E3D All Metal Hotend for Ultimaker

[zoev89 73]

I have some under extrusion issues printing with colorfabb grey PLA on the e3d v6. The colorfabb filament has some textured surface and this is causing friction in the aluminum heatsink. After doing quite some prints with this filament the filament is more bent and it looks like it is pressing against the walls of the heatsink. Due to the surface it causes quite some friction. I can clearly feel it when I insert filament by hand. I have the hotend cold and I can push the filament to the nozzle but it does not go smoothly down. This extra friction I believe causes under extrusion or grinding on the extruder. The nozzle is clean I can see right true and when I remove extruded filament atomic way it is clean and the nozzle is clearly visible in the filament.

 

[jonnybischof 59]

Did you try another filament brand?

I've noticed that the Colorfabb stuff is rather "gummy" and "stringy", quite a bit different from other PLAs that I've used. I haven't actually had any Colorfabb PLA myself, but I've seen and felt it at our FabLab.

 

[zoev89 73]

Well I printed with ultimaker blue PLA and ultimaker black ABS. Both printed fine even though the spools were quite far used. It looks like the gummy surface is playing up on this hotend. Jonny what is your experience with the v6 sofar.

It does not jam or block. It first starts to under extrude but there is still flow but to little to be useful.

 

[jonnybischof 59]

I have still not mounted the E3D hotends yet because I've been delayed by manufacturing problems with my Trespa frame panels... It seems machining this material is a lot more demanding than I thought. And at the moment my time is very limited.

 

[ultiarjan 1,178]

did anybody try colorfabb XT on an E3D ?

As this material needs a higher print temperature a full metal heater would be ideal...

 

[zoev89 73]

I have put some sunflower oil in the hotend and will see if it will bring something. Manually I think it is a little better but I have to see how it behaves in the long run. I can't print tonight though since one of the kids want to sleep and an UMO does make some sound.

No I have not printed with XT yet. I don't have a object that would require it at this moment though I have XT laying around.

 

[zoev89 73]

Printing is fine again. I went to 220 degrees (PLA) with the added sunflower oil. Under extrusion is solved. I also increased the flow a little to 104% since I had little holes where large areas needed to be filled in. The oil prevents the sticking to the heatsink. How long will the oil hold that is the big unknown. Up to now it is running 6 hours without issues.

 

[gris 6]

hello,

I follow this topic for a long time now, and after finishing a prusa i3 with E3D v6 with direct drive (almost dedicate to flex stuff). I want the same hot end on my ultimaker original + heated bed.

Have you got some feedback of your design like this one -> https://www.youmagine.com/designs/e3d-v6-hot-end-mount

Cause Im alomost ready to make the hack.

I am concern about this hack for printing polycabonate and other materials who need more than classic 260°C

Thanks for any advices.

 

[zoev89 73]

@Gris,

I am using the same mount. It mounts the E3D nicely the fans configuration is nice and compact. Only the left fan is a little close to the heater. The height of the fans is good. Please note the fans a 4x4cm versions unlike the 5x5cm version on the original so you have to buy 4x4cm fans. I have to reduce the amount of cooling with my fans since at 100% it blows away all the dust but also causes the bottom of the nozzle to be too cold. I run PLA with 40% fan. I operate the fans with a separate 12V.

To increase the amount of room on the left fan I just made the holes a little bigger. Note you have to remove the left fan if you want change the nozzle or need to tighten it.

The 3cm fan of the E3D is very loud but I guess you know that already.

 

[gris 6]

@Zoev89

Thanks a lot for your feedback, and tips !

Are you globally happy with the printing result of this hack ? have you notice some improvement ?

Do you print at +260°C ?

