How to clear toolhead clog

Sovol Zero
1

NEW Sovol Zero..after printing about 9hours, toolhead clogged

Tried pushing needle from nozzle upwards, could feel a solid wall clog (350C)

Rod(with loop) can not go down from extruder(350C)

Any idea how to clear clog with dismantling the toolhead?

Thanks in advance

2

Did you try a search?

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@LochNess I had a similar problem when I first got my printer. I was experimenting with the nozzle temps and completely clogged the cold and hot ends by repeatedly preheating the printhead. I found and used this tool to push from the top down, does really well, the filament slowly extruded from the bottom as I pushed the rod down like it was naturally feeding from the extrusion drive.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3FD43W7

When nozzle clogging occurred on my Zero I used these steps:

  1. Preheat to current filament temperature, for one of my clogs I had PLA that was stubborn and had to heat for the next filament type PETG. Generally the current filament type works.
  2. Remove the print head blue cover.
  3. Undo the thumb screw for the for Extrusion Drive.
  4. After the print head is fully heated, If any filament remains above the entry hole, pull the filament up from the top so it separates.
  5. Use the 1.50mm rod to slowly push any remaining filament from the cold end through the hot end of the nozzle.
  6. I let the printhead cool to room temperature, I normally turn off the printer.
  7. I then turn on the printer and begin the process to load filament.

So far the above steps have worked for me on my Zero when I hit the really bad clogs, not often now, but in the beginning I was learning about the 3d printing world.

Cheers
-Mike

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I bought the same nozzle poke tool that MikeHides linked to in the previous post a few months ago. I had the opportunity to use it today. I tried using it to clear a partially clogged nozzle by forcing the clog out the nozzle and only manage to make a completely clogged nozzle. I like the nozzle poke tool for pushing filament and debris out the bottom of the heater block after removing the nozzle. It works better than the long arm 1.5 mm hex key I’d been using.

The Zero is prone to clogs above the melt zone, in the heat break. If the clog seems to be above the heater and you can’t push it out, there is probably solid plastic in the heat break. Ironically, the fix without disassembling the extruder is to remove the tool head cover, disable the heat break by putting a piece of masking tape over the little fan on the right side that cools the aluminum heat sink and cranking up the nozzle temperature to 320 C. After a few minutes, the heat from the melt zone will migrate up into the heat break. You don’t want that happening while you’re printing, and that’s probably how you got a clog of melted plastic solidified in the heat break, but after the heat break area warms up enough you should be able to remove the nozzle and use the nozzle poke tool to push the clog down from the top and out the bottom. While it’s hot, try to push any residual melted plastic in the heat break down and out. It may help to use a paper towel to wipe the molten plastic off the nozzle poke tool that’s protruding from the bottom of the heater, pull it back up just enough to engage any molten plastic in the heat break, and scrape it down and out the bottom. Try not to pull melted plastic on the tool back up higher into the heat break or into the extruder gears on top of the tool head.

I’ve cleared several Zero clogs and never needed to disassemble the tool head. Even though I have a lot of 3D printing experience, the Zero clogs weren’t intuitive at first, but now that I know how it works thanks to some knowledgeable people on this forum, I’m getting pretty good at clearing Zero clogs.

It might be handy to have something like a pipe cleaner made from fine brass bristles to clean a heat soaked heat break from the top down with the nozzle removed, but I’ve never seen anything that small. Maybe 14 AWG or 16 AWG bare stranded copper wire? There is also 1.0 and 1.5 mm solder wick braid.

https://www.amazon.com/Hotop-No-Clean-Braided-Desoldering-Multi-color/dp/B0987HK6R1

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