I have written support and gotten a short reply that I need a repair but no other guidance I asked for, I am also confused since others have gotten a replacement for this, but no answers to the rest of my questions about what to do in the meantime and about safety. I have an issue with my printer head ribbon cable. The top center of the cable is rubbing something and is now starting to show wire. attached photo.
I asked support if I should continue using the machine, no response. Asked if this a safety issue, no response. Can i put some electrical tape on it?
Wondering respectfully why am I having to send this in for repairs when I have spoken to 5 others who were issued refurb replacements for this issue when I just bought this in late July and have plenty of warranty left? I can’t afford to be out of a machine for weeks/months for a repair 
You’ve opened another support ticket by posting here, FYI.
I haven’t seen them send replacements for this particular cable as they do for the black cable at the back, so it may not be considered a user-replaceable part.
As for refurb vs. repairs, they were recently moving to a new repair facility and during the changeover they issued refurbished machines since there would have been too much delay in doing repairs.
Electrical tape is conductive, so I don’t think I’d use that on the cable. I wouldn’t consider it a huge safety issue, but I’d definitely take steps to keep the ribbon from contacting the metal where it’s rubbing. You could put some duck tape or similar on the rail where it’s rubbing, to keep it from contacting the metal and to prevent additional wear.
I believe some folks were having some success with using UHMW tape. (And I put a couple of strips on my gantry and on the ribbon to prevent that from eventually happening.)
Not sure whether they were using it after the coating completely wore away or not, but it’s super slick and will not erode it further.
You might want to try that for a while if the alternative is to return the machine. Do a search for UHMW to find the posts.
Actually, electrical tape is an insulator - it’s NON-conductive. That’s it’s primary function (well, besides being sticky…)
But for that ribbon cable, you might want to try kapton tape. It’s also an insulator, but would probably hold up better to the constant rubbing. Then again, I HAVE kapton tape. It’s not cheap. Electrical tape should work.
Back in my electrical engineering days I shocked the living daylights out of myself on a loose end of electrical tape I had used as insulator inside an old TV I was messing around with. The back side may be non-conductive, but the sticky side is most definitely conductive. 
At very high voltages, just about ANY tape is conductive. The voltage in the back of an old TV being definitely high… (I used to HATE having to work on monitors. That was really the only thing that scared me about electronics.)
Since we’re both in Carson City, let’s conduct a conductivity test!
Ha! YOU do it. I don’t like getting shocked!
Yeah, those caps can hold a charge with your name on it. 
Hi @jennifer.s.orr -
Since we’ve resolved this issue directly over email, I’m going to close this thread.