Consantly replacing hot ends

You had me worried. Hopped over to Amazon to double check.
From Amazon descript.

  • Arctic Alumina Adhesive uses a layered composite of aluminum oxide and boron nitride.
  • Arctic Alumina Adhesive is a pure electrical insulator, neither electrically conductive nor capaciti

Should be alright.
Keep in mind this is a glue/ cement not just thermal paste. (Part A and Part B to be mixed)

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Arctic makes good stuff. I think on paper that has a maximum temperature rating of ~150C, but usually what happens is it gets brittle, something that should not be too much of an issue for you since you’re clearly not ever planning on changing it out if it goes bad :stuck_out_tongue:. Often a paste that doesn’t harden is used, so you can replace a bad thermistor, they do die occasionally.

I have heard reports that Arctic’s products require a “curing” time in the form of like 100 hours to reach maximum thermal conductivity. I think even straight out of the gate though you should see a huge improvement.

It’s got to be the filament, I had the same issue with the eSun ABS filament before, it gets clogged at any random point (even hours in) if I print with it under 280°C.

It’s the same situation on my other printer as well, I didn’t know I can just raise the temperature to unclog it, and ended up costing me more than a hundred to replace the nozzle.

Try to raise the temperature to see if it can resolve the issue, if not the filament must be contaminated, either way, looks like you can use a filament from a different brand.

I’m concerned that it cost you 100 to replace a nozzle, are you using ruby nozzles?!?

@Wynand Dust isn’t a problem, but humidity avgs 65-75%. When you say humidity - you mean over time, right? Like months? I mentioned earlier that one of these filaments roles was new and had only been open for 2 days (and the seal was not broken). Surely filament isn’t THAT susceptible to humidity that quickly - is it? I could have a print job that takes longer than that. Good to know that it’s good practice to store in sealed containers. But if I print a few jobs with the same spool feeding the printer for a week - short of printing out in the rain, would it really absorb THAT quickly?

There are Filaments who love humidity. Keep them in a closed box, with only a short distnace fo filament sticking out which goes to the printer directly, Boy is floored with dessecant to get humidity as low as possible.
For me, so far my PLA was all good in my room, laying out in the open. i do have a box with dessecant in it if i dotn need a filament for a long time but im not storing the filament everytime im done for the day.

Maybe this adds a bit of clearity?

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I had the same problem I tried three different nozzles my prints kept stopping halfway through I went through everything from calibration to different filaments in the end I simply just pushed a bit of wire up into the nozzle before I started my print and it seems to work plus I slowed my retraction speed to 30 rather than 60 and print on normal speed. I don’t know if this helps but the reason my printer wasn’t working is because it was chewing out the filament and the reason it was chewing out the filament Was
it was getting clogged halfway through the print since I made these changes I have had no problems

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It would very helpful in helping to debug if folks would include some basic info:

  • What brand and type of filament are you trying to use? Manufacturer and type can make a huge difference. Foe example, while I typically print PLA @ 205C, CC3D Silk PLA seems much happier @ 215C.

  • What are you machine settings? Temperature, speed, layer height, nozzle size.

I had some severe issues with dust on the roll of PLA that came with my A350 but after I tossed that roll I have been fine.

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So, I tried the Hatchbox filament, and after nearly non-stop printing over the last four days, I’ve been clog-free. In fact, all the settings changes I’ve been making to get SM PLA to print correctly - messing with bed and nozzle temps, extrusion retraction, z-hop, retraction speed, etc - I’m now back at the default settings, and the Hatchbox PLA is just working like a champ.

So I stand corrected - the problem seems to be I’m using Snapmaker PLA. After clogging every time using three different spools of new Snapmaker PLA - maybe a bad batch, but I get the impression this is no surprise to some of you, so perhaps their PLA is just sub-par.

This is an awesome community- thanks all for the suggestions and insights! Even with the filament solved, it’s clear I need to be thinking about a long-term solution for storing filament.

