New mk3s+?  

RE: New mk3s+?

Hi Brenda, 

You haven't really sent enough pictures to decide absolutely whether this is a Mk3S+
if I recall correctly the Mk3S fan shroud  only had one fixing (A screw hole on the left side at the bottom of the left hand fan. 
and the Mk3S+ fan shroud had two fixings,  the hole as above, and a sort of wing that clipped into the front fan housing to the right of the fan shroud... 
YOURS appears to have the two fixing setup which supports the claim that this is a Mk3s+

As you comment, the wiring is a bit messy. and the heat block for the hot end, has seen better days. 

It would be helpful to see the Mk3S+ Assembly guide 
https://help.prusa3d.com/category/original-prusa-i3-mk3s-kit-assembly_1128

the 'E' Axis assembly guide covers assembling the hot end, info the extruder housing 
The hotend installation starts at section 12 in the link below
https://help.prusa3d.com/guide/5-e-axis-assembly_169235
sections 66 onwards relate to the wiring at the rear of the  extruder Housing (X Carriage) 

https://help.prusa3d.com/guide/8-electronics-assembly_174100
covers connection of the other end of the extruder wiring bundle, starting at section 3o. 

The printer user guide, firmware and associated software, are accessible at the link below 

https://help.prusa3d.com/tag/mk3s-2
This is where you will find the prusa slicer software and driver software for the printer

your hot end is very messy and coated in plastic (Which you can't remove easily, because you can't heat the printer... 

there are three ways forward... 
1 disassemble what you have and clean it all up carefully probably needing a heat gun, or blowlamp to melt the waste plastic...  then re assemble (probably replacing the thermistor and heater (24 volt heater)) this will be a pain, because the heater and thermistor fixings are effectively glued in place by the waste plastic
2, obtain a new heater, thermistor, Nozzle,  heatblock and heatbreak, and use these to replace the old items (you can then try cleaning the old parts for spares after you have seen how the new parts go together... )(some folk would buy a complete E3Dv6 hot end assembly )  these are available from Prusa, or Printed solid in USA, or from E3Donline, in the UK!
3, replace the e3dV6 hotend with another style of hotend   (the E3D Revo, is a popular choice, I Have a revo on a non prusa printer. and it works fine, I have a 'Phaetus Dragon' hotend on my Mk3S printer. )   there is a special firmware version for the REvo hotend, so that may be a bit ambitious at the moment.

assuming that you repair / replace the original style hotend, there is a really easy way to inadvertantly screw up all of your hard work... 
when assembling the heater block, nozzle and heatbreak components you can end up with a gap between the nozzle and the heatbreak, inside the heater block... this will cause a leak of filament very soon after you start using the printer... 

the picture above is a generic image, the black and blue blobs on the left hand side are a fan and cooling duct that you don't have

what I do, is to screw the nozzle all the way in to the heat block, then unscrew it half a turn, then I Screw the heatbreak into the heatblock until it touches the back of the nozzle, and I use a 7mm spanner to tighten the nozzle against the heatbreak, to ensure there is no gap between them, and also ensure that there is a small gap between the nozzle and the heater block
 the Prusa knowledge base has sections on most of the tasks that you will need to do, to re assemble the hot end into the printer. 
One section shows how to trim a piece of PTFE tubing to line the heatsink and the heatbreak, I Suggest you either make a new one, or buy a pre trimmed one from Prusa 

any questions, please contact us again. 
P.S there are loads of you tube video's on fixing the hot end, beware that there are several different models of extruders for different prusa printers, make sure you are looking at Mk3S+ video's
regards Joan

RE: New mk3s+?

Hi Joan,

thank you so much!  I’ve ordered a replacement hotend assembly and I’ll give it a shot.  Maybe (not holding my breath) that I can salvage the old stuff!

thanks again!

Brenda

RE: New mk3s+?

Joan,

I just added some pics as well.  

Thanks!

Brenda

That is an abused printer. 

@joantabb is completely correct but she delicately skirted around around the probable cause of it's current condition.  The nozzle has been wrongly inserted - the previous owner ignored the diagram she provides, and the leaking plastic has caused a 'blob of doom'; search for the phrase here.  On attempting to clear the blob (one of) the heater wires has been damaged.

By the look of it the machine has been poorly maintained,   What you have shown us is recoverable though. 

Unless you are experienced with 3D printers it's probably best to stick with the E3Dv6 hot end and leave non standard parts until later.

Whilst it doesn't look too bad you will probably need a new fan shroud, if you have access to another printer you can print one from Prusa's files, otherwise buy one from the print shop, there should be a part number printed into it to check you are getting the right part.

Cheerio,

RE: New mk3s+?

Looking at the heatbed wiring, that also could do with a bit of TLC. 
The wires should not tuck under the heatbed. 

If you are buying parts, may I suggest a spare extruder thermistor, and a spare extruder heater, as these are often damaged during early ownership...  

regards Joan