I really excite to try printing polycarbonate for stronger print for mecanical purpose like OpenRC Truggy

 

[zoev89 73]

@Gris

A honest answer I have not seen quality differences between before E3D and after. Note the default hotend of the UMO is a good hotend so it is nice that the E3D can get there as well. The difference is when using high temperatures after printing at 260 for some time my teflon was deformed. I don't have that issue any more. But I have a new one. I print with PLA at the moment and I see when I use colorfab filament that I have more friction in the heatsink leading to underextrusion. The way to solve that is 1 drop of sunflower oil per about 12 hours of printing. When I set the retraction to 2.5mm I have not seen a single clog with PLA so that is good.

I did some ABS prints at 260 so I don't have experiences with 260+. I do warn you the default thermistor in the E3D can get to 295 or something like that so if you go often to 260+ you might want to invest in a thermocoupler. One person here on this forum used the UMO thermocoupler, took it appart and inserted it in the heaterblock.

Did you ever consider using XT material?

 

[r4ix 0]

Hi!

I spent a lot of time designing that mount and, honestly, i expected more for e3d hot end.

About the mount. left fun needs to be revised to increase the distance from the heater block. I use ultimaker heater cartridge and as it's bigger than the block the fan is too close and it melts a bit. I would like to modify the fan duct so it has variable high, i feel it would be better closer to the print, i can not with my configuration, also the e3d nozzle is very small so i couldn't put the duct closer. As zoev89 i notice with more than 50% fan speed the temperature become unestable. I wouldn't spend much more time in that mount, i think i uploaded

About the print quality, i expected to increase the speed for the prints at the same quality or the quality at the same speed but, in my case, i didn't feel like it's better.

I print abs (between 250-265º) so i decided to change to e3d but i didn't get any really good improvement. I used befor ultimaker hot end with some mods, as an aluminium cooler in the peek and in the aluminium part in the hot end, it worked very nice, i also drilled the nozzle to 0.7

I wanted to print with 0.8 nozzle and 0.3 layers (i printed 0,3 layers with the old hot end) but I have to say i get stronger parts and betters results with my old modified hot end. I didn't try with pla

As a good point i have to say i have a nozzle set to change when i need...

I printed parts at 275º without problems.

Well, i also have to say i have not spend half time with this mount as i did with the original, maybe for that i'm disappointed with e3d, i expect to change the mount and get better results but you have to spend hundred hours and some material kg to get good results any way.

I recommend to modify the original hot end and not to buy another until that is totally damage.

I guess maybe there's some problem with modified original at higher temperatures (i used just at 270) and i'm sure there's no problem with e3d even at 300º or more.

Has anyone tryed other materials like nylon or polycarbonate?

 

[aviphysics 9]

Would someone mind linking to or giving a brief summary of what is currently involved in getting the E3D working? I could also use a mount recommendation.

 

[aviphysics 9]

12V or 24V version? Looking at getting an E3D v6 for a UMO and not sure which one to go for. I know the UMO supplies 19V to the hotend.

 

[macua85 52]

Can use the UMO heater cartridge in the e3d v6 block if that helps. I have done that.

[tfg 0]

My first post on the forum, so hello to all.

I've read this thread with some interest. My situation is probably a little different to most and I'm seeking a little advice from Those In The Know:

I bought a UM kit (what's now the Original, by the looks of things) in July 2012. Work and other commitments then delayed the building of it a bit - I've only just started putting it together :-| . The downloaded assembly instructions for the current Original have seen me through, until I came to the hot end assembly. There are several detail differences between the parts in my kit and what's in the instructions. In searching for answers, I read various blog posts that lead amongst others, to this thread. The E3D v6 looks like a very worthwhile upgrade to the UM v1 hot end that I've got (still in its little plastic bag). It appears to be an area where a lot of development work has taken place in the past 2-3 years.

So - can anyone recommend the least painful path to fitting the E3Dv6 kit to the UM 'original', preferably retaining the bowden-type feed, heater block & cartridge? The quality of the E3D parts look very good. I like the look of the combined axis mounts/cooling fan adaptor(s) that I see in R4ix's, Tommyph1208 & anon4321's gallery/thread photos. There is a bit of chicken-and-egg for me though, in that I can't print one of these mountings until my UM is up and running! :unsure:

 

[aviphysics 9]

Can use the UMO heater cartridge in the e3d v6 block if that helps. I have done that.

