I have a hot end leak, is this the way to fix it?

[SgtToe]

Ok, been away from forms for a while.

While printing various things I noticed that burned blobs of ABS were ending up in and on my prints. As I examined the Hexagon hot end I noticed that it is leaking out where the two parts come together. You know the place where colin's directions tell us to heat up the hot end and tighten it. Anyway, I did that but it did not budge so I just assumed it was tight enough, I was not wanting to break it but I guess I did not put enough pressure on it. So now I need to fix it.

I'm guessing I would do the following:

1. Heat up the hot end and pull the little arm that puts presure on the filament back and pull the filament out.
2. Let it cool down and remove the hot end for the carriage.
3. Head up the hot end and tighten it.
4. Put it all back together.

Was not sure if I had to some how clean out any plastic out of the hot end.

[curious aardvark]

I'd probably clean out the plastic - otherwise you can't really guarentee it's a leak tight fit.
Must be some serious back pressure or a biggish gap.

Seperate the two halves and soak in acetone to clean. And then rejoin.

Unless you're not supposed to seperate the bit into 2 parts.
In which case remove from machine and soak in acetone and then flush through with same. And then heat and tighten. You want to remove as much abs from the thread as you can.

[SgtToe]

Thank you for the reply!