Hot end smokes now (ugh)

[tom10122]

So I was getting ready to print hen my hot end started smoking, there was some burned up kapton tape and rtv ect that I remove, checked the thermistor, it was in there good, the velleman does relay . I'm really hoping its just some pla caked on it . What do you think ? There is black burned up pla im hoping thats it. Should I run the hotend and burn it off(keeping an eye on the temp)

[michaellatif]

If its just junk on the tip, heat up the tip to the proper melting temp for PLA and use a paper towel and wipe it off. This will be a good test to see if the extruder can hold up. Just watch out to not burn yourself.
You can disconnect the velleman and check the resistance on the resistors and themistor, that should tell you if the tip needs to be taken apart and cleaned or rebuilt.

[tom10122]

cleaned it as best as possible turned the heat up abit and it smoked again, Looked like it was coming from the resistor holes but it was hard to tell, taking the nozzle off soon,

[tom10122]

removed the nozzle and it smokes less, is it safe to put the metal nozzle in some acetone to get rid or the pla?

[johnoly99]

A little smoke isnt a big deal. Some material can roll around on the hot end and get stuck up by the resistors, and its much hotter in short periods up there. If your resistors are measuring fine, no worries.

[tom10122]

Thanks , Only a little smoke now from time to time , more if i crank up the temp but no big deal . Now onto that skew problem

[tom10122]

took a break friday and saturday and I'm printing now with absolutely no smoke, weird.

[Good Things]

Finally Got Our Rostock Assembled. almost finished all calibrating. Something i did notice is that every time we turn on the hot end adapter and heat up to at least 130C we start to get mysterious smoke. cant figure out where its coming from. Its at least coming from below the melamine discs. We didnt notice any discoloration on any parts when we take them apart to inspect. teflon tube and all other components are looking good. we Just dont know whether or not we should be concerned.

[tom10122]

I think it could be some burning filament or , RTV if you just put some on

[Good Things]

We have not used any filament yet, and the RTV has been dry for at least 3 weeks. Defiantly a white smoke coming from the hot end.

[tom10122]

if the resistors weren't wrapped up tight enough then that could be them cracking . breaking

[Good Things]

That makes complete sense. at the time of wrapping we didnt know exactly how tight to make it. Now that its time to maybe replace the resistors is there a better way out there. I saw the heater cartridges on seeme store. is this a better way to go? and will it even work with the Bowden Hot End

[DaGroundZero]

I switched over to the heater cartridge a few weeks ago. I like it better. It does take a bit longer to heat up to printing temp, but that is the only con I see with it. I used the hightemp tape to secure it so I can see and I didn't have to wait the 24 hours for the high temp silicone to dry.