There are a lot of hot end designs out there, but they all operate with one underlying principle: a filament is melted in a chamber and extruded through a tiny hole. Temperatures up to 240 degrees Celsius are typical, with some hot ends capable of 300 degrees Celsius or more.

The hot end is the work dog of the 3D printer. When it stops working, the printing process fails. This is probably one of the most frustrating problems that's encountered, and it can be a painful issue to resolve.

We'll look at some of the problems that can occur with the hot end in this recipe.