Extrusion issues since purchase. Now unusable

[Krashdog]

Purchased k1 summer 23 . Limped along with extrusion issues not knowing any better till my original hotend broke. Creality sent me the upgrade at the time. The red sock version. I bought the upgraded extender . Worked fairly well till I tried to use the hardened steel nozzles I bought from Creality. Hard jams, extruder clicking. Removed and checked everything. Squishy chunk between the blue center tube and the nozzle. Tried the old brass, no dice.

Bought the unicorn nozzle. Failed miserably in Creality print, prusca, and finally orca before it globbed a giant chunk of pla around the nozzle.

Ripped off the temp probe wire removing giant solid chunk of pla.

Completely dismantled and reinstalled old extruder. Reset machine, re rooted machine. Latest saw and all that.

Never once have I successfully performed a flow calibration through this machine. Just reset and cuss during post process.

Now nothing will extrude, every nozzle clogs regardless of preheat. My unicorn is shwacked and I’m disappointed yet again wishing I’d of bought something else.

The entire internet seems to just rehash the same tired lines of base troubleshooting a clog. I need something a little more insightful.

No debris in the extruder. Thermal paste on the hotend shank. Fan works, intermediate tube intact, no leaking.

Zlytech pla , tried 3 different rolls including one brand new out of the plastic.

[Krashdog]

So after taking this thing apart all night it’s consistently seizing at the heatsink. The blue tube is affected but it’s jamming up the right there. Even if I feed material all the way down to the physical (cleaned) nozzle by hand it’s still either getting too hot or not hot enough.

No temperature errors and this is where my unicorn nozzle failed and self destructed.

Reset machine to default and haven’t used any slicer settings at all. Just trying to get any filament to go through this thing.

[Krashdog]

So i guess the real question is do I spend the money on the swisstech nozzle? or what? i got myself into a situation where i need this thing. I feel duped. Like creality was just trying to get rid of old stock and sent out these K1’s with known weaknesses and have been bandaiding it ever since whilst still hocking it as a flagship machine.

[Jeremy]

Post a picture of you hotend. The unicorn nozzles aren’t compatible with some heatsinks and the blue tubing between the extruder and nozzle isn’t needed Creality K1 Series Ceramic Heating Block Kit—Quick-swap Nozzle Kit for K1/K1 Max | eBay is the new one with unicorn nozzle

[Krashdog]

Ive used 3 hotends in this machine. Version 1 (black sleeve) that it shipped with, had problems immeadiatly.

The version 2, (red sleeve) and the upgraded flat metal handle extruder were ordered and installed per creality instructions.

the machine never did meet its adverstising for me, but it functioned. When it began siezing I ordered the version 4 unicorn nozzle from amazon. Installed in accordance with crealitys instructions.

It worked, but wouldnt print worth a flip. 1rst layer issues. And so I went through the calibration process. Never got past flow rate as every adjustment was worse than the last.

This is where the unicorn failed. Globbed the hotend, and was damged trying to free it from the machine.

No, the blue tube is not needed for the newest hotend. but as mine is dead anyway, the version 2 hotend and its compents were reinstalled.

the failures continued. Reset to facory settings, new firmware, old firmware, high temp, normal temp. Different filiment.

after taking it apart a dozen times in one night the clog is consistent at the heatsink.

this is with the version 2 components as my unicorn is inoperable

If i purchase the swisstech without identifying the issue then it will just limp along until it fails as well. So im not in a rush to do that.

Youd think the design on the quick change type wouldnot allow for any filiment leakage. I guess im just lucky. edit I have no idea if it leaked. every bit of that could have globbed outside the nozzle and built up

the only thing i could surmise is that the filiment is hardening inside the heat sink. but why? why now? thew board fan works and absolutly blows air across it. And no slicer settings should have a play in this.

Im just trying to extrude. no gcode is in play.

[Krashdog]

i dont know why it wont show this image, ill try agin

[Jeremy]

The unicorn nozzle blob was like caused by the print not sticking to the printbed. The nozzle just drags the print around while still extruding, when that cools it seeps up under the silicon sock and causes mayhem

[Krashdog]

Right.

Lets just please forget the unicorn altogether. I’m familiar with the differences and was before I purchased it. Im not confused about the nozzles or thier compatability.

The version 2 is now re installed. And the machine is non functional. It had at least limped along with this setup and now will not. It worked for almost a year. I always had small issues, like stringing or other small irritations. But I could get through a print.

Its reasonable to think I can get results from the original firmware and the v2 nozzle. Yet, im still getting failures. Consistent at the heatsink.
I’m at a loss. And do not want to purchase another unicorn, or swisstech until i figure out what happened here.

I know someone else has gone through this.

[Krashdog]

Okay, after taking it apart several more times with the same exact result i found this.

which matches the picture i cobbled together

still failing, regardless of temp.

I have very little incentive to keep ordering parts for this thing. Is anybody from Creality on the official Creality forums?

if its good old fashioned heat creep, can i get a good old fashioned fix for it?

Or just give it away for parts and wear the dunce hat as the fool that bought a k1? It seems to be a perk of this particular model. According to everyone on the first page having extrusion issues non stop, unicorn or not.

[Jesus.es]

Tuve el mismo problema al principio de comprar mi K-1 hace un año. Compre el hotend de swistech y ya no he vuelta a tener ni un solo problema en un año de impresiones masivas. Valio la pena el dinero que inverti

[jimandyen]

Creality Print.
What does the temp graph show on the details page during a print (or failed print) Is it a steady line and does it match what it’s supposed to be…?
Just trying to cover all the bases here…

[Krashdog]

I wouldnt know.

Im not able to get past loading filiment. It hardened in the heatsink every single time.

I can always buy another unicorn hotend. and take my chances chasing bed leveling and first layer issues. Or replace the tube that the unicorn omits and hope that is the source of the elephants foot clogging my hotend.

In several instances the filiment didnt even make it to the nozzle before hardening.

It does however respond to temp commands on the front panel with no errors. like heating it up to 260c or whatnot it stops as indicated.