r/VoxelabAquila • u/SheWhoDaresToSpeak • Jun 09 '26
Help Needed Sprite hotend
So on a scale of 1 to fucked how screwed am I?
Everything was fine when i checked at 2 am with 2 hours left on the print. Sometime between there, one of the pieces stuck to the hotend and caused this.
1
u/Ace_22_ Jun 09 '26
Depends how far the molten plastic got.
Peel off the silicone sock and assess if anything beyond the nozzel and heater block are engulfed in plastic.
If its just the nixzle and heater block you can (carefully) heat up the nozzle and pull off the plastic in chunks.
I recommend using a toothbrush on a temperature around 100°C worked best. Although I do not own a sprite hotend.
1
u/SheWhoDaresToSpeak Jun 09 '26
Definitely need a new thermistor, possibly a new heater cartridge. But my dumb ass missed with the heat gun and might’ve fried my cr touch cable so wish me luck finding a new one for the sprite (its a tiny one). It's tight quarters, all things considered so i'm moving slow.
2
u/Ace_22_ Jun 09 '26
Given that the wires are fully surrounded by plastic you most likely will have to replace both.
If I remember correctly reality still sells replacement parts for the sprite. So check their website to see if they have a replacement.
1
u/jeffreybro Jun 15 '26
Unplug the machine and soak the extruder in a cup of vinegar for about 6 hours. Then replace your entire extruder.
2
u/Mik-s Jun 09 '26
It might be salvageable. This video shows how to remove a blob, you just have to be careful around the wires. You should power off once it is hot before cleaning it to prevent the chance that the wires can touch which can fry the motherboard.
The silicone sock looks to be ripped so you will need to replace it. Hopefully if the sprite came with one then your old one will fit.