Hi Mr Joshua,
I'm very sorry to read about your extruder. This 3D printing business can get very annoying :(
Reading again carefully through all the posts, I believe I might have found some explanation for your misfortune...if that is of any relief...
This is one possible course of events:
1.-What if the wrong reading of the thermistor caused a very high temperature that...
2.- ...caused the PLA to actually overheat, burn and "carbonize", creating a ...
3.- ...jam in the tip of the nozzle?
It seems plausible to me, as it explains the leaking effect...
If that were the case, maybe by cleaning the inside of the nozzle with a little drill (in cold so you can sense the difference in material) you might get somewhere. I ignore where exactly your extruder got broken. I assume it happened in the very joint where the plastic insulator and the metal block meet, which is kind of catastrophic but only to some extent...:)
I would invite you to have a look at this:
http://reprap.org/wiki/DrillandFile_Hot_End
It is a development of a DIY extruder, where they give clear instructions on how to build one with unsophisticated machinery.
The part you might be interested on is the actual insulator...
Of course, it is just a suggestion to bring you "back on the game"! :)
Alternatively, some reprap holidays can also help to "flush the bad energies"...
I'm very sorry to read about your extruder. This 3D printing business can get very annoying :(
Reading again carefully through all the posts, I believe I might have found some explanation for your misfortune...if that is of any relief...
This is one possible course of events:
1.-What if the wrong reading of the thermistor caused a very high temperature that...
2.- ...caused the PLA to actually overheat, burn and "carbonize", creating a ...
3.- ...jam in the tip of the nozzle?
It seems plausible to me, as it explains the leaking effect...
If that were the case, maybe by cleaning the inside of the nozzle with a little drill (in cold so you can sense the difference in material) you might get somewhere. I ignore where exactly your extruder got broken. I assume it happened in the very joint where the plastic insulator and the metal block meet, which is kind of catastrophic but only to some extent...:)
I would invite you to have a look at this:
http://reprap.org/wiki/DrillandFile_Hot_End
It is a development of a DIY extruder, where they give clear instructions on how to build one with unsophisticated machinery.
The part you might be interested on is the actual insulator...
Of course, it is just a suggestion to bring you "back on the game"! :)
Alternatively, some reprap holidays can also help to "flush the bad energies"...