Anet A8 (radical) user here. Need some urgent advice as my hotend clogged which is probably no surprise. Upon cleaning it one of the wires popped out the side and it’s not going to be possible to reconnect it.
Where should I go from here? Upgrade or replace. If upgrade, what with?
Thanks
Is your heater or thermistor broke?
either way, there are spare parts on eBay, Ali, Gearbest, etc
Either heating component or thermistor are easy to replace. You might want to replace the part first because you will need to print some parts if you upgrade to an indirect drive extruder.
There are three wires that go into your hotend block, two of which run to a heater and the other one to a thermistor. Both can be gotten cheaply. You usually just need a small allen wrench to change them.
Considering multiple replacements of each can be purchased for less than $20 US, that is probably the way to go. Upgrading your hotend is an option, but isn’t necessary. Save the upgrade for when you really want to upgrade, which need not be when something breaks (and shouldn’t be, in case you can’t get the upgrade to work for a while).
I’ve reattached it and modified my extruder feed slightly to minimise any warp in the filament before extrusion. IMG 20170621 202809 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB Not pretty, but working well so far!
