Should we clean the nozzles/tips?

[emcniece]

What is the recommended storage procedure for the ink and solder paste nozzles? I think that the instructions mentioned somewhere that the ink and solder tubes should be removed from the carriages before refrigeration, which makes sense as the plastic and magnets might not like the cold.

• Do the tips need to be cleaned? If so, how?
• Should the tips stay connected to the tubes?
• Can the carriages be refrigerated?

[emcniece]

Also, WOW those tips break easily. I noticed that the solder paste tip had bent by a few degrees, and in the process of attempting to push it back straight it sheared off. Glad I have 2 more!

[alroyalmeida]

Hey Eric,

It's been a long time! BC still treating you well?

Our support section has a couple sections on ink storage and nozzle protection

TL;DR: Keep the nozzles on the cartridges and the cartridges in the sheath. Also remember to cap the sheath to protect the nozzle!

More info:
- The plastic and magnets can definitely handle the cold. Just remember to remove it from the fridge 30 min before printing so the ink can get back to room temp.
- An ultrasonic cleaner can be used to break the blockage (never use physical force) but not many people have one. Honestly, if your ink gets regular use and is kept refrigerated and capped it shouldn't clog within it's lifespan.

This is what our fridge looks like:

[emcniece]

Alroy! BC is great, the folks here at Limbic Media are a fan of the LEDs under the print bed. You've done a fine job with that software too.

Thanks for the clarification on storage. I think I mixed up the terminology around the different pieces - in the Hello World: Print in the Baking section, the instructions say to remove the ink dispenser from the carriage, so I took the actual ink tube out of the dispenser. Of course, that means that you can't cap the ink tube... so I took the tip off and placed the original green caps on the tube.

So now I have 2 used tips (ink, solder) that have been sitting out in a box for a few days! I suspect they will be blocked, but there are extra tips in the kit. Regardless, I'll be making a new tip order from your store pretty quick!

[alroyalmeida]

Seems to be a slight confusion between carriage and cartridge.

The cartridge is just the tube of ink where as this entire assembly is the carriage:

You can still try attaching those nozzles to the cartridges and twisting the gear counter-clockwise until you see material dispensing. If nothing comes out and you're meeting resistance then I would stop immediately and toss them out.