Hi! I recently bought a FlashForge Dreamer 3D printer, and I was wondering how to clean the extruders. My right extruders appears to be clogged and I don’t want to damage it. Do you have any tips on how to safely clean the extruder? Thanks for the help!
I use eSun 3D printer cleaning filament, which you can get on places like Amazon. It usually comes in a 0.1kg pack and is somewhat expensive for the amount you get, but it lasts quite a while and seems to work pretty good. You just feed it in as you would any other filament and it will pull the other filament through. I think it’s some sort of nylon, but I’m not certain. If you have a bad clog, after feeding it in or feeding it in as far as you can, you can let it start cooling, and just as it’s setting up good, hold down the tension spring release on your extruder and yank the filament up and out (known as an “atomic pull”). It will bond to the filament that’s clogging the nozzle and yank it out.
You can also get a set of nozzle cleaning drill bits. With them, you heat your extruder and when it’s up to temperature, insert the bit from the bottom of the nozzle to clear out any filament that’s jammed in the tip of the nozzle.
Dano
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If you use a metal rod the same diameter (or close) to that of the filament and use it to push the stuck filament through that can help, but a clogged nozzle can be the result of all sorts of problems so who knows. this video Basics: Cleaning out a clogged nozzle! - YouTube gives a lot of detail about clogged nozzles, worth watching
Buy a pack of guitar strings there are a couple in the pack that will fit. Heat the print head hot as it will go and
and work it out it can be real stubborn and may take quite a bit of force. Mine have clogged a couple of times usually impurities in the filement. Don’t forget to clean plastic debris off of the feeder gear.