Several people have suggested that the temperature at the entry of the barrel is very important to printing with PLA. This makes sense. If the temperature at the barrel entry is above the melting point for PLA, it can melt right there and ooze down around the threads.
Maybe I should assembly my extruder with just the thermistor on the barrel entry, and heat it until it is just below the melting point of PLA – then check the temperature at the nozzle.
Or, I could get a second thermistor and use it at the top of the barrel while keeping the original thermistor at the nozzle. I could only use one set at a time (since I don’t know how to hack the electronics/extruder board), but that shouldn’t be an issue.
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DO NOT USE THIS extruder unclogger setup
UPDATE: DO NOT USE TILES!!! THEY WILL SHATTER! READ LATEST POST!
The bad news is this is my first clogged extruder. The good news is I have all the spare parts to whip up a new extruder, no problem. That means I can experiment with wild abandon! My backup plan is to slice and dice the PTFE insulator into washers.
Having drilled out most of the plastic clog from the barrel, it’s mostly empty. The PTFE is in pretty good shape with the threads intact, if a little worse for wear. My plan to get the remaining plastic out of the nozzle is to put the nozzle/barrel assembly into the large washer upside down and prop it up on some ceramic tiles.
My hope is that by applying a heat source to the nozzle the plastic will just drip/fall out. The suggestion for using a blow torch to clear out the barrel and nozzle comes from Rick Pollack / MakerGear. Thanks again Rick!
By the way, wicked Google Sketchup skillz, no?
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Leonardo Robot
Freaking cool. This robot was designed by jrombosky by taking the measurements/proportions/ratios from Leonardo DaVinci’s Virtuvian Man. Even if these proportions were all messed up, this would still be super awesome. It’s a little printable robot!!!
Lego Robot Set
It reminds me of a lego set from a few years ago:
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