Custom heater block to fit E3D nozzle on Ultimaker 2 ("The Olsson Block")

[Anders Olsson 136]

Here is the nozzle torque wrench:

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/nozzle-torque-wrench

I hope it keeps those of you who are waiting for your heater blocks busy for a few hours :smile:

It has been test-printed by in various plastics and seems to work okay now, but is still somewhat a prototype.

Credits to UltiArjan, ChrisR, IRobertI and swordriff for helping me testing it! :smile:

 

[pm_dude 27]

that's looking pretty good

 

[chrisr 18]

It works pretty good too ;-)

 

[swordriff 119]

In the comment on Youmagine, Anders says you have to make the change quick

so the tool does not melt.

This is more so the case when your pipe is brass (usually nickel or chrom plated and cheap),

and MUCH less so if it is a steel tool.

It works perfectly with a cheap brass/CR tool, but gets hot surprisingly quickly, within seconds.

This is also a far angle at the discussion about the teflon spacer, which is surrounded by

a steel "tube", the one with the holes in it, while resting directly on the brass metal hot end

top end.. (sic..).

While stainless steel (the coupler with the holes) is a poor heat conductor and in our case

never a threat to the teflon spacer, the hot end on the other hand tries "to be the same

temperature everywhere". I speak about the tiny surface shared by the teflon part

and the hot end top end.

Hoping not too off topic. Please ask me to move it..

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

Here is some more information regarding the heater blocks and the torque wrench, I thought I would make a video too, but that has to wait a bit:

- There are two slots on the side of the heater block which is facing down. Through these slots you can see if the sensor/heater is fully inserted in the hole. The slots can also be used to access the sensor/heater with a small hex key to push them out in case they are stuck :smile:

- You can tighten the fixing screw quite hard without destroying things, but I recommend to tighten it bit by bit, pulling very gently in the sensor/heater to check if they are fixed in between. A rule of thumb is that the screw will be level with the surface of the heater block when they are tightened.

- Don't screw the thermal heat break pipe all the way down to the surface of the heater block. I recommend to leave a space of 0.5 mm or so. The dimensions are a bit tight here too, that is why I don't recommend to tighten it all the way to the bottom.

- When installing the fan cap, install the four screws but leave them loose. Move the cap back and forth and try to fix it in an intermediate position where it is not touching the heater block. (It was impossible to make the part where the nozzle is inserted any smaller, so this is the reasonable way to get around that problem :smile: )

Besides E3D/Delta tower, Ultimaker Original nozzles will also fit this heater block.

There are most likely other types that will work too, basically anything with an M6 thread longer than 6mm should fit.

- There might be a hex bit version of the torque wrench available soon, in case some of you prefer that. :smile: (It should be a bit stronger and more heat resistant, but requires more things to be purchased)

EDIT: One more thing: Remember to level the bed before test printing!

 

[meduza 191]

Look what i got :wink:

Straight out of the package

Mounted on the Printer

And a extrusion test that it passed without any problem, this is Colorfabb Standard White PLA/PHA at default UM2 PLA Settings.

 

(FYI: I have an engineering sample from the latest batch, the rest of the batch is just a round the corner for delivery trough swordriff.)

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Here is the nozzle torque wrench:

 

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/nozzle-torque-wrench

I hope it keeps those of you who are waiting for your heater blocks busy for a few hours :smile:

It has been test-printed by in various plastics and seems to work okay now, but is still somewhat a prototype.

Credits to UltiArjan, ChrisR, IRobertI and swordriff for helping me testing it! :smile:

 

 

And for the lovers of details ... just did a test on an Atlas Copco torque meter (acta400), this is the result of the 4 units I printed.

 

0,28 Nm clear colorfabb XT

0,32 orange colorfabb XT

0,37 magenta colorfabb PLA/PHA

0,4 leaf green colorfabb PLA/PHA

 

 

[chrisr 18]

(FYI: I have an engineering sample from the latest batch, the rest of the batch is just a round the corner for delivery trough swordriff.)

 

Phew! thanks for that foot note, I thought I'd missed out :-D

 

[gixxer 1]

Warning to anyone thinking of changing there heater block even for the standard one.

Changed my one today and could not get the temp sensor out without pulling the wires out of the metal cap! The grub screw that holds the heater and sensor in had deformed the metal cap on the sensor and it wouldn't budge.

Likely I'd already ordered a spare! So if your thinking of changing the block for a stock replacement or Anders one bear in mind you may not be able to get the sensor out in one piece. However if you do change to Anders block you shouldn't have any problems in the future as his design doesn't damage the heater/sensor casing.

I took some pics while I changed the sensor so if anyone wants a how to I'll post one.

[swordriff 119]

Gixxer!

We are so happy about your enthusiasm about this thing!

To try to answer your (good) question:

I think it will never be an upgrade. Ultimaker focus on bringing out 3D printers "pushing one ore more edges", they cannot sanction a product which will add to support. Their minds are now on the next thing more than on the "old" thing.

It has to be like this.

Look at it this way; the the new models are "natural" evolutions of their existing product.

By changing little, (mostly panels and so on.. not entirely true but passable), they hardly add to support pressure, while satisfying a demand in the market.

The suppert takes care of itself, more than less, in these fantastic forums.

There are a number of veterans here with huge experience and a ready answer

to almost any not previously formultated question!

Let us face it, the original heaterblock is dead-easy to use! Atomic works well, it heats quickly (even with the 20-25W standard heater), less moving parts etc.

The only things Anders´s Block does, is to make UM2 available to people who

-refuse to buy a printer where you cannot quickly change the nozzle, and

-people who print abrasive material, which I think will be more frequent..

