I was printing a simple cylinder shape, when I came back to check on it 2 hours later, there was a glob on the floor with the silicon nozzle casing IN it. There is also a massive glob on and around the nozzle.
1# how do I clean this up?
2# what can I do so this doesn’t happen again?
Additional info: I have printed this exact cylinder a few days ago with no problem. The only difference is that the first time I used Creality Print 4.3.1 as the slicer, this time I used the new 5.1.
Hello
I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago. I left a print running overnight (a 7 hour print). I’d printed the same print the day before with no problems but when I woke up the follwing day, the overnight print was just a big glob of hardened PLA with the silicon boot inside it!
I removed the print head and very carefully removed as much of the hardened PLA as I could with a pair of long nosed pliers. That removed most of the PLA from the outside of the nozzle but the inside was still clogged up. I used a hot air gun just enough to melt the PLA and then used the tool that came with the printer to push out the moulten PLA. I then gave it a good clean with some fine (P200) sandpaper. The hardest part for me was having to wait over a week for a replacement silicon boot!
Whether or not that’s the correct way to do it I have no idea, but it worked for me and the printer is running again with no issues. I’ve no idea what caused it to happen.
Hope this helps
Cheers
I will try this! Thank you so much
A heatgun and pliers you should be able get that lot off. Careful of the heater and thermistor wires, easy to break those. Was it a new nozzle that wasn’t tightened correctly? While stripping everything down check the PTFE tube, it can degrade and might need replacing.
Oops! Sorry, I forgot to mention that! Yes, the wires are very thin
Spare boots, I think I saw a packet of 5 on Amazon, pukka Creality parts. The thermistor is a slightly odd one with a ferrule on the end rather than a glass bead, can get these on Amazon and Aliexpress, keep a couple of spares same with the heater. Alternatively replace the whole hotend with the Microswiss Flowtech hotend should be impossible to get blob of death with one of those.
Yes, I bought mine on Amazon. A choice of a 3-pack or a 5-pack but the 5-pack was sold out 
The price difference was only a around £2/$2.60 I think.
Anyway, it seems to have worked and hasn’t happened again
It was possibly the first thing I thought. Because the nozzle was already assembled, I didn’t check it so that’s another one to add to the learning curve! 
Loose nozzles, I had that with loom I bought for my Ender 5 plus, it was so loose that it dropped out during assembly, official Creality loom too. So yes I learnt that lesson too.
Oddly you can use Acetone to remove printer filament from metal parts, like the nozzle and heat block. Do not get it on any non-metal parts. Acetone does not really dissolve filament, but rather pulls all the oil like components of the filament out of it. So if you soak your nozzle over night in Acetone all that is left is a powder like material that can just be brushed off. I did this on my nozzle and heat block and was amazed. Anything in holes or threads can be easily brushed off with an old tooth brush.
Be careful with acetone and it’s fumes. Read Label warnings…!!
Be careful of getting acetone on your PEI plate, if you don’t get it off straight away it can damage the plate. Been there done that.
