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Topic: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

So my hot end has been hitting the last layer and losing steps.  I had noticed a cracking sound which I thought was the filament coming through the bushing at the back.  It was a hard sound to locate.  It turns out it was the plastic around the linear bearings on the front rod of the x carriage. I came back to find a print going with the head just riding along the top of the print.  The linear bearings were on the complete  opposite ends of the rod.  I have only had the printer a couple of months.  Does anyone know if solidoodle will send me a replacement x carriage?

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

They seem to be pretty good at keeping their machines running.

SD2 - Glass Bed, Fans on PCB and Y motor, Custom enclosure
Slicer - Simplify3D

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

I would think so, only costs them 30 cents in material and a buck for the postage.  May take a little bit though.  Can you acetone weld it back together?

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

I'm trying superglue right now.

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

I think the main issue, is that the rods on the X-Axis are glued into the Y Carriages, so you can't just replace the carriage itself.

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

EFFalcon is right, the rods are glued into the Y Carriages.  I contacted Solidoodle about this a while back when I crashed my extruder into a part that was cooling by mistake.  They indicated a new assembly would need to be purchased.  It's $150 on their store if memory serves.  The price didn't bother me, but waiting to receive the part would have killed my productivity.

So I created a new X carriage that can be screwed together and posted it a while back: http://www.soliforum.com/topic/699/crashed-extruder/

It has a gap at the front, but it is remains solid.  I've been running it 24 hours a day for over 2 weeks now without issue.

I do think this is a pretty common issue, though.  On another one of my Solidoodles, I noticed that the X carriage had been cracked in the same spot at the factory.  They glued it together before shipping it out.  That said, the glued part has held together well.

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

Hey Kyle, have you done any updates to that design since you posted it.  Also any chance you could post stls?

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Re: i found out why the head was hitting, x cariage is cracked

I haven't worked on the design any since I posted it.  It's been working fine for me so I haven't bothered.  I just uploaded the STLs into that post.