Hot Ends - down to 3 to pick from

First post so hopefully not breaking any rules about asking for opinions on what is best to go with. Building a P3Steel and time to order a hotend. I want the option of direct or bowden so will order with bowden kits as I will eventually want to try a bowden extruder setup.

Deciding on hot end and have it down to three choices:

E3Dv6 [e3d-online.com]

-or-

Hexagon [ooznest.co.uk]

-or-

Micron3dp [micron3dp.myshopify.com]


I am looking for the best trouble-free consistent printing. Both the E3D and the Hexagon are about the same in price and the Micron is quite a bit more. Will go with Micron3dp if it is really the better of the three but of course would like to save money if I can. I do really like the design of the Hexagon but all three are nice options.

So.. What's the best to go with for a first timer? Not wanting to swap out hotends all the time looking for the best solution and hoping all the fine folks here that have paved the way have a solid recommendation!

Thanks for your time.
weav

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2015 03:15PM by weav.

I think it comes down to personal preference. I really doubt a lot of people have used all three hotends, so you will be getting a lot of recommendations based on what people bought. For instance, my vote is for the E3D, but then I bought an E3D to replace the the J-head clone that came with my printer.

However, the E3Dv6 is capable of printing high-temperature filaments, up to 300 degrees. If you are new to 3D printing, it might be awhile before you start playing with anything other than PLA/ABS. So you might consider trying out the v6lite recently released by E3D. It is in the price range of the clones, making it an affordable option for starting out, however later on you should be able to easily upgrade it to the v6 if and when you decided to break the 240-250 temperature range. Then again, I am biased.

I have an E3D v6, never used the others. The E3D has been very reliable for printing ABS with my BullDog XL extruder. The only issue I had with the E3D v6 was the cheesy fan they supplied with it was extremely fragile and the screws they supplied to mount it on the shroud so large and difficult to turn into the plastic, that I broke two of the fan's 3 motor supports. Plan on spending a few more $ to get a decent fan.

Hexagon user.
High temps no problem as its all metal. Printed nylon this evening at 245c i believe it will go a lot higher.
The limit is set by the rating of the thermistor or higher still with a thermocouple.
Not had any clogs or jammed filament with nylon, abs or ninjaflex.
Havnt got round to pla for a while so havnt used it with this hot end.

I like that you can swap nozzles between 0.3 and 0.5mm for fine detail or quicker large prints.
Im trying to find a decent 0.2mm nozzle to fit as they dont seem to sell one. I like printing small.
The nozzle tip profile seems to be spot on for laying the plastic nicely.
Seems to purge the previous filament well swapping between colours or different materials.

The price included, hot end assembly, heater, thermistor, fan, small tools to maintain it.
Allthough other than swapping nozzles I havnt needed to take it apart.
The new version has a metal restraint to hold in the heater and thermistor that looks interesting and no price increase for it.

Gordon

Can't say enough about the E3D v6.... I run mine with a Bulldog extruder and its been nearly flawless through 3 reels of PLA.

E3D v6 user here. Very happy with the hotend. No problems at all with it. Kossel mini with geared extruder. ABS / PLA / Tglase / Nylon

I'm also an E3D supporter - but I totally agree about the cooling fan and its screws. I keep meaning to send an email to E3D about it, but never have got round to it...

Yet another E3D user on PLA. I have had one jam that forced me to disassemble the hotend, but then I treat it pretty badly. Other than that it's worked very well.

I'm also a happy E3D user, printing with both PLA and ABS. No jams yet.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

All,

Thanks so much for the input! It really helps to see what works or not for people even though I know these questions come down to personal experience. Looks like a bunch of E3D users here and it works well. Going to go with the majority here and use a v6 for my p3steel.

I also learned from this thread about the Bulldog extruder and it looks like an excellent add to my machine. Going to go for the XL. Hoping this combo will serve me well.

Again, thanks to all who took the time to chime in!

Best,
weav

I will chime in on the e3d style, get one with a clip on fan, they keep the heat where it needs to be. I also have a bulldog xl, do your self a favor if you have not allready and upgrade to 3mm filament as the bulldog xl is set up for it, remember to order the 3mm e3d as well, the extruder tip also needs to be for 3mm but you can drill out the 1.75mm ones just remember to drill it out slightly smaller, never bigger than 3mm or on retraction you will have issues. I have printed at 210mm/sec with it and I plan to go faster. Last piece of advice, if you are printing structural pieces not fine art go bigger on your nozzle size, I am using a .6mm one to go 210mm/sec and you cant tell the difference much plus it takes less passes to make parts.

Thought I would add I was stripping fiament with the bulldog xl using 1.75mm as the drive mechanism is 3mm

I've had no problems driving 1.75mm ABS filament with my BullDog XL.

I did have a small problem mounting the E3D v6 on it. Here's what you have to do to marry them:

1) fille a couple small flats on the sides of the hot end where it fits into the extruder foot. Total time: about 60 seconds.
2) file a notch in the hot-end heatsink fins to allow access to one of the screw heads that mounts the foot on the extruder. Total time: about 2 minutes.
3) grind down a 1/4" washer to just under 16mm dia to act as a spacer between the top of the hot end and the extruder to ensure it clamps it tightly. Total time: about 2 minutes (turn the washer against a grinding wheel or a file with an electric drill).

Someone sells a replacement foot for $30 that will fit the E3D V6 properly on the BullDog XL, but why bother when the mods are so easy?

I’m using the Bulldog Lite which is for 1.75mm only, and it works very well overall. It won’t print flexible filament as is, but it can be fixed to do so by changing one part (you’ll need to get it machined, though). I like RRD, but have not tried the Hexagon yet. In particular, anyone tried it with PLA? The other filaments should work fine, but all metals and PLA are the problem, usually.

After watching this video: E3D Presentation at 2015 MidWest Reprap Festival I decided that E3D really know what they're talking about, and that there's a hell of a lot more to hot ends than I realized.

I just installed dual E3D v6 hot ends on my Printrbot Metal Plus. It's still very early days, but so far I'm delighted with them. The uniformity of the extrudate coming out of them is amazing.

weav, by coincidence while looking at E3D nozzles I just noticed this E3D v6 to Bulldog XL mount being sold by filastruder.com.

http://www.filastruder.com/collections/e3d-spare-parts-and-accessories/products/e3dv6-bulldog-mount

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2015 09:23PM by JonS.

That's the one that goes for $30. If you want to avoid the expense, see my post, a couple messages above...

Not sure I will get the mount but didn't know Filastruder was an official reseller until I checked out the link! At least I know I can order my v6 from this side of the pond. Once again, thanks to all for the abundance of info! Quite the mountain of info out there on building a printer and I finally feel like I'm getting a decent grip on things.. or hope I am!