Spring-loaded Replicator 2 Drive Block
Description
MakerBot Replicator 2 owners will love the ease of this system for keeping filament running smoothly, and we salute the innovative MakerBot users who contributed to this design!
UPDATE! The hardware parts for this replacement are available for sale in our online store. Go to store.makerbot.com/drive-block-hardware-kit.html.
UPDATE! Rev2 files are now uploaded, and there are STEP files for anyone who would like to take a closer look at the design. There is also a version of the Base that can print without support material.
Instructions
As well as the three printed parts, you will need the following:
The 2mm and 2.5mm hex wrenches that came with your MakerBot Replicator 2
1 M3 Hex Socket Shoulder Screw, 4mm diameter x 10mm length shoulder
1 Compression Spring, 0.360"OD, 0.276"ID, 0.630" Free Length, 32lbs/in spring rate
1 M3 x 6mm Flat Head Cap Screw
1 Ball Bearing, 4mm ID x 10mm OD x 4mm width
1. Print out SCHDrive.thing. The files are precisely oriented to work well with support material as generated in MakerWare. Use the following settings:
Layer height: 0.20 mm
Infill: 10%
Shells: 3
2. Remove the support structures from the drive block base and bearing arm.
3. Unload any filament and switch off the MakerBot Replicator 2.
4. Remove the motor wire harness connector from the port at the top of the extruder motor.
5. Use the 2.5 mm hex wrench to loosen the two bolts at the lower corners of the front extruder fan. Pull the bolts, fan guard, fan, spacers and heatsink about a centimeter out of the extruder as one piece. This will free the motor. Pull the motor assembly out of the extruder.
5. Set the motor assembly down on a work surface. Orient it so that the motor shaft points up and the motor connector is on the side farthest from you.
6. Use the 2 mm hex wrench to remove the two bolts holding the drive block to the motor.
7. Remove the drive block. You can put the drive block and bolts aside. You will not need any of these parts to complete this part replacement.
8. Add the new drive block base to the motor so that the flat side rests against the top of the motor, the large hole at the center fits over the drive gear, and the two bolt holes in the base line up with the bolt holes farthest from you on the motor.
9. Add the small flathead screw to the bolt hole on the right of the drive block base. Screw it in using the 2 mm hex wrench.
10. Set the bearing arm down on your work surface with the flattest side facing down. The bearing arm is roughly L-shaped, and on the short side of the L you will see a short post pointing upward. Add the radial bearing to this post.
11. Add the bearing cover to the bearing arm so that the flat side faces up, the more rounded end fits into the round depression at the corner of the bearing arm, and the less rounded end partially covers the bearing. Press the cover on until it is flush with the edges of the bearing arm.
12. Fit one end of the spring over the round bump on the drive block base. The bump protrudes horizontally from the lower right corner of the drive block base.
13. Orient the bearing arm so that the bearing is at the left and the bearing cover faces up. Then line up the corresponding bump on the bearing arm with the other end of the spring.
14. Pinch the front side of the drive block base and the long side of the bearing arm together to compress the spring. Compress the spring until the bolt hole in the bearing arm and the remaining bolt hole in the drive block base line up.
15. Push the shoulder bolt through both bolt holes at the corner of the bearing arm and into the bolt hole on the motor. Use the 2 mm hex wrench to tighten down the bolt. You might have to push down hard on the hex wrench in order to get the shoulder bolt to thread into the hole in the motor.
16. The new drive block is now fully assembled, and you can return the motor assembly to the extruder. Slide the motor assembly back into the extruder.
17. Making sure the fan bolts at the front of the extruder line up with the two lower bolt holes on the extruder motor, tighten the bolts into the motor using the 2.5 mm hex wrench.
Note: Make sure you are able to push the bearing arm down. If the bearing arm will not move, the fan bolts are probably too tight.
18. Return the motor wire harness connector to the port at the top of the motor.
That's it! Start printing and let us know how it works out!
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If you live in germany, you may wont pay the high shipping costs. We found some similar parts in a german online shop: http://3d-drucker-community.de...
Am I the only one that is having problems printing these parts. I have a replicator 2 and firmware 7.2 and the makerware software 2.02.09 and everytime I try and print the lever or the cover the area around the larger hole is not printing solid. It's like 2 walls but there is no layer of plastic on the bottom of the cover near the large hole and no layer of plastic on the top of the lever near the large hole. I've tried going back to my 7.0 firmware and that didn't help. Thanks in advance
Woops my software version is 2.0.2.9. I just tried printing with the medium quality which uses the makerware slicer and that one printed ok. I'm gonna try them all this way. I wonder why the skeinforge slicer is not working properly usually I don't have issues with it. I even tried repG and had the same problems.
