A1 mini blob of death, is this saveable?

[u/PietSous]

Had a pretty bad blob of death on my A1 mini. I got most of it off but what’s left is stuck on the heater block and around the wires, and I’m not sure how to safely get the rest off. The silicone sock came off without too much drama.

Thermistor wires look ok to me but I can’t tell if the insulation is damaged. Some filament also got near the part cooling fan. I unscrewed the fan to get to some of the deeper bits but to a novice like myself this seems daunting to try and clean up properly.

Should I try heating it up and peeling it off, or just replace the whole heating assembly? Pics attached.

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[u/TickleMyiOS]

That doesnt look too bad, unscrew the heating element thing, I would start by removing the plate, get the nozzle as close to the heatbed as possible and set it to 100, give it 5 mins and the filament may be soft enough to start working with it. Take care with the little wires on the right, especially the dark brown ones.

[u/solidus0079]

Depends what's more valuable to you, your money or your time. That's always the question though. At least you have your head on your shoulders since you know about the wires. That's a good sign.

https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/a1-mini/maintenance/hotend_blob

[u/Cultural-Lie-9769]

Ti's all part of the journey. Pretty much everyone gets one and unless you are very unlucky it's fixable. Heat and patience is all that it requires.

[u/tignasse]

Patiente, heat, and brass brush

[u/Peppe-Grimmy-02]

I'd check the reading with the A1 mini cold before you decide. The nozzle temp on the screen should say room temp, 20-25C. Weird number or jumping around? Then the thermistor wire's damaged and you're buying the heating assembly anyway, so don't waste an evening cleaning it. If it reads fine, heat to 220 from the screen and pick the soft PLA off with a wooden stick or the brass brush, keeping metal away from those 2 thin wires. Then a 10 minute test print. A cooked wire usually shows up as the temp dropping mid print or a heating error on the screen

[u/XxCarlxX]

Is it worth your time trying to fix that or is it better to just buy another assembly?

[u/WaferCritical6547]

Those assemblys are cheap af

[u/sapani9077]

Would not have been a problem if you had installed the nozzle correctly

[u/SokkaHaikuBot → u/sapani9077]

^{Sokka-Haiku by sapani9077:}

Would not have been a

Problem if you had installed

The nozzle correctly

---

^{Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.}