So things had been going great for a few months until today when the printer failed 2 prints in a row by dragging the ABS around with it. When I stopped the machine and looked, this is what I found. I’m not sure what happened or why, I haven’t taken the extruder module out of the enclosure since I thermalpasted the hot end.
That silicone cover isn’t replaceble, but maybe there is some kind of silicone glue you could try to mend that, other than that, you might have to replace the hot end. It will be able to print without, but temperatures will vary more during printing. The cover has two functions. To insulate and to protect from plastics adhering to your heat block.
The black thing is your Z-probe, it is very important and should not leave it like this! Without it (properly fit and positioned), your tool head may very well crash into your bed and cause more damage.
You should open the side panel and check the connection, hope it didn’t break off or anything. Maybe make some more pictures of the inside for us.
So yeah, pretty sure it’s broken. The z-level piece has a jagged piece of plastic whre it looks like it attaches to the housing. How do I fix this? I’ve only had the machine 6 weeks, things should NOT be breaking. Granted, I have had leveling issues the entire time.
The housing has broken outward. seems like it crashed into something hard going backward, possibly your print?
Need a new z-probe there mate. Maybe not the probe itself (but wise to replace nevertheless), but the bracket it is mounted on…
On the silicone cover: I’d consider it not too important. 3D printers did not have such covers for ages, I think it is something that came into 3D printing world - what, 5 years ago? Not too sure. However, I’d have no hesitations to print without it. As Galduron said: Temp’s may be a little less stable (which is not siginificant in my opinion), and plastic may stick a bit to the heater block, which usually is more a cosmetic issue.
Only caveat: I am not sure how much insulation is important to protect the surrounding plastic parts (air guide).
If I were you: I’d most likely leave the hotend as it is and continue to use it.
For the Z-probe that’s a different matter, but others have said all that needs to be said
I agree with @Hauke on the silicone wrap. I printed for a long time with 1/2 a wrap on mine when i had a really bad failure and a bunch of filament got melted up inside the module and ripped a bunch of my wrap off. it’s nice, but not 100% necessary for printing.
And to be fair, the probe is very important… for auto-bed leveling not manual leveling. If you have been having leveling issues the entire time, maybe that’s not such a bad thing! i would take a look through the forums for things like printing on glass (where you using manual leveling anyway). There are some issues with the bed itself not being perfectly flat, so the amount of probing for auto-leveling is not great anyway (mine had a ridge in it that was skipped over even with the max point available).
So as long as you module works, and you can manually level, you can technically still print. No it’s not great and def contact support to see what they can do and you will most likely get a new module, but if that one works, that most likely is still usable.
I think the silicone is there as a heat shield and not as insulation.
I’d pay attention to the heat it might be causing inside the housing as well as it’s affect on filaments cooling.
Most 3D printers seem to have the hot end much more out in the open.
