UBIS Hotend on an Ultimaker

[nick-foley 5]

When my last hotend failed, I took that opportunity to swap in a hotend I had wanted to try for a while - the Printrbot UBIS ceramic hotend. It has a lot of great features - light weight, small, no assembly, seemingly clog proof, extremely fast heating and very rapid temperature adjustments.

The mount I designed is extremely compact, as well as simple to install and maintain. I think this is the best spent time/money I have ever put into the machine, as it has increased the print quality and drastically reduced time spent debugging the machine.

Going along with that upgrade is a change from a printhead-mounted fan to a frame-mounted crossflow fan, as suggested by foehnsturm. (I purchased mine from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NPEBJM/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 )

Unfortunately, stock of this hotend seems to be low at Printrbot, but I believe this is the best setup I've ever tried on an Ultimaker.

Files here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:208346

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

What is used for temperature control? Still a thermocouple with transmitter or a NTC?

 

[aviphysics 9]

Seems like they might be phasing this hot end out for a very similar one that uses a cartridge heater. They charge the same price for both, but the description says they made the cartridge heater version because it is easier to manufacture. However, they charge the same price for both.

 

[foehnsturm 969]

This is the perfect alternative to the clunky printhead designs with numerous fans attached, which seem to be commonplace today!

Low mass, perfect accessibility, no fans, no additional wiring, no fan vibrating ducts, no loose screws ...

Crossflow cooling and this minimum printhead, I think this is what a bowden extruder is intended to work with.

Anyone here, preferably in the U.S who's already in touch with printrbot, and could make an inquiry (perhaps for an omnibus order)? As far as I know there is an exclusive agreement between Carl Ubis and printrbot.

 

[owen 19]

Anyone here, preferably in the U.S who's already in touch with printrbot, and could make an inquiry (perhaps for an omnibus order)? As far as I know there is an exclusive agreement between Carl Ubis and printrbot.

 

I have asked through a contact form when it would be available again. I sent a link to this page as well.

 

 

 

[nick-foley 5]

I have asked through a contact form when it would be available again. I sent a link to this page as well.

 

 

Excellent. I missed the opportunity to buy multiples when they had them in stock a few weeks ago, and now wish I had at least 2 more....

I have a 1.75mm one that I purchased but don't have any 1.75mm filament to use it with. One additional benefit of this printhead setup is that the bowden tube can be removed along with the hotend without any disassembly - meaning switching between 3mm filament and 1.75mm filament can be done in a matter of seconds.

 

[owen 19]

I got this reply to my query.

HI Owen - Thank you for contacting Printrbot. We do have limited inventory on our hot ends at times, but all 4 of our models are currently in stock on our site.

Take care,

Printrbot team

 

So I looked at the status and it said 1 left.

So I ordered it.

 

Thanks Nick for showing us this one.

 

[nick-foley 5]

Good snag. I guess I'll keep checking back for them to be in stock.

I should mention that one unresolved question with this hotend is which thermistor table to use when building Marlin. I asked this question on the Printrbot help page but haven't received a response yet. Others have asked in the past with no definitive answer found. Anyway, I'm using "Best Choice for EPCOS 100k". It doesn't seem to be a perfect match (or my old thermocouple was significantly off) because I now print Ultimachine PLA using temps of 200-210°, where I was previously using 220-230°. Ultimately, it is a relatively minor issue in practice.

 

[aviphysics 9]

So, what is the temperature range of the hot end?

 

[nick-foley 5]

Haven't tried beyond PLA temps but the Printrbot is designed for use with PLA or ABS, so I don't suspect it would be a problem to go up to 260°ish

 

[foehnsturm 969]

Got one as well.

Same as owen: Sent a message to printrbot and they put 3 in the store. Fortunately I checked my mails just in time.

 

Hi Markus - Thanks for writing us. We do have a very limited stock of 3mm cermic hot ends and just put 3 in the store a few minutes ago. Since we do not use them often, there are not many more around. Please be sure to purchase one quickly as we cannot guarantee we can put more stock in again soon.

 

 

 

Take care,

 

Printrbot team

 

[nick-foley 5]

Sweet! Just ordered another one too.

So, now that others are trying this setup, It's worth figuring out the best connection strategy. The hotend comes with a male and female Molex connectors (P/N 43640 and 43645). I didn't have those on hand, so I just cut the wires and soldered my hotend in... but it would obviously be better to utilize the connectors (and I've made space for them in the printhead design).

 

[illuminarti 18]

I ordered one too.

 

[nick-foley 5]

It's christmas, and all of santa's helpers are working double time. Printing a robot right now at 12mm^3 filament per second flow rate (120mm/s x 0.25mm layers x 0.4mm nozzle) and the results are looking perfect with this hotend. Definitely didn't think the results would be this clean.

Edit - need to catch a flight! Sped it up to 13mm^3 and thing still look good.

 

[aviphysics 9]

Who did you contact to get the in-stock notification? I tried submitting a ticket and they replied with a refusal to send a notification.

 

[owen 19]

I submitted a ticket on a product. They had no normal way of contacting them.

[ballanux 0]

The UBIS hot ends are now available and on sale! It seems that they are discontinuing the product...

 

[illuminarti 18]

Yeah I just saw that... The 3mm version of the UBIS hot ends (both ceramic and cartridge heated) will no longer be available after Jan 6th :-(

 

[ballanux 0]

I ordered one... not sure if I should order another... :???:

I'm not sure if this sale is while the stock last, or if they are going to make new ones to meet demand.

 

[kitwashere 1]

I received an email from Printrbot this morning. This sale through January 6th is the last run of the 3mm size. Get em while you can!

 

[hreedijk 4]

Just ordered 2 of them

 

[nick-foley 5]

Awesome! Just ordered more as well. Going to set up a machine with dual extrusion using this hotend.

 

[hreedijk 4]

Awesome! Just ordered more as well. Going to set up a machine with dual extrusion using this hotend.

 

That's my plan also :-)

Very neat hot-end, I'm going to use it for my own build UM.

The only thing I need to find out is make it work with my firmware, but I've got some day's before they arrive.......

 

[hreedijk 4]

Anyone has an address where to find a .6mm or .65mm nozzle for this hotend, preferably in Europe?

Printrbot only sells .2, .4 and.5mm nozzles.

 

[micha-z 0]

this hotend can only be used for the UM1 or for the UM2 as well?

which adjustments to hardware and software are required (for UM2)

thanks michael