Share your ways to keep your printer/nozzle clean ?

[mediaklan]

Hi everyone !
I was wondering what is the best way to clean your printer (right after a print for example) ? Can you guys share your way to do so please ?
I've finished a print, stopped the printer, what should I do now ?
Thanks for your advices !

[midiman310]

Hi everyone !
I was wondering what is the best way to clean your printer (right after a print for example) ? Can you guys share your way to do so please ?
I've finished a print, stopped the printer, what should I do now ?
Thanks for your advices !

I usually use a razor scraper to scape material off, then wipe the bed down with rubbing alcohol before the next print. The nozzle just use tweezers while the nozzle is still hot to remove any weeping. When I change filament, I use the "cold pull" method to remove the filament from the hot end. I used to retract it while was totally hot and got molten filament up into the tube which stuck. Had to finally use that rod they included in the kit to push all that stuff out. Cold pull method keeps it clean.

[mediaklan]

hmm ... quite interesting method. For the bed, I only need a humid sponge : I'm using kapton tape and/or a very cheap and easy to clean "scholar glue". The kapton tape and the scholar glue prevents the printed piece to stick, and as the scholar glue can be wiped with the sponge, the piece can be taken off the bed easy, without the need to replace the kapton tape.
Now I'm really interested in this "cold method" you're using. Can you elaborate how you do that please ?

[midiman310]

Now I'm really interested in this "cold method" you're using. Can you elaborate how you do that please ?

Hijacked this from another wiki:

"The safest and most effective way to completely clear the plastic from a nozzle, taking any contaminants with it, is what I call a “cold pull”. The idea behind the cold pull is to pull the filament out of a nozzle at a temperature cool enough to keep it in one piece (rather than leaving molten plastic in the hot zone), but still warm enough to allow the plastic to stretch enough to pull away from the sides of the barrel so that it doesn’t seize up entirely. This is easiest to perform with a polished-smooth stainless steel barrel, with those that have a PTFE liner all the way to the end coming in second, because nozzle pressure can slightly compress the softer PTFE and create a plug that will be difficult to pull out.

The cold pull technique has been successfully done with both ABS (this was the best material to use for a long time, with a cold-pull temperature of about 160-180C) and PLA (much more difficult due to its thermal transition properties, but a cold-pull temperature of 80-100C will sometimes work), but Nylon 618 from Taulman (pull temperature of 140C) is far easier and more reliable to use for this purpose due to its strength, flexibility, and low friction. These are generally maximum temperatures (temperatures above which the plastic is unlikely to come out solid). For best results, you should always pull the plastic at the lowest possible temperature, and it may help to cool the nozzle well below this temperature and then continually attempt to pull it as the nozzle heats up again."

There are several slightly different variants of this method which you can Google off the web.