Hi guys,
Lately,
i found some black melted drops on my prints, looking closer something around the nozzle is melting apart.
Does anyone have an idea what this is and what I could do about it?
i found some black melted drops on my prints, looking closer something around the nozzle is melting apart.
Does anyone have an idea what this is and what I could do about it?
I am learning, so take the advice as such. It looks like you have a lot of melted filament built up around the nozzle and hot end. As the built up filament ages it tends to get hot and get burnt? (gets dark.)
Be very careful around the wires. Mine was so bad the wires were encased in plastic.
Do at your own risk, since I am a newbie. What I did was warm up the nozzle to temp and wipe it all down with a paper towel. Careful it gets Hot.
I also heard to warm up the hot end and then snug the nozzle. When the nozzle on mine was slightly loose, it would leak a little filament at the threads. Then do similar to what yours is doing. Building up plastic around the silicone cover. Hope this helps.
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I have two 3D Ender 3 V3 KE printers. The printers are relatively inexpensive and provide a good print for the price. I have the same problem on both my KEs. In both cases, it was a print that I left unattended thinking it was printing fine only to return and find the blobby mess. Up until this point, I had both printers and various filaments fine tuned to print perfectly.
The first time this happened was early August. I ended up having to order a new hotend and a wire for the touch sensor. I did contact support (3D Print Canada) and was told I would have to buy and replace the hotend. I ordered the part on Amazon (no shipping charges) and it is the correct Creality-brand hotend for the KE. I took apart whole thing and installed the new hotend and replaced the severed wire on the touch sensor. It worked despite getting a couple clogs from the printer that I had to clear. It is working perfectly for now.
Yesterday, the same thing happened to my 2nd KE printer:
I find this weird to be happening to the KE printers. I have already ordered the hotend and will repair it when I get the part next week. The printer I had previously repaired with a new hotend is working fine. Here is a 24 hour print which I left overnight with 3 1/2 hours left on the print:
Here are my questions:
- Any recommendations on how I can prevent this from happening again or should I just stock up on hotends?
- Any recommendations for upgrades? Should I upgrade the Sprite Extruder/Hotend …
- I am interested upgrading the nozzles. What type of nozzles should I get?
Thank you in advance for any advice.
Leaking at the nozzle, was it tightened correctly? I would swap out for a Microswiss flowtech or a Unicorn hotend, I have the former on a KE and an SE. All metal integrated hot-ends shouldn’t leak, but does make the nozzle more expensive.
Thank you for the recommendation. I have only had the KEs for less than a year. I read yesterday that it was a good idea to hot tighten the nozzles anyway. I will look into the MicroSwiss FlowTech Hotend. I heard their nozzles were good but was not aware of the hotend.
I’ve not tried the Creality Unicorn nozzled hotend but it is basically putting a K1C hotend on a KE, like I said I don’t know of anyone who has done that so I don’t know how good/bad it is, looks promising though.
I second this… Warm it up and snug the nozzle. It looks like something was loose. When the nozzle warms up it may loosen, that is why it is recommended to tighten while warm.
I bought at least 4 Creality Hotends for the KE on Amazon and each clogged after a few prints. Sent them back. I ended up buying a MicroSwiss FlowTech hotend and heatsink for one of my Ender 3 V3 KEs. It works great! I just bought another one for the other KE that I own.
The Canadian company I bought the KEs from offered: 30 minutes with tech to help solve the issue. Problem is I don’t have a hotend. They offered to send me a hotend free but shipping costs $125 (the hotend only costs $30-40). Keep in mind I bought both KEs this year so should still be under warranty. I’ll never buy another printer from them. Warranty not worth the paper it is written on. Their GM offered to call Creality and see what they can do but I doubt they did.
At this point, I am moving on. I may buy a better 3D printer next year but I know what Canadian company I won’t be buying it from.
I have the Flowtech on my V3KE and V3SE, been excellent. As for better printer perhaps look at the Qidi range a lot of printer for the money, I have an Xplus3 and a Q1Pro, just after getting those they launched the Plus4 now that looks like something I might be getting once I make some space.