E3D hot end - looking for people's experiences

Hi,

Currently I'm quite happy with the kit's default J-head, but E3D is having a 20% sale for the holidays and has me tempted to try something new.

I'm curious to hear and hopefully even see people's experiences, both good and bad, with the hot end:

- I don't like the idea of losing the fan shroud for PLA printing so I'd like to hear how you handled that
- I'd like to know if you had any PLA jamming issues
- I'd like to know how you routed power for the additional fan (I've seen a couple of threads on this topic alone)
- I'd like to know if you had a positive or negative change in your print quality
- I'd like to know if you've begun working with nylon and if so how you've gotten it to stick
- any other comments you'd like to offer

Nophead, if I remember correctly, I recall you saying you'd been testing with one. I'm very keen to hear your feedback.

Thanks in advance,
Fl0yd

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2013 11:39PM by Fl0yd.

PLA jammed once on changing reels. After that I reversed filament at lower temperature.
I just have a fan on the hotend. The one supplied was noisy so I made this:
[www.thingiverse.com]
You can take power for the fan from the left probe and the left [corrected] heater connection on the little pcb.
Print quality is better - no leaks and seems smoother but I did realign everything after changing the hotend as my dial gauge arrived at the same time so its hard to assign causation.
I haven't tried nylon.
The thermistor was hard to keep in its hole so I wrapped a few strands of stripped connecting wire around the head to hold it in.
The easy to change nozzle is a great improvement over the jhead. Disassembly if needed is much easier. I found the 0.6mm nozzle good for large prints.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2013 02:47AM by Ralph.Hilton.

Fl0yd,
I have one but I have never had time to try it.

It will reduce the build height because it is longer, although some of that can be regained by removing the extension on the bottom of the extruder. There are persistent complaints it doesn't work with PLA and I don't see an easy way around the two fan problem, so I think the J-head is best for PLA. It also does ABS and nylon but the E3D can handle polycarbonate and some types of ABS that need more than 250C. I have both of those to try as well, but never had time.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Quote
Fl0yd
- I'd like to know if you've begun working with nylon and if so how you've gotten it to stick

UHU glue stick on a variety of substrates is effective when printing nylon. I think Garolite by itself even works but I haven't tried in a long while and have forgotten my success. That was when I used an UP! printer and it lacked temperature control so any results I did get were likely not optimal. I have yet to try Nylon with the M90 but am really looking forward to doing so.

So far I have just been using a fan blowing across the table to cool my PLA prints but I have seen a few ducts on thingiverse that supposedly will split the airflow and cool the hotend an the print at the same time. I will try one of these soon.

I only print with PLA right now, the E3D is actually printing well for me, mostly. I went through several spools of filament and have had only a few jams, usually when I was printing multiple pieces of a small part. I beleive this is due to the filament feeding slowly and a lot of retractions. Large parts have printed well. I can only set my retraction to .6mm, any more and I get jams. I do not have any oozing problems at this setting so this is not an issue.

I am running the fan via the fan control on the board, hence the need for the fan blowing across the table.

My print quality increased a lot with the E3D, but that could be because I was using cheap ebay j-heads before the E3D.

I did not yet try nylon but intend to.

The fan issue is that you need it on all the time on the E3D but you don't want to blow on the object until after the first layer and from all directions, so the object does not shield itself from the draft.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Agreed. I plan on eventually splicing a second fan in to be used for cooling the object. I plan on putting a manual toggle switch on this so I can turn it on or off at will. Still not ideal since I'll have to monitor the print at least until the first layer is printed.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 07:24PM by new to3Dbob.

I've been using the E3D for a couple of months now with the mendel90. The printer is running most of the hours in a day.

The original hotend supplied with the mendel90 came apart in a week or two(separated).

So far all i can say about the E3D is WOW! It is just wonderful!. I regulary print stuff that takes in the excess of 30hours to complete, with no issues what so ever. i print both PLA and ABS.
For PLA, i use a modified version of the fan attachement in the kit. I just changed it to be thinnner. Roughly half the original height. That way it fits just fine with the E3D.

To sum it up, you can't go wrong whith the E3D. The only thing that "could" be a problem is the reduced build height, but it's only a cm or two. That has not been an issue for me.

Quote
bergaliv
I've been using the E3D for a couple of months now with the mendel90. The printer is running most of the hours in a day.

The original hotend supplied with the mendel90 came apart in a week or two(separated).

So far all i can say about the E3D is WOW! It is just wonderful!. I regulary print stuff that takes in the excess of 30hours to complete, with no issues what so ever. i print both PLA and ABS.
For PLA, i use a modified version of the fan attachement in the kit. I just changed it to be thinnner. Roughly half the original height. That way it fits just fine with the E3D.

To sum it up, you can't go wrong whith the E3D. The only thing that "could" be a problem is the reduced build height, but it's only a cm or two. That has not been an issue for me.

i´m also planning switching to e3d. do you have a few pictures how it will look? and is the stl for the modified attachment available?

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donandi
i´m also planning switching to e3d. do you have a few pictures how it will look? and is the stl for the modified attachment available?

There are several modified designs on Thingiverse. Just search for "Mendel90 fan".