Alright guys I’m in need of some serious help, my schools Replicator 2 (4th gen) is officially jank.
Its started failing many prints in a row recently, even at very slow speeds. Very uncharacteristic of it. I felt like it wasn’t working at all with a roll of the Makerbot filament, the new(?) larger diameter roll, and its just PLA black. So I swapped it out with an older roll with a bit of filament left, and its still being wierd. It had an issue where it stopped extruding mid print again, and, something that had kinda been appearing showed up again at a much greater rate. PLA keeps oozing out of the side of the extruder block, where the kap. tape is covering it. It does not look like its coming out of the hole where you screw the actual nozzle in, but somewhere else on that piece. I cant tell for certain, but the ooz of PLA seems like its coming out of the kap. tape…
Anyone have a clue what is going on? Why is it leaking or something? Is it possible that its something as simple as the nozzle being loose? A teacher at my school and I have opened up the head to fix little things a bunch of times recently, and they cracked it open last week, I think right before the issues started. Since then I noticed the screws that go through the fan and everything were loose, I’m wondering if everything is? I really need some help with this, so any ideas, experience, advice, thoughts, ANYTHING, is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
first I hope when you took off the nozzle that you follow the procedures some people have put on indestructibles where you need to heat up the nozzle first otherwise if you didn’t do that you might have ruined some of the threads where the PLA is actually coming out the side like you mentioned is the plastic still coming out of the nozzle fine though because when I had a problem like it coming out of the side it was not coming out of the nozzle and there was some blockage not in the nozzle but in the threaded to between the heater block and the motor assembly that had to get cleaned out I ended up getting a full replacement part from MakerBot because I contacted the help desk and had some maker care
I’ve had a few problems myself with the same makerbot. I’ve been a proud owner for over a year now so have experienced a lot of the technical issues - warping - nozzle clogging - blown up mother board - filament tangling - nozzle head over heating loose x axis belt - parts sqeeking - the list goes on…
I replaced the bar mount assembly on my makerbot yesterday after ordering the replacement part a month ago. The bar mount assembly is exactly the component your having trouble with (nozzle with kap tape section)… Sounds like you may have some other issues as well but pla leaking sounds to be the most serious.
Anyway is your printer in london? If so I could take a look for you and replace the extruder with my old one. Its still functional just needed to replace for general maintenance
If your quite far away maybe I can just send couple of links that might help
I’m building a 3d printing service at the moment and thought it would be useful to offer printer MOT’s… In this case I wouldn’t charge, more interested in piloting the experience
The nozzle needs to be butting up against the threaded tube inside the heat block. If they didn’t put the rig together with this in mind, the results would be what you describe. Tear it down and do it right.
yes, the opening of the extruded head (more exactly the closing) has to be done carefully - if it is not correctly sealed, the you will see loss of PLA from above the block - after doing any maintanence here, once you have carefully screwed in the heat break tube above the block, then the nozzle itself just below, but MAKE SURE that there is a tiny bit of thread still visible on the nozzle side when the nozzle won’t go in any further (that means that inside the block the nozzle has met with the heat break tube), and DONT tighten too much whilst cold - once heated up to 200’C then apply the final careful press with the spanner, whilst holding the block with a monkey wrench, to make sure you’ve sealed the block whilst hot - there after you should not have any PLA coming out from above the block!
Whilst your at it, make sure all the othe screws (fan, etc) are also tight - you may have to undo other screws to get to the screws under the fan that attach the fan holder to the main block.
if I’m doubt, check out the makerbot channel on YouTube, I’m sure there is a video explaining all this
This is a photo of a Replicator dual (original) not a replicator 2. Did you upload the wrong photo? Rep duals print with ABS not PLA.
So going on the assumption that you linked to the wrong photo. Tighten everything. There is no way that plastic should be able to ooze out anywhere if the extruder is tight.
I don’t really a dripping of extra material but it looks like there’s some buldge on the bottom horizontal shoulder. Must be an internal leak. I’ve never seen anything like that with ABS on my 2X. When I’m clearing jams in the extruder head I remove the overhead drive motors and manualy push/pull material directly with my hands or a pliers when more traction is needed.
Sorry for the confusion, (I’ll make this noticeable) NOT MY PHOTO. The printers are my school’s and so I cannot go see it again till Monday. I may have a pic or video on my phone that Ill try to upload.
It sounds like it might be time to replace the heater block assembly 1. A fresh thermal barrier tube, heater block, nozzle, and ceramic tape should make it all better.
I don’t know if proper procedures were followed when taking off the nozzle, since at my school I print more than anyone, but they still think taking it apart past the point of the heatshrink is a job for the adults… however when taking it apart and putting it back together I do not know of any specific method or way that the teacher was following. I get the feeling there is some kind of issue or loose bit in there… It seemed like a really rushed job to me, and I already had to tighten other screws.
If you have had the unit apart one thing worth double checking is that the fan on the front heat sink has not been installed back to front. When its the wrong way around the PLA will overheat above the heater block and become too soft for the feed roller. Eventually (10-15 Minutes into a print) it will stop extruding. There will be a mess around the feed roller that needs to be cleared. Sometimes the PLA can be seen feeding out of the side near the stepper/feed roller area above the heated block.
