Help! UM3+ Broke

[Ghene 24]

The fan/hinge of my printer keeps on dropping sometimes dislodging the prints and creating a fine blob of a mess. Today, I left it to print and came back with a blob and a disconnected wire. I got my printer in May 2018 from 3dgbire.com

 

How do I fix this? 

Thank you.

[Crystalvalen 3]

It's tough to say for sure, but I can see a few things here that might contribute:

1. It appears that one of the magnets on the cover with the front fan is missing (see toward the bottom of the photo). I don't remember the exact dimensions of the magnet, but your reseller (3dgbire) should be able to source some for you.
2. The plastic parts on the main print head assembly look a little worn (likely from all of the times the front panel has fallen open). It is possible that they are worn in such a way or that the metal pieces they attach to are bent in such a way that they no longer securely attach.

I have seen a few other threads with reports of this happening (mostly on the UM3 and UM3E), and I have seen one person at least suggest making this 3D printed clip to hold the parts together. I would mention that though it will not be a huge amount, adding this piece to your assembly will add a little bit of weight to your print head and you may see a need to adjust some speed or flow settings in your slicing software to compensate for it.

 

Another thing to mention that is not 100% relevant to the question you asked, but may be helpful later on is concerning that red wire you see disconnected in your photo. That wire is supposed to go into the contact spring labeled "sensor" like the white one next to it goes into the one labeled "shield." Without those wires connected, the UM3 will not be able to perform an active bed level and you will always have to level the build plate manually. I was running into this issue for a while and just fixed things up last week, so I wanted to keep you ahead of the curve on that.