After printing for almost 3 years the wear on the injection molded parts of our Makerbot Replicator 2 started to effect print quality and reliability. The drive block just wasn’t able to put the same amount of pressure on the filament as it used to. If you’re wondering how to detect this issue, check if the teeth marks on the filament look shallow. When the Replicator is feeding the filament, you should not be able to stop the feed by clamping the filament between two fingers. A good drive block will pull it through.

In our case it was time for some fresh new parts. We considered buying the original parts, but a quick search on thingiverse guided us towards these STL files uploaded by Makerbot, perfect!

We selected colorFabb_HT, a co-polyester material by Eastman Chemical with great toughness and good temperature resistance, 100 – 110C. These parts will be mounted against the stepper motor and onto an aluminum beam which mounts the hot-end. Therefore heat resistance is much needed for this particular case.

All parts have been 3D printed on a Ultimaker 2, at 0.1mm layerheight. We printed multiple parts at the same time without cooling for best possible layeradhesion. Printing temperature was at 250C and 90C bed temperature, speed between 35mm/s and 40 mm/s.

colorFabb_HT is made with Amphora HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. Learn more about colorFabb_HT on our special dedicated landing page.