 

My UMO heater is basically impossible to take out without destroying it.

[amedee 339]

The downloaded assembly instructions for the current Original have seen me through, until I came to the hot end assembly. There are several detail differences between the parts in my kit and what's in the instructions. I

 

You might have the previous version of the hot end... (without the teflon insulator).

The 'old' Ultimaker Wiki still contains instructions for all versions...

 

[tfg 0]

The hot ends I've got are v1, which just has a threaded brass tube coming out of the top of the alumiminium block. There's no stepped brass collar - the knurled PEEK part just screws on to the brass thread. Things seemd to have moved on quite a bit since then....

I had a look on the Wiki pages, but couldn't find any 'archived' assembly instructions?

 

[macua85 52]

Hey guys,

I've got two e3d v6 hotends, 3mm bowden version. I have tried both but find them impossible to use without it blocking. Its completely unreliable compared to the UMO hotend. I have tried with the e3d fan and fan clip. The bowden is pushed all the way in. Any suggestions here? I'm pretty much ready to chuck them away and go back to OEM, and/or get in touch with e3d.

 

[tommyph1208 55]

Hey guys,

I've got two e3d v6 hotends, 3mm bowden version. I have tried both but find them impossible to use without it blocking. Its completely unreliable compared to the UMO hotend. I have tried with the e3d fan and fan clip. The bowden is pushed all the way in. Any suggestions here? I'm pretty much ready to chuck them away and go back to OEM, and/or get in touch with e3d.

 

You have to get a couple of things exactly right in order for them to work, and then they are brilliant... I ran a v5 for a long time, with 0 clogs (once I got it right), and I am switching to a v6 right now...

1. Make absolutely sure you followed the assembly instructions to the letter... The "heat up and tighten nozzle" part is extremely critical

2. Make absolutely sure the cold-end fan is always on, working properly AND cools the bottom heat sink fin.. I thought; "how critical can that be!? Its cooling the one right above it!"... Turns out its very important...

One can argue that their design is flawed, in the sense that its fairly easy to get some of their assembly and use instructions wrong, and the results of that are pretty bad (not just bad quality,but clogging, useless, very expensive pieces of metal)...

Once you do get those steps right though, I don't really think there is anything out there that prints better...

 

[looking4 2]

I found good news today. E3D offers a new heaterblock for PT100 thermistor. You can find it find it in the shop under spares.

In Deutschland kann man das Teil sicher über 3Dprinterstore24 bestellen. Man kann dort auch die Stahldüsen bestellen, obwohl diese im Shop nicht direkt gelistet sind!

[macua85 52]

Just to update this since my last post... I now have the e3d working. It turned out that adding a little oil to the e3d sorted everything out. Hope that snippet of info helps to save someone else a lot of time and headaches!

[zoev89 73]

Just to update this since my last post... I now have the e3d working. It turned out that adding a little oil to the e3d sorted everything out. Hope that snippet of info helps to save someone else a lot of time and headaches!

 

Hi Macua

I also use 1 drop of sunflower oil when I change filament or about 24h of printing. Since I do that I don't have any issues. I think due to the curve in the filament there is some buildup friction in the cooler of the hotend. After some time there is some thick residue of the oil left that I clean out every now and then.

[macua85 52]

Hi Zoe,

Thanks for the heads up about the residue. I'm using light machine oil, not sure if it will also crease a residue, but i'll keep and eye out for it. This oil instruction should be made official by e3d, or at least to advise it if all else appears to be well and its clogging. I do have to say though, the support from e3d and Sanjay is impeccable. Despite the issues I have had, I would certainly recommend them. The print quality once I got it working was/is excellent. And the cheap and large range of nozzle options is definitely a major plus. I'm looking forward to tying to print nylon, and maybe some PEEK if I get around to ordering some. Does anyone know how to hack the UM firmware to print higher than 260 degrees?