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Needle stuck in tungsten nozzle (self.3dprinting)

submitted 1 year ago by PixelPlumber to c/3dprinting

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I got myself a tungsten nozzle, thinking it would last forever…

Today I tried to clean it with a needle (learning after about many suggestions not to do so) and the needle snapped inside the nozzle, quickly fusing to the clog…

I’ve tried blasting it with a kitchen torch, without success at loosening this thing. Any tips?

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Heat gun. One of more powerful ones used for stripping paint, not the cruddy ones for heatshrinking. You need to get the nozzle hot enough to soften that clog to have any chance at all of clearing it, which means you're going to have to get it up to the kind of temperature you'd be printing at. Put the nozzle in a vise while you're doing this, so that you don't touch it and burn yourself, or drop it and set something on fire.

I have a sneaking suspicion you're going to have to chalk this one up to "lessons learned" and get a new nozzle, though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Kitchen torch is almost the right idea, what you want is a hot air gun of some kind. I have a hot-air rework station, which cost me like $45 including sales tax, and lets me set the temperature of the air coming out. Get the nozzle off and get ready to clean out the entire hot end, which for the nozzle means getting it clamped onto some sort of holder (pliers, even, but preferably better) and heating it up with the hot-air gun until you get the filament melting. Then start clearing it out from the wider end using, say, a bamboo skewer, which I find effective and non-scarrning to the nozzles.

It'll take some futzing around, but you'll get there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yup, hotair gun or reinstall it then heat it up to try clearing it Could try putting it on a tray in the oven or grill

[–] PixelPlumber 2 points 1 year ago

I got it after lots of fussing with it.

Got a cheap $10 hot air gun, propped it sitting up.

Grabbed the tiny bit of needle I could reach with a pair of tweezers that fit, grabbed the tweezers with a pair of pliers to not burn myself

Grabbed the other end of the nozzle with another pair of pliers, held it up to the hot air gun like I was roasting it and just kept a light but constant pressure.

Nothing else I tried worked, I have no idea why it was so stuck on there. But thanks all for helping push me to the hot air gun