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Dec 2015

Hi all,

After only 108hrs of printing the right extruder heater as failed. Can anyone recommend a replacement that may last a little longer than the original.

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    Dec '15
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    Dec '15
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Does ctc use 6 or 6.35mm heater cores? 6.35 is 1/4 inch and you can find them at wanhao or flashforge. If they use 6mm they are widely available for next to nothing on eBay. My ctc uses a slightly custom setup so I can’t measure for you. If your in the US, call uncle Chuck. http://www.unclechucks3dprinterstuff.com 5

Also keep in mind the power rating. The CTC kicks out the “heat” and uses 40W heater cores. I blew one around the 150hr mark, and bought ones that looked identical which were 30W (before looking into power rating). The first heater core lasted only an hour, it was heating up really quick and was working so well … however I ended up burning out all 5 of the pack I bought before testing the power. So make sure you get 40W heater cores! (I’m on 324hrs)

You most likely got 12v cores. This is a common mistake made by shippers. You are lucky you didn’t slag your heater block. Running a 12v core at 24 volts is very dangerous. A 12v 40w core will ohm out around 3 while a 24v 40w core will ohm around 13. I check every core I buy.

Have order some 24v 40w from the evil bay. The working one left on the bot read just under 2ohm so I will change that one at the same time. Thanks for the help guys appriciate it.

Ok Update turns out its the thermocouple. Are they omega k type? Have some lying around if they will fit

Yes, type k. Be sure and electrically isolate the junction and the mounting lug. Shorting to the hot block and sending 24v down the tc line is sure demise for your motherboard. The tc’s sold by Wanhao and flashforge are the proper kind. Most sold on eBay are not.

Thanks for the warning. Orded 1 from wanhao uk. I see the tc is insulated down the entire length, the tc’s I have aint

It really has nothing to do with the insulation on the length of the wire. It is only at the junction of the heater-block and the T/C. The mightyboard switches the heaters on the low side. When idle, both sides of the heater core receive 24V DC +, with a single lead switching to ground when needed. A failing heater core, or some shoddy heater wiring can send these volts to the heater block. If your TC is not electrically isolated from the heather block it can receive that voltage, blowing the TC amps. My CTC printer can with the heater core wires exposed, there was no insulation on them at all. To further make the problem worse, the wires were installed in a vertical orientation. After some 200 hours or so of flexing, those wires touched and let the smoke out of my motherboard.

P3d, Popular – Performance 3-d 2 , make some really nice T/C’s for our bots.

Got feed up of waiting for the new TC to turn up so I got my tools out and fixed the brocken one.

It had snapped about 60mm from the end so I got my multimeter out and found out where it had snapped. Having found where it way I stripped the outer coating back, slipped a wire crimp onto one side, twisted the two parts together and then crimped them both together. Job done