Ultimaker2 - Bowden Tube pops up the printhead/mat. feeder

[fxmouton 0]

Hello everyone,

Since few months (June 2014 to be accurate), my company bought a Ultimaker2 for students (we do training), but that's not really the problem.

Last months, we received some ABS and after some tries, I succeeded to clean my nozzle. It took me some times because I was busy on other stuf, so on evening, I left the printer with the unmounted head on a table for a couple of days. Unfortunately, someone got the superbe idea to throw the bowden tube holder away. After looking on the floor everywhere at the office, the sentence was cruel : it was lost. -_-

I'm a guy full of hope and ressources so I won't give up at the first problem and I found this piece to print : https://www.youmagine.com/designs/bowden-tube-holder-um2--2

I printed few of them, the first holding the tube for couples of minutes so the material could go on the heating plate. After few tries : hourra! It worked! I looked quite ugly and fragile, but after opening the materiel feeder to lock the tube holder inside, IT WORKED!!! But unfortunately, it broke after 3 weeks when I attempt to clean the materiel feeder. I believed the other tube holders I printed were operational : I couldn't be more wrong. I printed some of them in PLA and in ABS : same call.

After searches and searches, i found many information about this problem :

 

• http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11864
  
• http://www.yeggi.com/q/bowden+clamp+with+holder+for+electronics+tube+popping+ultimaker/?s=tt
  
• http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27376
  
• 
  
• etc...
  

The solutions exists but the thing is how print a piece to fix the printer when the printer it self can print? It's quite an egg/chicken problem actually.

And today, I read on this thread :

 

How does the surface of the bowden tube look like?

In the white tightner are 4 tiny knives holding the bowden tube at its place.

If you frequently have this problem, there is a very good chance either the 'knives' are bent/broken or just scraped the surface of the bowden tube so now they can't hold the bowden tube no more.

The blue piece is there to make sure the white tightner is 'locked/secured'. But if there is a problem with the little knives inside, that is kinda like locking an open door..

 

So it sorted out that what ever the number of tube holders I'd be printing, the problem seems to remain the same.

The point is : without this little piece of plastic, it seems I can print anything at all and I'm quite disappointed about this conclusion.

How can I print something when I can't really print in a proper quality? How can I fix this? Where can I bought this kind of stuff???

 

Thank you for your help!

 

[IRobertI 521]

You need to replace them with proper collets or it wont work. You need those little knives that bite into the bowden or it will just slip out. There's a huge amount of force that gets put on these things during a print (it was a big issue on the Ultimaker Original in the early days). Get in contact with Ultimaker and ask if you can buy a couple (they'll probably send them for free).

 

[gr5 2,224]

Ultimaker support will usually send you free parts even if you broke them yourself or lost them yourself and even if you are past the warranty. Not always - but usually.

 

[fxmouton 0]

Ok thank you very much guys for the quick answers!

 

You need to replace them with proper collets or it wont work. You need those little knives that bite into the bowden or it will just slip out. There's a huge amount of force that gets put on these things during a print (it was a big issue on the Ultimaker Original in the early days).

 

Indeed, that's what I saw when I use some adhesive tapes to block the tube into the collects. In the futur, I'll print one of the model I found to avoid this situation.

 

[fxmouton 0]

Ultimaker support will usually send you free parts even if you broke them yourself or lost them yourself and even if you are past the warranty. Not always - but usually.

 

Yes they did! Received on saturday, thank you very much for the tips!