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I recently bought a Geeetech Prusa i3 x. After two full days assembling I can finaly try to print something. Having put in the filament into the extruder no filament actually came out of the nozzle. I opened up my extruder and the filament seems to be stuck in the nozzle.

Filament stuck in nozzle

Note that I have tried heating the nozzle up and both pushed and pulled but no movement. Does anyone know what to do?

Thanks, Merijn

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  • $\begingroup$ If this is PLA, it is suggested to heat it to about 180 deg C to soften but not completely melt the filament. Do you know the temperature you've used during your attempt? $\endgroup$ – fred_dot_u Aug 27 '16 at 15:29
  • $\begingroup$ I used 210 since I figured this was PLA. It came with the printer and was only described as 'test filament'. Now that I have unscrewed the nozzle I notice the filament melts at way lower temperatures (as low as 140).. Any idea what this filament is? $\endgroup$ – Merijn Den Houting Aug 28 '16 at 13:43
  • $\begingroup$ Did you try pushing the filament from the extruder end using a very small sized allen key? It worked for me. $\endgroup$ – Jash Jacob Sep 2 '16 at 10:24
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There are a number of options you could try. If heating up the hotend does not work, you'll have to disassemble it. Remove the nozzle and the heatbreak (the threaded part). To disassemble the nozzle, you will need to heat it up and use pliers or wrenches to unscrew the parts.

  • You can use a blowtorch to melt and burn out the plastic that is stuck. Make sure to do this outside.

  • You can use solvents to dissolve the plastic. This works especially well with ABS, which can be dissolved in acetone. You can also try dissolving different plastics with acetone, but for example PLA does not really dissolve in acetone (it does become somewhat soft, so this can still be helpful towards getting it out). You could also try using other solvents if acetone does not work for your particular plastic, but consider these tend to be quite toxic compared to acetone so be careful. Note that in any case, the plastic will need to soak in the solvent for at least a few hours or overnight.

Do not try to disassemble it while cold, the expansion and contraction of metal with heat makes this impossible. When reassembling, be sure to heat up the nozzle before giving it a final tightening (again, this is to make sure that when the nozzle expands as it is heated, it makes a tight seal).

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  • $\begingroup$ If you use a blowtorch, make sure you have removed the heater cartridge and thermistor first! The thermistor will likely be permanently damaged if you exceed 300°C. $\endgroup$ – Benoit Miller Aug 29 '16 at 15:23
  • $\begingroup$ @BenoitMiller My answer said to disassemble the hotend first, then switch to the blowtorch. I think it should go without saying that either a blowtorch or acetone would permanently damage the thermistor, heater cartridge and wire insulation. $\endgroup$ – Tom van der Zanden Aug 29 '16 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ @TomvanderZanden at the risk of exposing my stupidity to everyone here, I didn't think of that the first time I did this, and burned a perfectly good thermistor. So it is not necessarily obvious, even though in hindsight I should have known better! :) These days I prefer simply heating the (unmounted) hotend to 280°C with its own heater and push the blockage with Nylon filament, avoiding the need to clean the nozzle of burned residue afterwards. $\endgroup$ – Benoit Miller Aug 29 '16 at 18:51
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the tips, I noticed it created a solid block in the threaded part above. I have removed it twice now, but it keeps blocking there. Any ideas why? The nozzle was totally clean. $\endgroup$ – Merijn Den Houting Aug 31 '16 at 19:50
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    $\begingroup$ @MerijnDenHouting Do you have cooling on the upper part. If the threaded part heats up, filament will become (slightly) molten and block. There needs to be a fan blowing on it. $\endgroup$ – Tom van der Zanden Aug 31 '16 at 19:59

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