I've only had my Replicator 2 for about 10 days. Lots of issues with inconsistent flow, rafts, and supports. Have leveled the modeling surface more times than a kid on a trip can say "are we there yet?". Will this upgrade address this?
Thanks!
Woops my firmware is 2.0.2.9. I just tried printing with the medium quality which uses the makerware slicer and that one printed ok. I'm gonna try them all this way. I wonder why the skeinforge slicer is not working properly usually I don't have issues with it. I even tried repG and had the same problems.
DON'T BUY REPLICATOR 2
IT SUCKS!!
IT DOESN'T PRINT ANYTHING!!!
IT COULDN'T BE SOLD!!!!
Well.... The only thing I have to say: Replicator 2 sucks!!!
It doesn't print anything!!! I think it couldn't be sold!!!
I leave an advice: DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!
Anyone needing a left side block, or blocks for an original Replicator, or Replicator Dual should use my newly posted thing http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
You can tweak the settings to use parts that you can easily source locally.
Anyone needing a left side block, or blocks for an original Replicator, or Replicator Dual should use my newly posted thing http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
You can tweak the settings to use parts that you can easily source locally.
Anyone needing a left side block, or blocks for an original Replicator, or Replicator Dual should use my newly posted thing http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
You can tweak the settings to use parts that you can easily source locally.
When you say "M3 ... 4mm diameter" do you actually mean an M4? I is a leetle confuzed.
Does anybody know where to buy the spring in the uk, . $40 postage from the us seems excessive.
I don't see SCHDrive.thing anywhere inside the download. I'm hoping this solves the issues I'm having with a brand new Replicator 2 with inconsistant material.
Is this some kind of funny joke? Plastics axle for bearing? 3.6mm ABS cylinder will break easily, and PLA won't stand the burning temperature that the stepper motor generating; Unnecessary tolerance compensation suggested that the design is verified with a terribly calibrated 3D printer; Avoidable overhang in the screw socket;
OMG, are you really?
FYI, this won't work on a Replicator 2x. Makerbot actually changed the design of the extruders on the 2x and implemented a bearing and spring approach similar to the design of this Thing. However, I still can't use my less expensive filament with the new 2x design - it still jambs. The cheap filament ranges from 1.7 to 1.8, so apparently 0.1mm of filament variation is too much to ask the new 2x design to handle. It's a bummer too, because the filament was about 25% less expensive than Makerbot filament. Otherwise, I've been pretty happy with my 2x purchase.
How do you mirror a part in MakerWare so that you can print a replacement for the left extruder on a dual extrusion Replicator 2x?
where is the SCHDrive.thing file mentioned in step 1 of the instructions?
emmet must be receiving free PLA (:)). This is indeed a product defect. While emmet's designs are intriguing (cute, but require too much horsepower for practical and/or large horsepower / long term use), one cannot build his designs without the modification as there are too tight tolerances for even remotely practical application with the factory extruder design.
No, Emmet's designs are challenging, but they're not impossible. They just require a well calibrated printer. But I've printed pretty much everything he's designed, on a Replicator (original model). It does require careful calibration of speed, temperature and filament diameter, but it can be done.
Note that he provides source to all of his designs, in OpenSCAD, so you can tweak the designs to be printable on your printer and filament.
I have no idea what you mean by "too large horsepower" or "this is indeed a product defect" in relation to Emmet's designs being printable.
Does anyone have a handle on which of these mods work best. I'm currently printing using the wphthomas version of the extruder fix. I must say it works pretty well but I'm still having a hell of a time getting makerbot natural PLA to print reliably for any parts that take more than an hour or so. I've printed this mod by makerbot and I've ordered their hardware kit to complete it. I'm just wondering if anyone can comment on which fix is the best fix out of all of these. I'm just trying to get to reliable printing and say goodbye to these air prints once and for all. I'm so tired of making things 4 or 5 times just to get one good print.
McMaster.com Parts
Spring: 9657K288
Shoulder Screw: 90278A317
Ball Bearing: 7804K1
Cap Screw (100pack): 91294A126
I have sent more than a dozen emails to support & received all the standard advice but after many days of effort still get intermittent flow and associated "clicking". It *APPEARS* that this is the solution to my problem (someone please verify). But NOBODY at Makerbot has mentioned this solution! I'm sorry... but this is just outrageous! Is Makerbot relying on its user community to redesign its product AND keeping it a secret? Just outrageously irresponsible, unprofessional, and inexcusable. Needless to say... I'm a little beyond upset.
Well, they announced this design on their blog and featured it on Thingiverse, so it's not terribly secret. I can't say why they didn't suggest it to you - their reps (at least some of them) have been telling people about the community extruder designs for months. So they should certainly be telling people about this new design.
