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Rebuilding an old Ultimaker 2


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Posted · Rebuilding an old Ultimaker 2

During a clean up, my work was throwing out an old Ultimaker 2 that broke down and had been used as spare parts to maintain the other printers. My boss offered for me to take it home instead of throwing it in the bin which I accepted.

 

I am tying to work out whether it is worth salvaging, it ran 24/7 for around 3 years, so alot of things are broken or missing. I am not sure if the cost of replacement is worth the hassle, particularly because I don't know all of the issues.

 

Known issues:

*The heatbed was not working (I don't know the exact issue)

*The X-Axis motor was not working

*The whole Hotend Assembly is missing

*The touch screen was broken (I have repaired this)

*The encoder/knob was broken (I believe I have repaired this)

 

I have just fixed the screen and it powers up to an error "Stopped temp sensor". This is presumably because the Hotend assembly is completely missing.

 

So my questions are:

*Given the symptoms above (and potentially more) is it worth saving?

*Is there anyway I can bypass the temperature sensor error to see what else is wrong?

*Is it worth getting the "2+ Extrusion upgrade kit", versus just buying the hotend assembly outside of the kit?

*If I did get the extrusion upgrade kit can I use the old extrusion stepper to replace the faulty x-Axis stepper?

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    Posted · Rebuilding an old Ultimaker 2

    I cannot answer all your questions, but the UM2 or UM2+ (after the upgrade) is one of the best printers. I recently bought a used UM2+ Extended and the print quality is great, when not the best of all my printers.

     

    I would buy the 2+ Extrusion upgrade kit, there is not only the complete print head included, but also the rods, and important the plus feeder which is a great enhancement.

     

    If it is worth to repair this machine is hard say, but check what a used one costs in your area and then check what you have to pay for the spare parts. On the other side, if you invest now in new spare parts, they are new, from another working used one you don't know how good they are.

     

    I don't know if the extrusion stepper is the same, but if not, a new stepper is not expensive, I think I have seen a new one for € 20.-

     

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    Posted (edited) · Rebuilding an old Ultimaker 2

    As far as I know the extrusion stepper is not the same, it is step angle 1,8 degrees while the axis motors are 0,9 degrees.

    And I think it’s worth to recover the printer.

    Would you buy it used with this „mileage“ but working it would surely still cost 500+ Euros and there would be some maintenance of belts etc required.

    I am sure you can get it working for less than 500 Euros and a few 10 hours of work.

     

    Edited by conny_g
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    Posted (edited) · Rebuilding an old Ultimaker 2
    Quote

    I am tying to work out whether it is worth salvaging,

    if it's structurally ok I think it is worth it, you can make it as cheap or expensive as you want (or can afford)

     

    Quote

    *The heatbed was not working (I don't know the exact issue)

     

    First thing you can do is measure  resistance of the bed itself, the PT100 inside (the temp sensor) should be around 108 ohm at room temp. The Heater part around 3,9 ohm if I remember correctly.

     

    Quote

    *The X-Axis motor was not working

    I think motors hardly ever break, so its probably the stepper driver on the board. If the machine is as old as this one it will have a 5th driver on the main board you could remap this motor to (more info in this forum) But first simple swap 2 motors and rule out the motor is broken

     

    Quote

    *The whole Hotend Assembly is missing

    I would definitely replace with something like the original, I see 3 options;

    - use the upgrade kit, but it's pretty costly

    - buy some original UM parts, like the metal parts and the olson block, and get the rest chines clones

    - buy all chines clone stuff, you can be lucky but there's a chance stuff won't fit very well

     

    Quote

     

    *The touch screen was broken (I have repaired this)

    *The encoder/knob was broken (I believe I have repaired this)

     

    In case you would need to replace electronics I would get an Duet3D board, wil give you immediately a more modern printer, more silent and network connected.

     

    Quote

    *Is there anyway I can bypass the temperature sensor error to see what else is wrong?

    Yep, you can plug in a 108 ohm resistor, it wil tell the printer it's at 20c..... but be careful  not to turn on (or even connect)  the heater....

     

    Quote

    *Is it worth getting the "2+ Extrusion upgrade kit", versus just buying the hotend assembly outside of the kit?

    If you want it to be original the kit is a nice and easy option. If you spend a bit more time, you can save money. And alternatively you can get an Bondtech feeder iso the Ultimaker feeder (I would recommend this...)

     

    If you want to get it running with less investment just print a feeder... many UM2's ran on it for there first years...

    https://www.youmagine.com/designs/alternative-um2-feeder-version-two

     

     

    Quote

    *If I did get the extrusion upgrade kit can I use the old extrusion stepper to replace the faulty x-Axis stepper?

    Sure, no problem, just change the E-steps . If you use the "tinkerware" firmware (you should..)  you can just set it from the menu. Don't know the correct steps by hart but it's in this forum somewhere, just ask again if you can't find it.

     

     

     

    did you know you find all parts and partnumbers, and the CAD file of machine here;

    https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2

    https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2Plus

     

     

    Good luck, enjoy your new printer.

    Oh and obviously check if the XY axis are straight, and replace the belts, most original Ultimaker spare parts are pretty affordable (except electronics and the feeder) if you buy them separately.  Depending on where you live you may need to email your reseller a list for them to order. Some resellers keep a good stock.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Edited by ultiarjan
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