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Jan 2016
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Feb 2016
Andy_Williams
Jan '16

Hi, I’m from the UK and bought the above printer off eBay new 12 months warranty for xmas for my son, all has been working fine but the right extruder has now stopped heating up ! I’m having no luck at all with the company i bought it off even tho it looks like it is CTC directly who sold it.

If i get no where with them what can I do to resolve the fault. If i put a hair dryer on the end the temperature goes up on the LCD and FET1 is green but FET2 doesnt come on. when the left one is working FET3 goes green then FET4 goes green when the temperature goes up. Any Ideas ? Many Thanks

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    Jan '16

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    Feb '16
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bardiir
Jan '16

It’s either the Transistor which is broken on the printers motherboard, the heating capsule, or both. As it’s easiest to test I would try connecting the left heating capsule to the right connection on the board, then let it heat up for a moment and see if something works. If yes just order a new heating capsule, they are sort of limited in the amount of service time anyway and not very expensive. If it doesn’t heat up it is probably going to be a bit more work.

MidWestMade
Jan '16

I’ve gone through about 3-4 heater cores, they can burn out easily, that would be my first guess. The CTC printers are great to start with, but you can also updgrade them to make a pretty kick-ass machine. I ended buying nice extruders, a flexible build plate, an enclosure, and a bunch of 3D printed accessories for fans all because of small things breaking like the heater cores.

Andy_Williams
Jan '16

Thanks for your reply ! I had a further look and it may of been the tie wrap round the wires which was causing the issue, cut it off and freed all the wires up and it started working !! I may get a few heat cores anyway if they do break/burn out easily !!

Where did you get your enclosure from and what advantages do you get from different extrudes ? MK9 or 10 ?.

For the money i paid for it £260 new, it prints very well its just a shame its poorly built but then that goes with the price lol !

Cheers for your advise.

Thanks

RobertPaul
Jan '16

If they are refusing to honor their warranty, file a dispute with your credit card company for that transaction. Just say the whole thing stopped working and they won’t fix it or pay you.

bardiir
Jan '16

The heating capsules are used up like the filament is used up. If you are not willing to replace them for a few bucks then 3D printing is probably the wrong thing for you. Filing warranty for them is like filing warranty for empty filament. Maybe with an exception for the first few weeks depending on printing amount.

MidWestMade
Feb '16

hey! sorry for the late response. I print with ABS, which warps unless you have an enclosure to keep the heat in. I bought mine from “MakerCoast” which I think is just a guy with a laser cutter. Here’s the site, I don’t see the “CTC Enclosure” on there anymore … but what did was I contacted them and they made me a custom one. The enclosure is just the top part, I ended up laser cutting my own sides & front panels. I can send you a pic of my setup later if you’d like

http://makercoast.com/

As for the extruders, I was sick of the feeders getting stuck, so I upgraded to these, which are all metal and have the compression spring to help feed the filament into the nozzle. I got mine together for $90, but this is the individual MK8 head.

http://www.amazon.com/Anycubic-Extruder-Hotend-Filament-Printer/dp/B016D7668S/ref=sr\_1\_8?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1454351928&sr=1-8&keywords=MK8+extruders

Also, I find this extremely helpful, a flexible build plate. All you do is clip it on before you print, and take it off and snap off prints. The CTC is kinda hard to work around when prints are stuck onto its bed. Anyways, you will level the build plate more often, but I think its worth it.

http://www.printinz.com/zebra-plates/ 1

I can send pics of my setup if you’d like. The extruders had some retro fitting but once they are in they work very well and I have not had any problems.

MidWestMade
Feb '16

Top drawing is the front, lower drawing is the sides. There is a notch there because there is a set of nuts and bolts that block the acrylic from being flush.