Hi there,
My snapmaker has been sitting still for two months. After this it won’t print anymore. All the filament just comes out garbled/clogged.
I swapped the hotend with the spare one and it started to print again. Now, again some two months later, the same thing occurs. Surely I don’t have to replace the hotend every two months?
Any tips?
Video of what’s happening here: https://youtu.be/J62bZ5PImQ8
Cheers.
Random guesses:
Was the filament also left out for two months, or did you store it away?
Have you tried to clean the nozzle(s)?
(Also, if it’s just the nozzle and not the whole hotend that’s causing the problem, replacement nozzles are really cheap.)
Well the filament was also left out. But it was in a closed stainless steel cupboard.
What’s the best way to clean the nozzle? And what are good replacement nozzles?
Filament can deteriorate because of moisture in the air. Usual advice is to store it in a sealed container with dessicant, or dry it before use (you can do this in an oven, in a purpose-built filament dehydrator, or in a food dehydrator—recommended temperature is around 50C for PLA, I think). Of course, if, like a few other people around here, you live in a desert, this may not be your problem.
For nozzle-cleaning instructions, you probably want to start by searching on “cold pull”. There are also various small tools you can buy or make for the purpose. I can’t make a useful comparison of the effectiveness of the various methods, since I haven’t yet had a serious clog.
The Snapmaker2 takes an MK8 brass nozzle. The ones it ships with are ordinary brass nozzles with an 0.4mm opening. You can get packs of 20 of these off Amazon for $10 or less.
Not sure what fixed it, but I dried the filament, replaced the nozzle and calibrated the extruder as described in the first pinned topic of this sub forum.
Now it prints like a charm! Thanks for the pointers!
Learn a lot from your comments. Thank you for sharing this information.
Edwin
That’s a bit scary, actually. I’m just good at remembering and putting together what other people have posted and what I’ve read elsewhere. Little of what I’ve written on this board has been original.