Help with 3D Systems Cubify Cube 2nd Generation Printer

[jandcando]

I received this printer from my dad's workplace recently and I have been trying to get it to work. It turns on and stuff, but when I try to load filament into it, it just stays at the "Please remove CubeTube from top of printer jet" screen, and the tip never gets hot. There is filament in the print head and it is stuck there, so it would seem that the only way to remove it now is to get the tip hot, but it never does that no matter what I do. From what I can tell, the only problem is the extruder tip never heats up. I have taken it apart, and all the wires seem to be connected. There is some discoloration of the heating coil near the top, but I assume that is normal.

I have not been able to find a solution myself, so I came here for help. Any tips you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Todd.anderson]

The discoloration is 100% normal.

Can you hit next? It should say printer is heating please wait.. in the next menu.

I had this problem with the Cube2 that was in my office. I found that i could unplug it for a few hours the printhead would heat up again.. However it did not clear the jam, you can try to clear it using heated piano wire, or you can replaced the entire print head (i think theyre ~$250). I think makergeeks also sells a .32mm small hand drill bit and a metal floss type stuff you could probably use.

There are two philips head screws on the top of the print head assembly where you can get the cover off, (it make take some careful force to get it off with filament loaded but it is possible as i did it on the reg.) From there you can get a much better view of what is going on, as well as remove other parts to help in clearing the jam.


That said if the printhead has been used a bunch it may be easier to replace it, if its is no longer getting completely up to temp it will fail again. ( i found the prints would get pretty stringy as the head was on its way out). We went through 3 print head in about 2.5 years, while printing a minimum of a few times a week.

Hope that helps and good luck! it is a good printer for its age and what it is. The cartridges are annoying and sometime cause jams (its literally a cardboard spool in a plastic shell with a 1 wire eeprom). But there are a couple of ways to use bulk filament if you search google and can find some pla that has good size tolerance as the diameter of 3ds filament is 1.65mm as opposed tot he 1.75mm that bulk is.

[jandcando]

Thanks for the help, I cannot hit next. It just says please wait and shows a heating symbol but the tip never gets hot. I have taken this thing pretty thoroughly apart, and that's how I got most of the filament out of it, but there is still some fused with the print head. I have soldering iron I have been using in an attempt to get it hot, but I need something to push it through. Since I got this from my dad's workplace, lots of stuff is missing like the unclogging tool and cubetube. I guess I'll have to make due with what I have, since I'm not too keen on buying another printer head. Too bad this thing isn't very tinker-friendly.

[Todd.anderson]

I have had good luck using a hot air soldering iron/gun. Do try leaving it physically unplugged for a few hours to overnight, that always worked when the same thing happened to me. The only other way is to try to clean it out with a piece of wire that is hot enough to melt and clean out the old filament. I think the extruder orifice is .4mm.

I did remove the entire print head when using the hot air solder station to unclog the unit, sadly I do recommend getting a backup print head assembly as a "plan b". they do last a pretty long time.