Alright so I swapped nozzles and residual PLA still inside the heatbreak later leaked out and got messy (I hot tightened but the PLA probably leaked out during the hot tightening). I decided to disassemble everything to clean it but the residual PLA binded the threads and the thin heatbreak neck broke. I read somewhere the J1 heatbreak is a custom design. Do I have any options besides spending $100 for a new pair of hotends?
I don’t have a J1, so I’m not sure what exactly broke. Can you post pictures?
Assuming it’s a metal bit, you might try to solder it back together. I expect it’ll be tricky to do, but you can’t really make it worse than unusable at this point. 
If you do go that route, you’ll probably need to get a particular solder with a higher melting point. It’s been a while since I looked, but I recall the typical non-lead solder melting point being nearish to the PLA printing temp.
I broke the heatbreak at the narrow neck. Its lower thread binded into the heat block and when I tried to twist it loose the neck broke. It’s a goner so I’m trying to see if I can just get the heatbreak. I know people have talked about using the Copperhead but it’s a few mm too short.
Ah, yeah, I see now. I did something similar when I tried to change my first nozzle. I torqued the nozzle in half. I forgot how soft brass is; I was still only using one hand. Later I learned it’s recommended to heat up the hot end, then remove the nozzle. One of these days I’ll drill it out, but I have a couple of spares. The Original’s hot ends were pretty cheap.
This happened because J1 hotend leaves filaments stuck in the heatbreak and nozzle. When I last swapped the nozzles I did not completely ream out the stuck filaments before screwing in the new nozzle. When hot-tightening the PLA oozed out inside the heat block all around the interface between the heatbreak and nozzle. Now I have burnt PLA stuck on the surface of everything.
Reach out to support@snapmaker.com, they sell parts not available online.
i heated the nozzle and it still sheared in half. nothing could save that hotend. everything broke when i tried to take it apart. open source hotends would’ve been real nice
Just a side note @Y0tsuya: that heat break is made out of titanium, so be careful if you try to work on it (titanium chips are flammable).
If you happen to live in the European Union: I still have two unused original heatbreaks left that I am willing to sell or trade against something else.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m in California but am able to make contact with support and ordered a few sets of heatbreak+heater block. No idea when it’ll get here though.
You can buy the J1 Throat Tubes directly from Snapmaker. Just send Customer service an email.
Hi there,
Unfortunately I’ve the same problem.
@Mechanikus Are the heatbreaks still available and will you sell it?
@solveit68 Sorry, the ones I had already have a new owner! If Snapmaker or one of their resellers cannot send you new ones in time, the only option I see would be doing the heatbreak replacement - then you can use standard parts in the future. The latest additions to that thread also solved the issue of the hotend becoming shorter, as it seems.
To everyone who has the same problem:
It’s possible to order these spare parts directly from snapmaker for currently 11$ each +14$ shipping.
@Mechanikus
Thanks for the info, now I’ve ordered the parts I need for the conversion. 