Yup somebody messed up the head most probably. Have you been running regular maintenance? Do you have the new spring loaded mechanism to push the Filament in the Extruder against the gear to push it out? What’s happening is there is now a gap between the heated Filament and the Nozzle so the Filament bends and extrudes out from another outlet created during the messing about with the head.
I use Goof Off heavy duty wipes and AR Kleen Lens cleaner to keep the extruder going once it clogs. Have not had to dissassemble as of yet - and have a standby extruder on hand just in case.
I am located in Chantilly, VA. If not too far from me, I could come by and take a look.
Unfortunately the “falling apart” is a known issue with Makerbot Rep 2 (ALL Gens.)
This is due to the manufacturer specifically choosing to not use vibration dampening fasteners.
I’d recommend coating pretty much all of them with Loktite. You might also get some star washers or replace the nuts with Nyloks.
Try to tighten all the screws wile the hotend is hot. Dont burn your fingers wile doing it. Make shure the heatbreak is screwed into the heatsink tight and the nozzle into the heatblock. And then the connection beween the heatbock and the heatbreak. Do not use to much force in order not to damage the heatbreak. And, wile you have disassambled the printhead anyways clean the filamentpulley using a toothbrush or something simular.
I’ve had some issues with my hot end in the past that are similar. Not oozing out the side, but I have had issues where there was an ever so slight gap between the top of the nozzle and the bottom of the feed tube that screws into the heater block. That tiny gap caused me more issues than anything that has ever been wrong with the printer otherwise. If you are able, I would recommend buying some ceramic and kapton tape, taking the whole block apart, melt the parts clean or get a new nozzle and rebuild it, making sure that there are no gaps anywhere. Be very careful of the wire on the thermocouple. It damages easily and they aren’t super easy to get a hold of. Also, if you are replacing the nozzle, be wary of the super cheap deals. the inner profile of the melting chamber makes a big performance difference.
I can appreciate all the troubleshooting you have put into this problem. We recently had a bunch of problems that were similar to this on both our gen 4’s, minus the leaking out the sides of the heater block. I tried all sorts of things from cleaning out the drive gear and using a blow torch to burn out the filament guide tube (the threaded part that feeds into the heater block) and the nozzle. I have reamed them with drills and wire brushes, and even added spacers on the spring to add tension to the filament on the drive gear. All of those things returned the same result as we were getting before; the filament getting jammed at some arbitrary point into a print, and the drive gear chewing a bite out of the filament.
The only way we have achieved lasting results, is to replace the nozzles. Seriously. Just find a new nozzle, order 3 or more, and install them using the best nozzle replacement practices (heating the printer up to remove the old one, letting it cool down, hand tighten the new one in then tighten with wrench or socket wrench, heat back up, and finish tightening it). When reassembling the extruder, just make sure all your parts are put together correctly and tightly. Look at your fan. Are there and missing blades? If so, this will cause vibration that loosens all your screws and components including those in the heater block. When purchasing your new nozzles, make sure to do a thorough background check by comparing reviews across the web. Hope this helps, these printers are tricky. Best of luck!
I have a low friction nozzle from P3-D on mine right now and I love it. when i switch nozzles and fixed my gap problem, I’ve not had a single jam since! You can get these on ebay. the company is local to me but I am only familiar with them via their ebay store.
Time to redo your hotend. disassemble it and replace the inner PTFE tube (3mm outer, 2mm inner diameter).
How to: unscrew the 2 lower bolts that holds the fan, heatsink and extruder, on the long cooling aluminum block there is 2 locking bolts that holds the hotend barrels in position, loosen them up and pull down both barrels. Loose the lock bolts that secure the heater resistors and the thermocouples, separate the barrels from the heater blocks and also take out the nozzles. Replace the inner tube with new ones and cut to size, cut out the insulation tape from the heater blocks and clean and run the correct size drill on the nozzle. Put all together again and install in position (do not assemble the extruder yet), once in position cover the heater blocks with Silicone tape from Autozone or any hardware store that sells them (they are for hot water pipes), run a bed calibration command from the printer and it’s first point, set both nozzles at the correct distance from the bed and then tight the locking bolts, finish running the calibration and once done, you can finish assembly the extruders. (It is a good advice though to open the extruders and clean the gears).
You are done for the next 3 to 12 months depending on how much you print.
Just an update folks…I believe the print head was simply not screwed together properly. The teacher who works on it soaked the nozzle in acetone for a long amount of time, ranging between a few days and over a week. There was a bit of PLA left, but that came out when it heated up so it looks good. He was finishing assembling the whole thing today when I left school, and I am scheduled a bunch of times in the next few weeks printing, so I’ll update with the results. I plan to bust out 3+ prints tomorrow alone, so I should see how it ends up relatively soon. Thanks again for all the tips!
PS: The job I left printing just for the heck of it (when there was a slow but steady leak) actually printed perfectly! As I had hoped, I had removed enough of the leak so that when the job finished the leaked amount did not fall off of the print head and mess up the print. I’d guess it leaked around 10 g over the duration of the 3hr print, with a m&m sized bit of pla hanging out every 30ish minutes. I think there was a minor clog, and that combined with too large of a gap between parts was leading to liquid material seeping out where it shouldn’t have. Hopefully will be good now.
