[How to replace the heater cartridge on my UM2]

Thank you for the guides. The head does heat up but not nearly enough to melt of the ABS.

[How to replace the heater cartridge on my UM2]

Hi all. My Ultimaker has jammed up plenty of times during its life. All of which were fixable with some work. This one however I will now need to replace my hot end as well as the wiring. I already have all the new parts I require but I am here today asking about what the best way to do this would be. Specifically how I should go about replacing the heater cartridge. The wires seem to be clamped down to the Arduino board, but when I tried to remove the board I found that I would have to take the side panel off that connects to the motor and I didn't want to risk messing something in there up so I haven't touch that. Not to mention the thousands of screws I would have to undo to get there. This jam is especially bad because it is Ultimaker ABS instead of PLA. I understand ABS isn't highly recommended for the Ultimaker but my application for the machine required a use of stronger filament. Never the less, I tried to melt the abs with a lighter but it only started to burn. I can't seem to get it to melt. That's why the head looks so burned...that's because it is. But now that I have the parts I am ready to make the swap. All I need now is the know how of how the change to heater wires.

Any and all input is appreciated

- Josh

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

Here are the pictures of the cleaned hot end. I ordered a new PT100B sensor from fbrc8 and it should be here any day now. Based on these picutres what else may I need? I also tested the fans all of which work. If there is anything else I can assit you while assisting me just let me know and I'll be happy to do it!

Have a good one!

 

Can you post a new picture of your cleaned hot end?

You could email support and ask them for help too.

Usually we prefer for a customer to do the fix himself for multiple reasons.

1) it is much faster! As a customer instead of shipping over your machine (which you should always minimize for risk i.e. DHL) back and forth, there is only 1 shipment involved; the parts.

2) You gain knowledge when fixing the machine, so next time instead of a problem you know how to solve it and you convert your problem into an inconvenience. We have designed the Ultimaker so you can keep it running; instead of summoning warning-signs about voiding your warranty.

We have a manual here that should offer you some more insights. If that is not sufficient our support team can provide you with additional info.

 

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

I'll definitely look into that. Thank you!

 

The only reason to get the olsson block in my opinion is if you want to change nozzles.  It makes it much easier to do so - 60 seconds instead of 20 minutes.  However in your photos it looks like your temp sensor got ruined so I'm pretty sure you will need a new one.

 

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

What makes that heater block an upgrade and what is a reliable source I can trust to get me things like this?

 

I would also suggest using this as an opportunity to upgrade to the Olson heater block with i2k isolator. I can't recommend it enough for the ability to change nozzles easily!

 

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

I'll post a new picture of the cleaned hot end on Monday when I see the Machine again.

Thank you for all your friendly and helpful advice. I am confident I can fix this thing with all the helpful info and the great support of the community. I had read about Ultimaker's amazing and friendly community, and I am proud to find out that was a very accurate description.

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

Thank you for your reply. I have removed all of the excess filament and I'm not sure how to proceed. From what I can see all other wires except for that grey one in the pictures above are still attached and in tact. What do you suggest I do to get this thing fixed? Should I try and contact the Ultimaker Support team and have then help me with this or will they have me mail it into them or something of that nature? If not and I need to take this on myself, what parts do I need? And am I going to need to rewire anything else because of this? also is there any manuals or something that show to rewire this thing so I'm sure I'm doing it right?

Thanks again for your reply, I look forward to hearing from you soon!

 

Hi Joshh, Thank you for your email.

All of the above is good.

You can use a hair dryer to remove most of the filament.

It looks like indeed one (or 2) of the cables broke which you can either buy or you could connect with the support team to look into the possibilities of getting a replacement.

My best bet is that your print got detached from your printbed.

It can have a variety of reasons;

- The leveling can be off

- The bed could have been dirty

- The bottom layer could have been deployed to fast or to cold

- The footprint could be to small.

The extruded filament no longer is being added to a print, because the print is being dragged along with the printhead. After a while it results in a big junk of filament surrounding your printhead, and sometimes (often) it also gets inside of your printhead.

Let us know what the status is after clean up and what parts need replacement.

Like Ulti-Arjan said: 'Don't panic the UM2 is one of the best reparable and maintainable printers out there.'

 

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

I'd say: ask the Ultimaker company for advise. This shouldn't be able to happen. I'm sure they want to know what went wrong.

I would find a PLA dissolvent (if printing PLA) and hang your paper weight in it until the PLA is gone. Then try to fix it. All parts, like nozzle and fans are replaceable.

I will do just that. Thank you for your help!

[Is my Ultimaker done for good?]

I had started a print on my Ultimaker 2 and left it unattended, for it was a 6 hour print and didn't have time to sit there and watch it all day. When I returned the print had massively failed. There was also a thick glob of filament in between the fan plate and the extruder head. I unscrewed the fan assembly so I could remove the blockage. I found that the filament had hardened around the medium sized grey-ish wire. How should I proceed? Do I need to buy some new parts and wiring and fix it? Is this something that can be fixed or is my ultimaker broken for good?

Any advice or ideas on how to fix this or how to properly dispose of my new $2,500 paper weight would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!