Hi everyone,

I have searched all over the internet to try to fix the issues I'm having with my MakerBot Replicator 2. I purchased it in May 2014. Its been about 2 weeks now and nothing I have tried seems to work. If anyone has had this issue or knows how to resolve it I would really appreciate the info. Makerbot support just told me to pay $100 or they cannot respond to my question (and later on just stopped responding all together) so I am continuing to search online for a fix.

What is happening is whenever I print, the layers get misaligned very early on in the print and almost always move toward the right of the build plate. Usually the raft prints fine and then after about 5-10 minutes the build really starts messing up. Lately it seems to be messing up even during the raft. When it shifts it makes like a tugging noise. Also after the shift the extruder part can touch the axis sensor and even though it pressed against it, it will just keep printing. I have tried using different models, as well as the calibration test models from Makerbot but none of these worked, The models are fine though. Im a 3D artist, I've checked the models and they are every clean. Some are the same ones I've printed in the past. No models work and they are clean so I know that isn't the issue. It seems that the hardware is the issue. I have 2 links below of videos I took of it happening so you can see what I mean.

Layer Skipping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRC_uMQ5WOE

Sensor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGobko18tPY


What I have tried to fix this (in order of what I tried first):

- Leveling the Build Plate
- Adding Lube and cleaning Machine
- Resetting Default Settings
- Tightening the Pulleys as I saw in a video (they were already tightened to the max)
- Tightened other stuff on the machine in case they were loose
- Unplugged the power supply and the chips on each of the axis and re plugged them (I usually do that to fix the heating errors)
- Reloaded Firmware (7.3)
- Tried a newer Firmware (7.5)
- Printed with Old & New Makeware software & ReplicatorG
- Printed from SD & Direct from Computer
- Enabled/Disabled Steppers (though I'm not to sure what its for, I think it was for acceleration :s)

I really don't know what else to try at this point. I needed to print a few things and I have not been able. Iv'e wasted over 2 spools of plastic in the last few weeks. if anyone has any info I would really appreciate it!

Thanks
Ryan