Given that this is out of stock (and priced to profit rather than to repair) can anyone point out the appropriate parts on a site like McMaster Carr? I have had a hard time locating the spring in particular.
One other point/question for Makerbot. It appears that the settings in the original Makerbot slicer profiles were tweaked to compensate for the original plunger design. Have you worked out replacement profiles that work better with the new extruder design?
Week 1, I disassembled the extruder and was amazed that such a marginal design could actually work with any consistency. I quickly upgraded it using the whpthomas design and have been very satisfied. I think it is brave and kind of noble for Makerbot to embrace rather than suppress the improved design. Yes, they are acknowledging that the original design is inferior. Yes, they are charging a few bucks for the parts kit (BTW, I paid almost $8 just for the bearing I used) But in the grand scheme of things, this is how an innovative company who supports an innovative community should work.
We have several other CNC machines - the Makerbot is, by far, the least expensive of the lot. To my knowledge, none of these other equipment companies have ever offered free or low cost performance upgrades to their equipment -- (and lord knows, some of them could use it).
Only in our current age of class action suits would a company be
criticized for being so open with improvements to their product!
I'm hardly in a position to say anything because my printer is of my own design and my extruder is a qu-bd.. But ,, if makerbots extruder behaved anything like the qu-bd extruder I bought , i would be inclined to agree with some of the other commenters. I could not print anything with the extruder the way it was sent to me.. I had to buy a drive gear. just that simple.. Qu-bd is also aware of their problem noted from their own forum although they still try to defend their design.. We didn't pay for an experiment ,, we paid for something that worked.. had I wanted to spend days trying to figure out and fix the problem I would have just designed it myself from scratch as I did the rest of the printer. I'm not screaming lawsuit here , I'm just saying do what is right ,, makerbot as well as qu'bd knows who bought their products ,, ,, at the very least send them the parts so they can fix it themselves..
I would be tempted to agree with you if the marketing pitch had no been so focused on the product performance.
I am not after legal redress. Nevertheless this issue should be addressed..
There is no reason why MBI cannot acknowledge that the "early" versions of the printer were flawed and deal with that by issuing replacements, That happens all the time. The total cost involved is minimal and the benefits should be obvious.
Or are we all to have differing extruder designs that may or may not function correctly when used with the supplied software? That is another recipe for disaster.
Whoa, $40 shipping fee to sweden for the hardware kit, that's hefty.
Printed my parts. Now waiting on the mechanicals - then will install on my Rep2. I have two 'original' Replicators (both working fine) but may do the swap on them anyway.
I'm gonna get this! so awesome, sometimes my filament has problems
The .thing and .STL files are not actually the same version of the drive block. The .STL version has a cylinder shaped protrusion on the lever to catch the spring. The .thing version has more of a mound.
What was this designed in? Would you mind sharing the original files, to make it easier to mod? I'm interested in tweaking this design to fit the Replicator 1. I've been using Emmett's original design for ages, and it's been fantastic, but you've made some nice improvements.
I say: Free plastics for Whpthomas, Emmet and Whosawhatsis!
They just saved the Replicators :)
This is strange. Makerbot is providing a "fix" for their extruder design in the form of a "you make it, buy the additional required parts, and test it yourself" format. Doesn't that imply the original design is flawed? Most, if not all of us realize the original extruder design is flawed. A few of us (me included) designed our own solution to the Makerbot extruder problem. And indeed while I did not publish mine, I find it quite questionable that Makerbot is publishing a "you fix it yourself" solution, based on previously published work by others, to a widely recognized manufacture defect. Only in New York. Sigh.
Meh, it's hard to get a design perfect the first time around. I'm just happy to see that we the community improved the design enough that they've embraced it. The machine itself can print its own upgrade and now Makerbot's giving you one more option on sourcing the vitamins. This kind of back and forth is healthy, in my opinion.
Are these parts right in the kit? The spring doesn't look the same - http://store.makerbot.com/driv...
Thank you MBI for posting this and addressing the extruder issue.
Since it is a .Thing file it looks like you want us to use MakerWare
to slice it. What resolution(s) will work? Can it be sliced at Medium
or does it need to be sliced at high resolution?
Will MBI be sourcing the springs and screws in their online store?
No design files? This does not comply with the Share alike clause of the designs it was derived from. Adding the NC clause is also not compliant with that license.
License
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Hello Community and MB. As with a lot of folks here, our Rep2 has been dismal right out of the box. This fix looks promising but we are in a situation where we cannot even print the shark, let alone this fix. If there is a resource out there that we can purchase these printed parts please let us know. We are in DC and will pay overnight shipping for a well made, usable kit that works for a Rep2 purchased only two months ago. Thanks.