I’m changing the PTFE in my heatbreak, I didn’t realize these seem to be consumables. It started causing blockage.
A guy sent me a piece of PTFE from his Prusa MK3S+ that I could try as i was having trouble finding any PTFE quickly.
I realized I couldn’t just cut a piece and put it in, that caused a lot of filament leakage and underextrusion. The end of the PTFE toward the nozzle was a bit jagged and I believe that’s where the leakage happened. Now I’m wondering how the heatbreak and nozzle normally interface inside the heatblock, should they be touching? Should the PTFE protrude a bit from the heatbreak so there’s a bit of pressure against the nozzle when I screw it in?
When you order bowden tube it comes with a cutter. Make sure your fittings are tight.
But also heat up the hotend remove the nozzle and tube. Then push in through a piece of old bowden tube. This ensures there is no remaking plastic in the throat. Now reassemble. the old ptfe tu
If it’s the standard hotend the tube touches the nozzle. It shouldn’t really be consumable but if you are printing at higher temps (i.e. over 220C or so) it can melt. If you are printing at those temps it’s worth swapping out for an all metal hotend.
It’s also really important to make sure the PTFE tube is cut really, really straight and even where it interfaces with the nozzle. I’m not sure if Enders come with a cutter but you can look up a Ptfe cutter online.
One more bit of advise is to use a high quality tubing like Capricorn PTFE since cheaper stuff can melt at lower temps.
Yeah I’ve been printing a little PETG at about 240, but it’s something I rarely do so I haven’t opted for a all metal hotend and as I understood it I thought it was okay until about 250 C, but I guess not. It’s really mostly PLA that I print though.
I’ll look for a PTFE cutter, thanks!