3D Printing Challenges
Adventures in replacing a 3D printer print head
Challenges and Opportunities
Owning a 3D printer and being an enthusiast means you will undoubtedly end up modding your printer with 3D printed upgrades, buying better components and even replacing things when they break. I find myself smack dab in the middle of the last of these scenarios.
I have owned a Creality CR-6 SE for several years now. I have printed several mods for this printer and even installed and improved extruder. Now I find that I am needing to replace my hot end.
A Sad Story
It all started several month back when an overnight print turned into a glob of black PLA all gummed up around the nozzle and hot end of the printer. I was happy that heating the print head back to PLA temperatures let me free the gooped up mess from the nozzle and I have been printing ever since without much issue. Well until this past weekend. A failed print once again resulted in a ball of PLA at the nozzle. I wish I had taken pictures. I have seen several that were far worse than mine, but as I tried to free the mess, I pulled the nozzle boot off and realized that there was a mess of black PLA all over the inside guts of the print head.
I removed the colling shroud cover and tried to extract as much of the mess as I could, but much of it was outside the heated end of the nozzle. I ended up enlisting my son to help me by holding a heat gun as I carefully pried the crap out from around the nozzle.
Once done I fired up the printer hoping to heat the nozzle up and wipe the last of the goo away.
The nozzle would not heat up. The temperature reading was -15C. I am pretty sure the nozzle was not below freezing so…
What Have I Done?
I guess I damaged the wires to the thermistor or the thermistor itself. Time for a new print head – I figured that would be a good idea, since this one had been in operation for several years anyway.
I could not find an official Creality print head hot end assembly for my printer. There were a lot of third-party look-alikes. I know the CR6-SE is no longer in production, and it was a little bit unique compared to the other highly successful Creality printers, so I guess I will be buying a third-party replacement. I went ahead and bought a couple official thermistors and Cartridge heaters so I can refurbish my nasty print head.
