Heater block fell off during a print. Replacements?
Background information: It is a Prusa i3 Mk3s that I built a little over two months ago. I've spent the last 2-3 weeks trying to fix issues with underextrusion and print failures and ptfe clogs. The first print I got to "work" after all b that ended up having some massive layer shifting so I sliced it and tried again. It did not end well.
Approximately 9 hours into a print that seemed fully successful I went to bed. Was woken up less than an hour later by a loud repeating clicking noise. Turns out that noise was the heat block bouncing around on the model.
So my main question is what do I do about this now. I'm exhausted. The heater block is completely covered in filament and it's the middle of the night so I can't really dissect it until tomorrow afternoon. Should I order a replacement? Are there 3rd party ones that are worth looking into? I'm just trying to get it working again soon so I can get to all the prints I've had lined up all this time.
Thanks in advance.
RE: Heater block fell off during a print. Replacements?
How the **** does that even happen? Something had to be seriously wrong for it to just fall off like that. Have you had the hot-end apart yourself? If so, I suspect it was incorrectly re-assembled. If the heat break isn't broken (doesn't look to be, I don't see a piece of it stuck in the block) you should be able to clean it off and reassemble everything to get back in business, no new parts required.
Re-assembly guide here:
https://wiki.e3d-online.com/E3D-v6_Assembly
RE: Heater block fell off during a print. Replacements?
@vintagepc
I hadn't taken it apart myself, the most I've done before now with it was replace the PTFE tube. I'll see about cleaning and reassembling it but at this point after 3 weeks of extruder related issues I'm considering just ordering a new hotend anyway. Worst case scenario I get the current one working again and have a spare for whenever I might need one.
RE: Heater block fell off during a print. Replacements?
If you haven't taken it apart yourself, it probably explains a lot of the issues you were having and proper reassembly should solve them all. I'd hit up live chat in the webshop. They sent you something that was incorrectly assembled and (IMO) should send you a replacement under warranty instead of leaving you to deal with trying to clean up the mess. Usually stuff takes ~2 days to arrive to the USA, so not much slower than Amazon and you won't be out $70 for the parts. But like I noted, if you want to be back up and printing in an hour or two, cleanup and reassembly is your fastest bet.
RE: Heater block fell off during a print. Replacements?
The heat break broke ... pretty simple. Changing nozzles without proper preheating will cause this - heat breaks are fragile.
As Vintage indicated, try Prusa CHAT; but pretty sure they'll site user error and not cover it. You need a new heat break, I'd opt to buy a new one from Amazon, the stock E3D-V6 version. But you can also order a full hot end from Prusa, that way cables will be right, and from the looks of the carnage your heater and thermistor wires are probably at the end of life now.
If you have never removed the nozzle, then lean on Prusa to send a replacement under warranty.
RE: Heater block fell off during a print. Replacements?
The heat break broke ... pretty simple. Changing nozzles without proper preheating will cause this - heat breaks are fragile.
I disagree. It was my first thought too, but if you look at the picture, the hole in the top of the block is too large/deep. If the heatbreak snapped at the throat you'd see a piece of it still in there. Looks to me like a threaded hole full of melted plastic.