Filament melted into the Module massively

I went to bed after setting up my printer for my newest project, a playing card deck holder. When I awoke, I found this. I attempted to contact support but have not heard back in 5 days. Does anyone know if there is a way to safely clear this or how to get a hold of someone about replacing it? The warranty will run out soon on it.

I only met a situation where the nozzle was ā€œsankā€ in filament, but not this much.

I plugged in the cable, turned on ā€œchange filamentā€ function to heat the nozzle up, and pulled out most of the stuff when it was softened. The left can be cleaned using the tweezers, and the module recovered.

Be careful, itā€™s HOT!! And be careful with that tiny fan there, it almost broke my nail.

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Dont turn the hotend on. You will just cook the filament to it even more than it is. Has the plastic gotten into the fan that cools the stepper motor on the right hand side?

Here is what I would do.

  1. Use a hack saw and cut the plastic off an inch below where you think the hotend ends.
  2. Remove the stepper motor fan if it is not gummed up with plastic (if it is you will need to replace it).
  3. Take a hair dryer and set it to high (or heat gun on low)
  4. Use it to heat up the plastic till it start to get soft.
  5. Use pliers to grab onto the plastic and pull gently. Try to remove small chunks at a time. This should hopefully minimize the chance of damaging something
  6. Repeat steps 3 - 5 till all the plastic is out.
  7. ā€¦
  8. Profit.
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Yea i had a similar thing where i walked away and came back later to find that the plastic stopped sticking and ended up curled under and inside the module. Not nearly as bad as that, but it did get into the hole where the heating element is. While I could pry most of mine off, i ended up breaking the thermistor (there is another thread about that).

So def be careful about taking it apart. CthulhuLabs instructions are pretty good. You could potentially disassemble the whole thing if you are capable of that sort of thing (which you kinda have to be to own any 3d printer). it may be easier to get at some of the plastic, especially if you cut away at the stuff that came out the sides.

Hopefully once the last set of backers gets their rewards theyā€™ll set up an online store to purchase accessories and parts for replacement parts, modules, everything basically.

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https://manual.snapmaker.com/3d_printing/faq/what-should-i-do-if-the-filament-gets-stuck-around-the-nozzle.html

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Yah snapmaker replied to my issue with the extruder head not feeding into the nozzle. Iā€™m supposed to disassemble it leave the cover off and video recorder if the feeder gear is engaging the filament into the nozzle. My son and I have both witnessed filament disappearing into the head and not coming out the nozzle head. Idk

Yeah, I have had the same issue with damage to the components, I am now working on upgrading the module myself. In the space that they have the heat sink as part of the feeding mechanism, they could have placed turbine cooling fans, upgraded the tube and nozzle to something like the hexagonal direct or E6 all metal versions.

This would allow the heat to disperse evenly along the shaft of the tube and nozzle, fans in opposing direction tunneling the heat down along the same path, and not creep up and away or out. The upgrade would also let us print a wider variety of filaments and so many other benefits.

Because of the lack of proper heat to the nozzle in an even way, it is slowly hardening inside of the nozzle and making small deposits each time, especially with retraction in place. The feeding mechanism is being stressed by filament placement, PLA expansion due to humidity, and when the nozzle finally clogs it warps the throat or pushes something out of alignment.

I donā€™t mind helping what I think is an cool company debug and polish their final product but I expected more reliability. Now that I have had a look at the internals, Iā€™m getting more skeptical about the overall build and Iā€™m still rooting for Snapmaker and I want them to be successful but this has to be addressed.

It seems like I have seen similar machines like this lately, Kodama Trinus 3D & Laser , Panowin F1 3D & Laser, they seem to be all metal, modular, slightly changed build platform and both use PCODE on the Paladin firmware. I havenā€™t even used the engraving module yet because Iā€™ve spent all my time fixing the 3D module [still dead] but getting very Frankensteiney.

Long post, apologies, but soon we may have a SnapPanoMakerTrin3D running on MarlinPango GPCode. Trinus users reverse engineered their boards and are running Marlin instead for increased build size. Really, I just want it to work and now even thinking about adding to it seems like a headache, as it is I think the components will fail before reaching 500 grams of PLA consumption under normal house hold conditions.

