PB Play Jamming, unable to find a new Hotend ?

[Paulkenny15]

Hi all,
I have owned my PB Play for some time now, printed many things and managed to upgrade my bed space too.

A while back I noticed the clicking noise so I done some research and thought it might be just cheap PLA so I got myself some good stuff.

After done more and more printing I'm finding it's still upto the same tricks but not consistent. I can print for 10 minutes and it'll do it or it might not do it until it's reaching a more complicated point 2/3 hours into a print.

I have read all forums, technical helps to do with cold pulling and I even tried some 'floss' but it just keeps on happening.

I read that possiblity a new Ubis 13s would do the trick seeing that it might actually be a damaged end ? Unfortunately I cannot find any for sale.

Can someone point me in the right direction to what I could do to sort this very annoying issue out.
PS im based in the UK so ideally I would want to order parts here if I can.


Thanks

Paul

[novice]

It's not clear to me if you are experiencing current problems with an ceramic or Ubis 13 style hotend ?

If it is a 13s, perhaps you might explore replacing the PTFE "guide tube" shown in this short video of disassembly.

[Paulkenny15]

Thanks for the reply,

I think mines is the ceramic one ? It came built with my Play from factory. I have cleaned it all out before and never seen a PTFE / Teflon tube in it.

Do you think I should replace the whole extruder so it's more 'serviceable' being that I can change ends and tubes more easily.

Thanks again

Paul

[Mooselake]

I think you should try cleaning out the nozzle first. Some like the heat it with a torch and dunk in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol trick, aka an IPA burnout. I prefer using a set of welding tip cleaners such as random example to remove any baked-in crud. Extruding some filament with the tip removed will help remove some more debris, and you can use a pipe cleaner on a operating temperature extruder barrel to scrub it out further (remove the filament first....). Be careful to pick a tip cleaner (aka wire cleaner and other names, plus they're handy for cleaning out your oxy-acetylene torch tip orifices) that's the same size or slightly smaller then the hole in the nozzle. since you're trying to clean it out, not enlarge it.

Replacing the nozzles (far less expensive then a whole extruder) is considered a normal maintenance item, although I still have the originals on my extruders. The above linked ubis site should help. I don't have a ceramic 1.75mm ubis (it'll have a beige colored barrel) so I don't know if the plethora of E3D nozzle copies will work. They did fit my discontinued all-metal ubis, and of course the real E3D on my thingybot delta

[novice]

play ceramic.jpg
ubis 13s.jpg

So long as you do not have a broken wire to either the hot end thermistor or htr causing intermittent issue on a ceramic I agree with Moose that salvage attempt is worthwhile. The 13s should be a drop-in replacement on a Play which would(?) already have the upper or second cooling fan which should be on anytime the 13s heating element is on. Am using both ceramic and 13s on different printers and truthfully think they are both good hot ends.

Not having any farm or welding supply stores handy, I have a .40 mm tip cleaner from fleabay that reminds me of an acupuncture needle. Wonder if perhaps you have particles of charred filament remaning inside your tip causing repeated issue.

To clean I remove the ceramic tip (which are still available on ebay new) warm with a lighter and once the filament pool remaining inside becomes gooey insert a bamboo BBQ skewer to collect all remnants of filament.

[coastline]

Unfortunately the ubishotends site currently only ships to the U.S. I asked if it was possible to get items shipped to the U.K. and Carl is looking into it.

[Paulkenny15]

Thanks for the reply, currently there's nothing extruding and it seems completely jammed.

I have tried cleaning it out by stripping it down and heating it up but unfortunately I don't have anything small enough to Pike through the tip.

Going by the photos about maybe I already have the 13s as the ceramic one looks way different to mines.

I'll see if I can order an new tip and see if they gets me going

[novice]

As you or anyone else outside the States may or may not know the 13s tip is compatible with E3D tips.

[Mooselake]

Can you take pictures of your Play and extruder and post them here?

You may not be able to link to offsite pictures, but you can use the full editor. Under the text box is a tab that says "Upload attachment" that you use to upload the picture(s). If possible resize them so they're around 640 to 800 pixels wide

Kirk