With the short nozzle on a printer like the CR10 etc I removed the nozzle, and while heating with an SMD heater gun, probe the tip end with a 0,4 mm acupuncture needle, and the other end with a 1.7mm drill held in a pin vice which easily cleared things.
With the K series longer nozzles it’s very difficult to find long enough 1.7mm drill bits and I’m concerned that just probing with anything else is likely to just push the blockage further in?
I have 100m long acupuncture needles but they can’t really push a blockage out of the 1.75mm section.
Do folks just replace the nozzle and throw the blocked one away?
The answer for “previous generation” shorter nozzles would be a “cold pull” but I’ve never tried one on the K2+ (fortunately not had to yet) - has anyone tried a cold pull on the K2+, and is it any more difficult than other printers?
Thanks for the links to those vids - very handy. BTW Despite pressing really hard on the extruder release tab, try as I might I have never been able to remove just the front part of the extruder apart as shown in that video. I’ve always had to disconnect the whole extruder from the stepper. I was able to clear the blockage with the method shown Ok. Any tips on how to just remove the front part? Thanks again
Are you undoing the correct screw on the right-hand side? The first time I needed to remove just the front it was stuck for me as well until I realised I had undone the wrong screw. There are two and it’s easy to go for the wrong one.
The K2 comes with a tool that clears out the nozzle. You take out the teflon tube and then push the thin rod into the extruder and heated up nozzle and I’ve not had that method fail for any nozzle jam I’ve had so far (and I’ve had a lot).
If you are having jams, consider going up to a 0.6mm, expecially if you are using CF filament, it makes a big difference in reducing jams. I’m printing a ton of PPA-CF, PET-CF, ASA-CF and it was jamming all over the place on 0.4mm but that’s ~almost~ cleared out completely with a 0.6mm nozzle.
Use a torch and hold nozzle with pliers , turn the nozzle upside down and heat with the torch , the filament will melt and drip out of the nozzle , works every time
There is a good YouTube video that shows how to use the unclogging tool.
The information about using the tool starts at about the 5 minute mark. I know it works because I had a TPU clog in my K1C and didn’t want to change the nozzle if I could get it unclogged. In a nutshell, a piece of filament broke off in the heat break section and stuck after it melted and hardened. Heating the tool helps to soften the stuck piece so you can push it down into the hot section and extrude it.
Use a 1.75mm clog poke. a cheap one comes with the K2 toolkit. I got one from Amazon
If the clog is only in the tip do a cold pull. I have used it for cold pulls and it works great. If the filament is melted further up into the tube then you might need to do a push and some additional cleaning. It does come with some instructions and there are many video’s online.
blush thanks