MakerBot Smart Extruder Clogged? Here's an Easy Solution

MakerBot Smart Extruders are, after all, pretty smart. Still, there is one glaring issue that haunts them and can lead to customer dissatisfaction: they are not self-repairing and lack the capacity to diagnose and repair clogs. While Smart Extruders can simply be swapped out to prevent downtime, not every user has a second Smart Extruder lying around, nor the know-how to quickly fix a clog problem. Fargo 3D Printing, though, is here with a solution. Jake Clark and John Schneider, the company's co-founders, have created a how-to video so users can easily diagnose and fix their extruder issues. In the video, Clark describes a step-by-step approach to diagnosing the location and cause of the clog and how to fix it, which can be as simple as replacing the nozzle with a new one (available from Fargo 3D Printing). Check out the video and the easy steps in the full article: http://3dprint.com/41825/makerbot-smart-extruder-clog/


Below is a photo of a MakerBot Smart Extruder:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...d-1024x576.jpg

lol Extruder should be made the way it wouldn't clog.

I have Zortrax M200 for 1 year and extruder has never clogged.

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Originally Posted by YosemiteSam

lol Extruder should be made the way it wouldn't clog.

I have Zortrax M200 for 1 year and extruder has never clogged.

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No clogs here either. It was already revealed that the print head was defective and that makerbot knew of these defects. The simplest way to unclog a makerbot print head is to not buy a makerbot.

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Originally Posted by brbubba

The simplest way to unclog a makerbot print head is to not buy a makerbot.

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well, let's not go that far. Let's edit that to say "not buy a makerbot 5th gen". :) My Rep2 has been a workhorse that just goes and goes with no trouble. One of my buddies loves his Rep2x.

that smartextruder looks good on paper but apparently can't do what it was designed to do. Makerbot pushed that 5th Gen out the door way before it was ready. If Straysys hadn't bought them, I wonder if that 5th Gen would have been released when it was.

I have a 5th generation makerbot; after some months the smart extruder was clogged; and I have used the steps in the article to unclog it. It works!
To unclog the nozzle I have used a hot air soldering station and a tiny wire. Thank you.

I bought a 5th Gen and everything went fine until the start of the first attempt to print. The Smart Extruder clogged before 5mm of PLA extruded! I worked on trying to unclog this poorly designed extruder for a few hours and decided to send the printer back for a refund. The problem is the heat from the hot end is not isolated from the filament drive well enough, so the plastic softens at the drive and the feed stops. I make production parts on three other 3D printers (all 3 are BFB 3D Touch machines and they work perfectly) and I don't have time to unclog faulty, poorly designed extruders whenever they might decide to clog. After my refund from MakerBot, I ended up putting out more than $400 (restocking and shipping fees) for nothing more than finding out what a piece of junk that printer and its "Stupid Extruder" is. I'm just not willing to try to make a poor machine work -- I don't have time for that. What the Smart Extruder does best is CLOG!