MakerGear Forum

Ok so somehow I have PLA in the threads of the PEEK insulator. I probably have over 500 hours so far on my new printer with little to no problems until today, I started my print and the PLA jammed after about 10 min of printing. I stopped my print and removed the jammed filament with the cold pull method then tested it with about 100 mm of manual extrusion and everything ran smoothly. I restarted the print and about 30 min in this time it jammed again, so this time I decided to unassailable my hot end (for the first time ever) and I noticed that there is PLA in the threads between the barrel and the PEEK the PLA is red which I have only been using recently about 20 hours or so of prints so it seems to have only recently happened. Anyone have an idea how it got there and what I can do to prevent the problem? I am currently cleaning the threads with the intention of reapplying some new PTFE tape and hoping that this fixes the problem.

Well I cleaned the threads and reapplied tape and so far (fingers crossed) it's working fine. I'm still confused on how it got PLA in the threads in the first place.

PLA does that, it's very fluid at temp (nearly water). If there's not a perfect seal between the threads, the backpressure from the nozzle (and crept heat from the brass tube) will force the plastic around the threads at the top.

To fix this for the future, add just a few layers of PTFE tape around the threads (too much will crack the PEEK...don't ask), screw tightly (too tightly will crack the PEEK...again no questions), and keep the PEEK cool. The PEEK cooling is as much for PLA leakage prevention as it is for maintaining the integrity of the PEEK itself.