-people who need to quickly change between small and large nozzles.

Other than that, better stick with the original!

[gixxer 1]

Hi swordfish, Yes I see where your coming from.

Don't forget though that the Anders design also corrects a poor design (I hate to speak bad of my UM2) on the standard block, the grub screw clamp that holds the heater and sensor (as I found out today). Those that do make the switch to Anders block would also only have to change the nozzle tip rather than the whole block.

Do you know if any tests on oozing have been done yet? Think it was mentioned previously that the flow should be improved due to the longer melt zone. I know there are quite a few on the forum that has suffered with underextrusion that my benefit.

Do you think you could be in a position to look for others to stock this mod. Perhaps E3D? Would be a shame for it to only be available from the forum.

[gixxer 1]

Sorry "swordriff" Dam predictive text!

[gr5 2,173]

The longer melt zone shouldn't make a difference with .4mm nozzle. I've printed 18mm^3/sec no problems with a .7mm nozzle.

 

[gixxer 1]

Hi gr5, do you mean no different in flow, oozing or both?

18mm^3/sec that's impressive. This is one of the reasons I'm having a block machined.

Any idea what layer hight one can achieve with a 0.7mm nozzle?

[meduza 191]

gixxer: modified to 0.8mm, it is a single wall print with 0.5mm layer height, printed at 40mm/s (16mm^3/s) without any problem.

I just printed Anders torque wrench in Colorfabb XT Black with great result and it has so far printed just as good as the original nozzle.

 

[gixxer 1]

That's a clean print for a 0.5mm layer height meduza . Am I right in guesstimating that you could go as hight as 0.65 ish? Also can you still achieve heights of 0.1 and lower with good results?

[pm_dude 27]

I want to see retraction heavy prints...

Regardless I'll test it myself soon enough

 

[IRobertI 520]

Ultimaker Anders design could really do with being and stock upgrade what you think?

 

I just wanted to say that I hand delivered one of the early prototypes to the Ultimaker R&D people when I was there visiting. So they are aware of the design. That's not saying that that's where they're going with future designs, but they have seen it.

 

[gixxer 1]

Hi Robert,

I do remember Anders saying that R&D had one. Would love to know how they got on with it. I'm eager to know as as my design should be ready by Friday and is very similar with I think a marginally shorter melt zone.

Hope it turns out as good as what we've seen here from Anders one.

Do you know how the R&D team got on with it? Really think that the future nozzles should allow you to change the tips.

I can see though why ultimaker would go down the road they did though. Sell something that works well overall and keep the margins down. Guess I want ultimaker 2 reliability/quality but have the mod ability of the original.

[IRobertI 520]

Sorry, no, I don't know. What I have seen/heard about I can't talk about I'm afraid. Let's just say that they aren't sitting around on their asses

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

(FYI: I have an engineering sample from the latest batch, the rest of the batch is just a round the corner for delivery trough swordriff.)

 

Honestly, your heater block was among the few that I did not send to swordriff because they required a bit more torque on the fixing screw to keep the temperature sensor. But it is not an engineering sample.

The reason why you got it so soon is that you were among the first ones to request one and that you happen to live very close to me :smile:

When it comes to Ultimaker, I offered them the design for free. They got one of the four heater blocks from the prototype batch as IRobertI mentioned and I also provided STEP-files.

However they seem not to be that interested. The only reply I got was like "yea, we looked at that but we will probably do things a bit differently".

I heard some rumor that Ultimaker had lots of support tickets on the exchangeable nozzle on the UMO.

Avoiding that would requite people to use a torque wrench or similar I guess.. yes, exactly :smile:

I think the UM2 is an excellent platform to modify to suit my needs though since it is very reliable, common and has all these people spending time here on this forum supporting it.

 

When it comes to oozing I haven't done any comparisons yet, but I would love to know how it compares.

I heard rumors that Delta Tower's nozzles, which look identical to the E3D-nozzles, are somehow different.

I suspect oozing might be one reason that they apparently went for a different internal design (?)

I have another route to prevent oozing which i want to explore. Hopefully I have time to do that now when swordriff takes care of the heater blocks :smile:

Thank you UltiArjan for the torque measurements! I wish I had access to tools like that, not just an adjustable wrench and a luggage scale.

By the way, I can't wait to get that scientific paper finished so I can tell the story about why the professor payed for manufacturing the first four prototypes of this design and what horrors my Ultimaker had to go through as a result of that.

 

[Labern 774]

Sorry, no, I don't know. What I have seen/heard about I can't talk about I'm afraid. Let's just say that they aren't sitting around on their asses

 

Why Are you afraid? :wink:

 

[gr5 2,173]

I've seen many Ultimaker head designs and it felt like there were 100 different designs and they were so very different. I was blown away by all the things they tried and all the amazing directions the headed off on. This design change is very small compared to half the things they have been trying. I have no idea where they are at this point - if they gave up - if they decided it's fine - if they are waiting for the UM3. I just don't know. I don't think anders/swordriff have to worry for a while but of course eventually something new will come out (um3?) and this heater block will only be for the "old" um2. Maybe. Probably.

By then they might be selling some other crucial part for the UM3.

 

[nallath 1,120]

The main problem with these designs is that we are already stretched to the point of breaking, so we just don't have time to properly test things that people provice us. Wich sucks. It sucks a lot.

Don't confuse the 'were not going to do something with it' response with apathy. Its definately not that.

I do hope we start some sort of shop soon where people can offer their experimental products. That would solve a lot of problems i guess.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Why Are you afraid? :wink:

 

NDAs are a bitch