I'm the tech director at our school and I've got some time to help our makerspace teacher figure out why both of his Replicator 2's don't work. The first one has got a real problem, from my novice point of view--it's missing screws, the filament blower fan (the big plastic centrifugal fan on the left side of the extruder assembly) is not correctly fastened, and the small plastic duct that is supposed to aim this fan's air at the nozzle is completely missing. Also one of the long Allen-head bolts that keeps the extruder together with its heat sink and fan is gone, so that might also be a problem.

Replicator 2 fan loose.jpg

The symptom on this one is that it consistently starts laying down PLA, but after about 0.5 mm of material has been deposited, the extruder stops emitting material. The front panel says that the extruder temp is OK at 230 C plus or minus a degree. I'm guessing that having this fan bit bent off to the side, the filament gets jammed. (Or else the extruder drive gear stops working, or the temp has actually gone down even though the panel says it's OK, or something else?).

Since the Replicator 2 is really an old beast by now, I'm wondering where or how I can obtain these missing parts. I have seen that folks 3D print the fan duct piece, but I don't see any information on how the blower fan is supposed to be attached to the extruder block, and I don't know where I can get the missing Allen-head bolt.

Any ideas?