Not being negative, just a little more realistic about the internals, software, and future upgrades.

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Hi @012613,

Thank you for the suggestions!
It seems that you are a really experienced user and we would like to have a deeper conversation with you. We understand that the current 3D Printing Module is not perfect and we are dedicated to making it better. Weā€™ll seize any chance that may improve the product. We will appreciate it if you can give us this chance.

As I replied to you in another topic, my Skype username is Rainie Zou. Would you please share your Skype account with me as well? You can call me 10:00-19:00 China Standard Time from Monday to Friday. Please send me a message when you are ready.

Look forward to your reply. Thank you!

Best regards,
Rainie

Sure, Iā€™ll note to setup a time with you during the week, I am sourcing the parts now and I am trying to keep it all in line with the current settings/configurations. I would like to have tested a few variations before conferencing and I promised my wife and son that I would not work this weekend. So, all these shiny new parts have to wait until Mondayā€¦

I believe in what Snapmaker is doing or I wouldnā€™t have backed the company or put hundreds of hours into this module. Unfortunately, the streamlined campaign and focus on the all metal rock solid build begins to fall apart when modules fail. Because you have a modular build, you have a lot of options but I wonā€™t get into sales and consumer expectation in this forum area.

The easiest thing to try that may be preventative? Snapmaker branded silicone socks?

Iā€™ll have to setup a Skype account, Iā€™ll send you a message when I do.

Sincerely,

M.

I have been trough the same problem here. And here is my hypothesis: The fan below the printing module has stopped working. The heat that building because of the lack of coolling ā€¦ lead the PLA to grow up into the module.

Hi,
I have had these same issues.
I had not posted about them since you have already covered them.

I want to add that bad PLA is most likely to blame.
DigiStruct PLA 1.75mm 3D Printer Filament has cost me everything.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I8DRTFE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Thermistor (uncommon connection at the motherboard), the Heating Element (again uncommon connection at the motherboard), the nozzle and Hot End (which by the way is also hard to find since most filament tubes are threaded shafts while ours are smooth shafts). And, as others have stated the locking screws both strip.

This.

Donā€™t worry, donā€™t do something hectic. This is salvageable. You might loose the fan and/or the heat tube/thermistor. Thats replaceable. The snapmaker shop is open now. You can even get the originals.

Edit: Oh. This was 3 month ago. How did it go??

Hello,

I just had a very similar situation to this, managed to clean it all out (I hope) but damaged the thermistor cable so I canā€™t run the machine. Any hints on how to fix it?

Cheers,
PƤr

@olsson
I have bought some thermistors (and also hotends and heating tubes) in spare. Shipped from the UK in a few days to the EU.
https://store.snapmaker.com/product/thermistor

Hello all,
a little late maybe but I am just trying to get my Snap again to life, and exploring how it is designed. As said earlier in another post you first design a product for it to work, and then you redesign it to work safely if some elements fail. The latter step still is ongoing (I hope) at SnapMaker, and it is one of the risk you take as a backer.
I want to react on the feedback above from Trphotola on Mach 16.
For the problem above of filament going in and no plastic going out, i think I know the root cause: The extruder and hot end are combined, and there is not really a thermal break between the hot end and here the extruder gear pushes the plastic towards the hot end. there is also quite some distance between the gear and the mouth towards the hot end (a few mm). Now if all works well it is a very compact setup. However assume the the plastic stops sticking and is creating the usual spaghetti. One of the fans for cool the plastic might get caught in the spaghetti and stop working. The hot end might get less cooling up to the mouth where the plastic is being pushed in to the hot end. as the extruder motor is very powerful and the heated pastic in touch with the hot end gets weak, the filament might snap and force itself next to the hot end and cause the massive melting inside the printer head.
Solution: reduce the gap between extruder gear and hot end entrance. This would also make loading filament significantly easier. In addition have a thermal break in the hot end tube, so heat canā€™t go that easy to the entrance of the hot end. A good addition would be to make the strength of the spring engaging the extruder gear variable. I think at this moment it is too strong, not allowing the gear to slip in case of a blockage.
Any feedback welcome.