Does this hobby ever get easier or is it always like getting kicked in the nuts by Ronaldo?

Filament some how leaked up and burned on. I just don’t have it in me to keep tinkering. I just want to print

  • carl_dungeon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    10 months ago

    I’m guessing you have a nozzle not screwed in fully, or there was filament above the threads preventing it from seating. I’d warm the print head, remove the nozzle, run a bit of filament through without the nozzle, then yank it out, hopefully pulling any globs down and out of the heater block. Reassemble hot and make sure the nozzle seats firmly. Good luck!

      • prime_number_314159@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        10 months ago

        It’s worth noting that some but not all combinations of heat break, nozzle, and heater block require re-tightening at the temperature used for printing. Basically, different metals expand different amounts when they’re heated, so if the block expands more than the other two, a gap will open up between them, and melted filament can find its way through.

        • Thanks4Nothing@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Yes and on some printers, that spot where the Bowden tube meets the nozzle is very problematic. You have to loosen the nozzle a bit, push the Bowden tub up against it, then tighten the nozzle the rest of the way

          It was awful on my Ender clone, but haven’t had that issue on my Prusa.

  • YeahBuoy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    10 months ago

    Where is the burned on filament? Is it that grey-ish blob between the box with the little curly q at the bottom and the heatsink looking piece?

    My apologies in advance for what is probably a naive question. I don’t have a printer, I’m just “print curious” at this stage, and want to understand more.

    • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      No worries! Thats exactly where it is. The burned on stuff goes all the way down the side and around the back.

      I’m afraid this bing need to be totally taken apart but i haven’t done much more than investigate and pull at some easy pieces so far.

      Keep in mind this is my first printer and I’m new to the hobby so I’m at the why isn’t this working and why did I do this to myself stage. This might not be a problem for more experienced people. Thankfully this community exists because I’d be lost otherwise

      • YeahBuoy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        10 months ago

        Thanks for explaining!

        Also, IMO the “why isn’t this working, why did I do this” stage is a right of passage and sign of progress in any new activity! Keep on trucking!

  • Rossphorus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    As people have said already this is a somewhat common failure mode, especially when swapping nozzles. This happened to me twice between three nozzle swaps. The first time was a major leak like yours, the other time it was only slight (which I then made worse in my attempt to fix…). I was obviously doing something wrong, but I came fully prepared the second time with video guides for my specific machine and everything but still couldn’t get it perfect.

    If you never want to think about this failure mode again (like me) then consider swapping your hotend for a Revo. A Revo nozzle is also the heatbreak, so there’s no possibility of a bad connection between them. The ‘nozzles’ are more expensive but they can be hotswapped (coldswapped, even) by hand with no special tools. Before I did everything in my power to avoid nozzle swaps, so I ended up settling for a jack-of-all-trades (but master of none) nozzle that I would never have to swap. Since moving to Revo however I find myself swapping nozzles way more now that it’s easy and with no chance of destroying my hotend. For instance I have a high-flow 1mm nozzle for quickly doing big structural prints, they print in like one third of the time and are way stronger than equivalent prints on a smaller nozzle. I also have a 0.25mm nozzle for miniature model prints with a better resolution than I could ever get before. I’m still waiting for a high-flow abrasion-resistant Revo nozzle, though.

    • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Thank you for the tip! I’ll look into those for sure. It sounds like they would be a perfect fit with very little downside

  • ShadowRam@kbin.social
    31·
    10 months ago

    10 years of printing on a custom-homemade machine.

    Yeah, I’ve been ‘just printing’ now for about 5 years straight.
    I don’t even look at the printer prior to sending it a print wirelessly. I just hit print, and it works.

    Always sticks to bed, no failures.

    It’s about knowing the mechanic’s and failure points and knowing how to maintain it properly.