Hi all, about yesterday, i did a print and was monitoring it for the first two hours but then i went away for some work for a couple of hours and i returned only to find a blob build up of the melted pla filament on the nozzle top (pic below). So i started surfing the snapmaker website and forum to find a solution and found out that a reasonable solution would be to heat up the nozzle to 200 plus and keep it heated until the blob/melted filament starts falling off or coming off with tweezers. But there is one problem in my case, a wire from the heating element that goes to the nozzle has come off and the nozzle doesn’t heat up anymore and i cant even reach the hot end kit to replace it and i am now stuck. Please help me with this situation and i am super keen to know what can i do in such a situation to solve the problem.
You could try cutting the blob off a bit at a time with the cutters supplied in the toolkit or heating it selectively with a soldering iron (keep in mind this will likely trash the iron’s tip). You might be able to clear enough of it that way to extract the hot end. Heating the blob with a heat gun will almost certainly damage the plastic fan shroud, although I think some people’s print heads have survived the experience in a workable (if warped) condition.
That wire doesn’t look good, though, and I suspect that you may end up contacting support@snapmaker.com for a replacement head anyway. Alas, blob disasters probably count as user error, so even if your machine is still under warranty, you’re unlikely to get a free replacement.
I second everything @ElloryJaye said, especially about the wire. Hopefully that wire is on the hotend, if it’s the one on the head you’re going to need a new head.
As for warranty, I would still push as the head is expensive. On other printers you just need to replace a few things instead of replacing the entire head.
Thank you @ElloryJaye and @Artezio for the prompt reply. The information really helps. I have already emailed the snapmaker support to see what my chances are to get a replacement head. If the reply from support doesn’t come in my favour, i will give heat gun a shot as honestly i think that my only option. If that happens my plan is to somehow get the plastic of the section where the wire has come out and try and get the wire reconnected so the heating function in the print head can work again and then I can easily remove the blob. Lets see how it goes, i will update the status here. Thank you once again guys.
Hey guys, I would like to thank you for all the valuable input. At last, i emailed the company and without any hesitation they sent me a new 3d printing head under warranty which arrived just two days ago.