Anyone wanna buy some slightly used Snapmaker PLA? :wink:

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There’s been lots of filament discussions lately, according to some posts Snapmaker had an issue with quality from a supplier. You might keep an eye on this post, the last few comments pertain to filament issues and support.
https://forum.snapmaker.com/t/a350-printing-into-thin-air-no-filament-extruded/

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I can say, same issue here. After try out so many things, i am little bit dissapointed. I will order Hatchbox SM PLA and see if there is a progress. Can you maybe describe little bit the “default settings” what you use with the Hatchbox SM PLA?

Didn’t read all of the posts in here so many this was addressed, but you know you are able to change the nozzle itself without the hotend?

This is an assortment of various sized nozzles that will fit on the Snapmaker 2

As you can see, 9 dollars gets you a good sum.

All you have to do is heat up the hotend and take a small wrench and turn it off.

Some say to do it while using another wrench to hold the hot end after removing it, but I (gently but firmly) change them while the hotend is installed.

I will also say, i have tried several brands of filament and priline seems to run quite well for me.

Currently running priline wood PLA with a .06 nozzle and its the nicest prints i’ve made to date.

I want to add, that i can run the Snapmaker 2.0 without issues, with another Filament. I also changed back to the Snapmaker Filament PLA 1.75 Black and after some time, the Nozzle clogged again and the Motor can not shift the Filament in the Hotend/Nozzle. I perceive also that the printed parts are almost impossible to remove from the bed without damaging the printed part. Like it is glued on, and some of the first printed levels just stick to the bed and broke away, when try to remove. - Something is just wrong with this Filament from Snapmaker, which were deliverred toghether with the Snapmaker 2.0 A350.

Hey can I request that we be a little more precise on the problem and the guidance for the newbies?

There is no need to replace your hot end if you have a clogged nozzle. I think snapmaker actually did a bit of a disservice by including a spare hotend assembly in the box, rather than a bunch of cheap mk8 nozzles.

If your nozzle is clogged, replace the nozzle. (Which are <$10 for 25.) Or, clean it if you really want to. Which I almost never do.

If your hot end is broken and not heating at all, or the thermistor isn’t reading, okay replace the hot end.

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I would argue it was (and still is) precise. I didn’t know until posting this that the nozzle could be replaced. Why was I replacing hot-ends? Because the official SM nozzle jam article which says this:

5) If the nozzle is still jammed after a few tries, replace the Extruder Hot End Kit by following these steps.

It makes no mention of being able to replace the nozzle. So I was replacing hot-ends, per the mfg recommendation.

I would agree that this has two solutions - use better filament, and try replacing the nozzle before replacing the hot-end. But the problem is still accurate, as described. As a newbie, I’m sure I’m not the first one to swap out the hot end to fix a jam. SM maybe making an effort to provide better troubleshooting guidance (especially for something as commonplace as clogging) seems like a more productive solution to simply reducing what comes in the box.

But it does seem like SM has largely left it to the community to provide support - they never did respond when I first reached out to them over this. I get the impression that’s also quite common.

I continue to have zero problems with Hatchbox - other than it frequently being out of stock. I tried using SM filament again with a new nozzle recently just to see, and as previously, get 2 or 3 jobs printed, and then it’s clog city. I’ve probably printed 50+ jobs using Hatchbox without an issue.

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Not blaming you, I’m blaming them! It’s actually even worse than I knew, having never read the above links. I’m not new to this, so I knew an MK8 when I saw one, and didn’t look at a manual for advice.

But it would be useful if you were to edit your original post such that it reflects what you now know, thus helping to correct SM. Which sucks to have to do.

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All it takes is two tools: one to grasp the brass nozzle and one to hold the aluminum body of the hot end. The nozzle is just threaded in. You’ll want to do this with the hot end out of the printer head. The way the hot end is mounted is not the best for resisting torque. Take the silicone sock off the aluminum body first; it wouldn’t like being crushed.

Having a spare hot end is a good way to replace the nozzle. First swap in a working hot end and get back to work. Then afterwards service the hot end that clogged.

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It could actually be a faulty nozzle, I would try another one.

I’m having problems as well.

I think the thermistor is falling out of the tube and letting the hot end continue to heat up far hotter. It’s almost impossible to replace a hot end so that the small wires are connected and not outside the tube.