<p>I recently installed a "Direct Extruder System" on my Ender 3 using a 3D printed mount. For the first few minutes it worked fine, but after I looked at it once again, I saw that there's nothing anymore coming out of the nozzle so I directly stopped the print. </p>

<p>I've seen that the filament has broken at the point where it gets into the extruder and the motor just extruded it into the air besides the inlet. Today I've taken apart the extruder, and I saw, that there's quite some filament stuck inside the inlet. So I heated the extruder up, tried to remove the PLA, but even on 230&nbsp;°C it was hard. I don't know what to do now, and I don't really have the option to buy a new extruder now. Does anyone know what to do?
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/szMOx.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/szMOx.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/inRux.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/inRux.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T13:48:09.933Z
Hi GamesNic, welcome to 3D Printing.SE! Maybe some photos will help clarify what you mean. Which extruder did you print? Did you reuse the old hotend? What hotend do you have. Without such information it would be difficult to answer! Also, I suspect the terminology you use is different than we use. The extruder is the part pushing the filament, the hot end the hot part, the cold end the part above the hotend that gets cooled to prevent heat creeping up to the extruder. Where is the inlet located you talk of?
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T14:11:00.800Z
First of all, thanks for responding! Sorry, I switched extruder with hotend. Basically, I only changed the driving system. The hotend still is the stock one that came with the ender 3. The only thing I did was to 3D print a mounting part for the extruder motor, that sits directly over the hotend. The inlet is, where the PTFE tube once was. And the stuck filament is right there where the hot part is, not too wide up to the cold end. Pictures are here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10ZwX-_mmaOSPfamq6C8Chvshs-Z6q_5f
GamesNic
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T14:16:40.337Z
I posted a link to a drive folder in my comment, there you can see the extruder driver and the hotend taken apart. And I'm not able to take any of the filament out, as I said, even on 230 °C the filament is hard, even if I poke it.
GamesNic
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T20:46:10.130Z
@Trish, pics added. GamesNic, you're going to either need to heat that hot end  with it not mounted to the machine, so that the entire thing heats to 230 so that you can at least take a small drill bit, screw it into the melted plastic then when its cooling, yank it out or buy a new throat.
user77232
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T20:49:53.797Z
the photo shows, that the filament seems to be bunched up in the heatbreak... Can you show the construction as it should be assembled and/or a link to the mod? I have the feeling, that the general construction of this has an error, a lack of constraining on the filament between extruder and hotend-assembly.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T21:05:44.193Z
Considering the amount of filament in the heatbreak, the PTFE tube has not been inserted all the way through and when it got heated, it filled the cavity with molten plastic. You need to heat it up not connected to the heat exchanger and pry out the goo. If more comments follow I'll move the comments as a thread to chat. Good luck fiddling ;-)!
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-17T07:06:15.793Z
short answer: just get a new tube and nozzle. (you should get some critical spare parts anyway)
Horitsu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-18T11:49:01.393Z
I finally did it! I let the thing cool down and poked all of the goo through with a hex bit, it came out in one piece. I also know saw what the problem was: I didn't connect the extruder with a PTFE tube to the hotend, which then made a massive clog inside there. After shortening the tube to the distance between hotend and extruder, everything worked perfectly! Thanks for all the answers :D
GamesNic
<extruder><creality-ender-3><hotend>
How to get stuck filament out of this direct drive extruder?
GamesNic
# How to get stuck filament out of this direct drive extruder?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-16)

I recently installed a "Direct Extruder System" on my Ender 3 using a 3D printed mount. For the first few minutes it worked fine, but after I looked at it once again, I saw that there's nothing anymore coming out of the nozzle so I directly stopped the print.

I've seen that the filament has broken at the point where it gets into the extruder and the motor just extruded it into the air besides the inlet. Today I've taken apart the extruder, and I saw, that there's quite some filament stuck inside the inlet. So I heated the extruder up, tried to remove the PLA, but even on 230 °C it was hard. I don't know what to do now, and I don't really have the option to buy a new extruder now. Does anyone know what to do?
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/szMOx.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/szMOx.jpg)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/inRux.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/inRux.jpg)

**Tags:** extruder, creality-ender-3, hotend
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hi GamesNic, welcome to 3D Printing.SE! Maybe some photos will help clarify what you mean. Which extruder did you print? Did you reuse the old hotend? What hotend do you have. Without such information it would be difficult to answer! Also, I suspect the terminology you use is different than we use. The extruder is the part pushing the filament, the hot end the hot part, the cold end the part above the hotend that gets cooled to prevent heat creeping up to the extruder. Where is the inlet located you talk of?  
> **username_0**: First of all, thanks for responding! Sorry, I switched extruder with hotend. Basically, I only changed the driving system. The hotend still is the stock one that came with the ender 3. The only thing I did was to 3D print a mounting part for the extruder motor, that sits directly over the hotend. The inlet is, where the PTFE tube once was. And the stuck filament is right there where the hot part is, not too wide up to the cold end. Pictures are here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10ZwX-_mmaOSPfamq6C8Chvshs-Z6q_5f  
> **username_0**: I posted a link to a drive folder in my comment, there you can see the extruder driver and the hotend taken apart. And I'm not able to take any of the filament out, as I said, even on 230 °C the filament is hard, even if I poke it.  
> **username_2**: @Trish, pics added. GamesNic, you're going to either need to heat that hot end  with it not mounted to the machine, so that the entire thing heats to 230 so that you can at least take a small drill bit, screw it into the melted plastic then when its cooling, yank it out or buy a new throat.  
> **username_3**: the photo shows, that the filament seems to be bunched up in the heatbreak... Can you show the construction as it should be assembled and/or a link to the mod? I have the feeling, that the general construction of this has an error, a lack of constraining on the filament between extruder and hotend-assembly.  
> **username_1**: Considering the amount of filament in the heatbreak, the PTFE tube has not been inserted all the way through and when it got heated, it filled the cavity with molten plastic. You need to heat it up not connected to the heat exchanger and pry out the goo. If more comments follow I'll move the comments as a thread to chat. Good luck fiddling ;-)!  
> **username_4**: short answer: just get a new tube and nozzle. (you should get some critical spare parts anyway)  
> **username_0**: I finally did it! I let the thing cool down and poked all of the goo through with a hex bit, it came out in one piece. I also know saw what the problem was: I didn't connect the extruder with a PTFE tube to the hotend, which then made a massive clog inside there. After shortening the tube to the distance between hotend and extruder, everything worked perfectly! Thanks for all the answers :D  

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## 0 answers

