S5 safety against fan-bracket crash

[aag 6]

I reported earlier that I had a horrible crash. The S5 fan bracket spontaneously opened, and destroyed itself by crashing into the workpiece. Thankfully, UM recognized this as a warranty issue and sent me the replacement parts. I am now thinking of ways to prevent this in the future. As a quick hack, I am designing a printable safety latch meant to secure the fan bracket. See below. If anybody feels like improving it, here is the model (Fusion 360): https://a360.co/2EnafZn

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by aag

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

You might want to keep an eye on the printcore cooling situation. This version seems to block almost half of the front inlet for the printcore cooling fan.

[aag 6]

Good point. I'll make a grid.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I would also thin the side arms so it does not interfere with the switching mechanism and the homing mechanism.

[Smithy 1,144]

I found an S5 version of the latch which exists also for the UM3. But the S5 version was a little bit too loose, so I reworked it a little bit. Here is the STL of a latch on my S5.

 

S5-PrintHead.stl

[aag 6]

Ahh, many many thanks! that's a million times better than my quick-and-dirty little thingy. Might you perhaps share also the STEP file (or whatever original format you have), so that I can play around with it a bit? You might also consider sharing it on GrabCad etc. 🙂

[Smithy 1,144]

Unfortunately, it is not my design, I found it on Youmagin or Thingiverse so I have just the STL. I just imported the STL into Fusion360 to modify it a little bit, because it was 1mm too long which caused some vibrations during printing. The attached STL is the modified one, which fits now nicely.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

quickest hack 🙂

[kmanstudios 1,120]

11 minutes ago, ultiarjan said:

quickest hack 🙂

Did that for a long time until the heat caused the rubber band to degenerate very quickly. That is when I made my UM3 bracket.

 

BUT! It does work until you get the thing printed. If your luck is like mine, it would pop open whilst printing the bracket and cause more issues.

[Smithy 1,144]

51 minutes ago, ultiarjan said:

quickest hack 🙂

 

Also a solution 🙂

But I would have expected a perfect tool from you - what happened? 🙂 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

24 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Also a solution 🙂

But I would have expected a perfect tool from you - what happened? 🙂 

Actually in my um3 I had the magnets pop out and glued them in... Just trust it will be fine. For now I'm just living  on the edge without a tool with the s5  🙂

[aag 6]

It is unbelievable that UM sells a machine for almost $6000 and does not even provide a reasonably-engineered printhead.

[Smithy 1,144]

That's right, it would also be quite easy to implement a door sensor, which pauses the print job as soon as the door opens, l to avoid serious damage to the print head.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

1 hour ago, aag said:

It is unbelievable that UM sells a machine for almost $6000 and does not even provide a reasonably-engineered printhead.

I would take exception to that because of the globality of the statement.

 

Are there a few issues? Yeah, but overall, 'the printhead' has a lot of very, very good engineering.

 

[aag 6]

BTW what is exactly the "capacitance plate" on the back of the fan bracket? It has two wires connecting to it.

[aag 6]

I do apologize, I meant no offense. But the service guy here in Switzerland told me that they continuously have warranty issues with the fan bracket. I tried to contact UM headquarters but they told me off, they said I should talk to the local representative. None of this is great, if you ask me. It's also against their interest; if they have to service a lot of machines this will eat their profit.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

14 minutes ago, aag said:

if they have to service a lot of machines this will eat their profit.

I am thinking that this is rolled into the product price over the long term.

 

And, yeah, the fan bracket is an issue. But, you can print addons that solve the issue.

 

Remember that UM and most other printer companies come from the background of "DIY" on printing parts and such and are maturing into companies that have to actually make robust turnkey solutions.

 

There are flaws, but I have seen much growth in my time using UM machines.

 

And, if you look at some of my posts, I do call 'em as I see 'em. Not always polite or apologetic. Just blunt.

 

But, the more I use my machines, the more I appreciate how, overall, they have been maintenance free. Gotta get in there a few times, in my case because of mostly user error, and tweak or figure things out.

[aag 6]

..and since I am in the mood of griping about design issues, is there a way (or some hack) to prevent the glass plate from sliding sideways? This happens with really large prints (of course), ideally after 3 days of nonstop printing, so that it will ruin at least 40 bucks worth of material, not to speak of the wasted time... 😱💣💥

Edited March 2, 2019 by aag

[kmanstudios 1,120]

You can always print a clip, but when it has happened to me (I pushed the clips down, front and rear to make them grab the plate much more) I just taped them a bit on the sides.

[Smithy 1,144]

1 hour ago, aag said:

BTW what is exactly the "capacitance plate" on the back of the fan bracket? It has two wires connecting to it.

 

This plate is used to measure the distance to the print bed during auto leveling.

[aag 6]

what about drilling two 2mm holes at the corners of the glass plate and of the heatbed, then use thin set screws to secure things? Bad idea?

[kmanstudios 1,120]

2 hours ago, aag said:

Bad idea?

I will go with this.....

[Smithy 1,144]

2 hours ago, aag said:

drilling two 2mm holes at the corners of the glass plate

Do you mean through the glass?

[aag 6]

weeell, I was thinking of giving 2-3 glass plates (which are not very expensive) to a glass-working shop, and have them drill a few holes through the glass...

[Smithy 1,144]

Ahh, ok 🙂 just thought you want to do it yourself in a quick and dirty action.