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I've got my first clog that I can't clear with "cleaning" filament, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to clean the nozzle the old fashioned way for the first time. I'm seeing a lot of different advice online for nozzle cleaning processes. What has worked best for you guys? Any tips for someone doing it for the first time? Anything I should avoid?
Also, is taking the nozzle off really as simple as unscrewing it? Is there anything I should be careful about when doing that?
Howdy. I've been dealing with the same thing for a few day's. I just finally got mine working great again by buying a 0.38mm guitar string from Guitar Center near my house, cost $1. And used some paper clips. Here was my process.
Remove the extruder assembly from that nozzle. I then used a tiny nut to screw the fan onto the heating block for that nozzle (so that fan was still cooling the top of the nozzle when pre-heating) basically just the same as normal, without the extruder there. I then used the paperclip to dig out as much plastic as I could from the hole where the filament feeds to the nozzle. I read somewhere about toothpicks, tried it, but they break easier also. So I stuck with paper clip.
Then I used the 0.38mm guitar string, feed it up through the bottom of the nozzle, all the way up. Kind of go up and down through it, cleaning the nozzle off with it. I then hooked it all back up, and boom, a nice clear stream of plastic and no clicking! Taking off the top black little bracket that holds the extruders down help's a lot to be able to get into the hole, but with the paperclip it reaches fine.
The package the string came in say's "Custom gauge 15, electric or acoustic guitar string, 1015." I had showed him a picture of "Acoustic Guitar 0.38mm Diameter Steel String B-2nd" and that is what he grabbed me. Hope I was some help. Spent a few day's trying to get mine unclogged without a guitar string. Finally had to get one. Had to go 2x because they gave me the wrong size the first time =/
That's super helpful, thank you so much! I think I'm going to try to do that this weekend.
Good luck! Also, the small nut I used to hold the fan in place still was in one of the spare part bag's that came with my printer.