How do I replace a broken AMS rear tube release button?

The last time I had to clear a blocked filament, I accidentally broke the clips on the tube release button. Today I got around to printing a replacement but I can’t work out how to install it - I can’t manage to release the ptfe tube to get access, without a release button already in place - it’s a bit of a Catch 22! What’s the trick for doing it without the button?

Not sure how to get the tube out, but I had to replace that release mechanism on one of my AMS units. It’s part of a hub unit if I recall, the release mechanism isn’t an individual item.
It was named something like AMS internal hub or something, I can find it if you need it.

thanks, but I already 3D-printed the replacement part. ( AMS internal hub PTFE Tube release button Remixed by Deanos MakerWorld: Download Free 3D Models ) It’s just info on how to put it in that I’m looking for. I couldn’t get the old tube out and was hurting my fingers trying. I guess that’s why the part exists in the first place.

You probably want to stick a long razor blade in there and cut the PTFE tube and try not to damange the rubber hose.

Maybe this long and this big should work

(this image was taken from TEMU website and is for entertaiment only)

Once you have the thing open it’s more obvious how it should have been opened :slight_smile: I was pushing with my fingers on either side (i.e. the same place that you would push on the release button) but in fact I should have been pushing on the circular ring in the center. Naive newbie mistake, won’t happen again. By the way the 3d printed replacement release button is a nigh-perfect copy.

PS Given the quality of most of the engineering of these devices, it is weird that the AMS is so awkward to open to clear a filament break. A longer connecting wire, better connectors, and some more space around the opening could easily have made this a trivial operation. It suggests to me that the designers did not expect filament breaks and jams that the users would have to clear.

and the PTFE fitting with the release button is part of the AMS internal hub, so it the release mechanism breaks, you need a new hub.

They fixed a lot of things with the AMS 2 Pro. The PTFE release is on the outside of the unit and the tubes from the hub to the 1st stage feeders are accessible from the inside of the AMS so you don’t have to take it apart. I know that doesn’t help with the original but it’s something.

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Ah. Right, that’s more what I’d expect. Probably means they’ll keep selling the original model until they run out of stock and then the new model will be the default. Ah, the joys of being an early adopter :slight_smile:

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