry again...

Not sure what the other metal is, but could be an oxide bond. If it's completely knackered you can always cut it open to see!

[tankme]

I just recently snapped one of my .4mm hardened steel nozzles on my Bambu X1C, but I probably had over 4000 hours print time on it so it was probably due for a replacement. Those hardened steel nozzles just go on and on...and on.

[AlwynTurner]

Quick update after fitting the new hot end.

Firstly lesson is reading the correct instructions correctly. I watched the ordinary ender 3 update video and couldn't figure out why I kept getting problems afterwards when trying to get the hot end to heat, just a long beep and back to the initial screen. I tried everything, fiddling with the temperature sensor, redoing the wiring, I couldn't undersrtand it. Eventually I found the ender 3 max hot end instructuion on youtube and realised that the ender 3 and ender 3 max have different motherboards and I was plugging the temperature sensor into the wrong socket

After fitting the plug into the correct socket and spending time resetting the bed level z update height a number of times it magically worked (DOH! - Homer Simpson moment).

Anyway as a result of updating the hot end, my startup time on prints is drastically reduced, the print quality is massively better, and the hot end must have been on its way out for a while.

Alls well that ends well although I had more hair when I started this mission!

Alwyn

[jhamm]

Everything comes to a good end!
Nice that your printer works again.

[AlwynTurner]

Oh I wish it really did all co,me to a good end!

It all seemed tyo be working well, and I got a new batch of PLA+ filament from Amazon - I had bought and used this filament before with excellent results. Put it on the ender 3 and I couldn't get a decent print. I got clogging on the hot end, when I cleared that I got rediculous prints where the layers didnt stick together at all. I spent hours tweaking settings in CURA and reprinting.

Finally in desperation I loaded some old pla remaining on a spool, and what do you know? It printed perfectly! So a bad batch of filament duly returned to Amazon and credited immediately. This is the last time I buiy cheap filament, I reordered some eSun filament which arrived yesterday. Then the fun started. Do you think I could get the printer to work- NO. Tried everything I could think of, and then decided to try another micro sd card. Problem immediately solved. It seems that somehow the sd card got corrupted and the stored parameters on the card were causing the printer to malfunction.

Still at least in the end I got the printer working with the new filament. Now I need to go and lie down for a while.

Alwyn

[Ecam]

Now I need to go and lie down for a while.

Alwyn

Deservedly so! I never really need an excuse.

Problems like these and not willing to invest the time or brain cells are why my 3D printer sits in the corner with a couple hours of print time in several years...