wildeye's simple hotend

okies I looked at the page for wildeye's simple hotend, but the problem I'm having with this is that the tape obstructs my view in the pictures and I would really like to see everything together sans the thermistor and the tape. I need to see how it;s exactly put together because I'm thinking that the kapton tape can be avoided all together and the whole thing could be made in a way which would allow the the thermistor lead to go through 2 small holes on the bottom which would be just large enough to fit the leads plus some sort of heat resistant insulation (ergo no short) they would travel at a slight upward angle obviously because the hot end tip must be the lowest point of the assembly. But since I cannot see the product from various sides without the tape I cannot really get a feel for how exactly to do this would also need to see exactly how wildeye's hotend looks also thinking that a plain old sand resistor could be encased inside the hotend body albeit using a bit of fiberglass tape to insulate the far side from the hotend the instructions on the wiki are very hard to duplicate because there is insufficient visualization. does anyone have some pictures and also of how it is mounted on the different extruders. I Think that could improve on this design a bit' since heat transfer has been a hobby of mine for years (I am a mod at the now defunct silent pc yahoo group, Computers have gotten really quiet of the rack so our little group died .
anyways could use some help I like the simplistic, cost effective design I h8 the tape (ergo there's got to be a neater solution without breaking the bank).
terramir

I'm a newbie and building my first Prusa Mendel and was wondering about the heater on the nozzle. Your using a 3watt 6.8 ohm resistor. Are you running 12 volts DC straight thru it or some other volt? That seem a lot of power going thru it if so. Want it run your power supply hot or just burn out the resistor? Lots of questions, i know!! What would be the easyest hotend to build or cheapest kit or complete unit to buy?

Would Thank any info on this, Thanks Rick

I dunno about that my question was about the wildeye's hotend which uses a 5ohm power resistor.
still need some help with that because these pictures are just not cool
terramir

Hi Terramir,

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble following my instructions (I'm Wildseyed).

You seem to take particular issue with the tape, so I will address that first.

The whole purpose of the design is to simplify everything possible, and to use as many basic components, and tools, that are widely available. With the exception of the PTFE rod, which may be hard to find, everything else is available from commonly known sources.

The reason why everything is taped together using Kapton is that it's easy. No screws, not fancy heat-resitant glues, etc. Certainly there are many ways to attach thing like the resistor, and thermistor, but the goal was not to create something elaborate.

The methods I use in making my hot end are proven to produce good results over very long periods of time. You can check out my prints from time to time at [wildseyed.com]

As for not having clear assembly instructions, you can check out my youtube videos on the topic of the hot end. I cover a lot of stuff there that is just too time consuming for me to write down.

Best,

-Wildseyed-

I like some of the design elements, however I dislike others, your tutorial was a little had to understand at times without watching the video's I'll be posting my disign for review in a minute take a look at it and tell me what you think.
terramir

That Wildseyed's duck(Kapton)-taped solution works with some degree of reliability opens the doors to all sorts of improvements. I've staked the tip into the heater block with a bumps from a scratch awl. I like the tape just fine fine. If you are picky about neatness, you could do a more careful job of taping, but the Kapton taping is adequate and enables testing variations, like a block with angled holes for an insulated thermistor.

Seriously, you can make a new block in 10 minutes with a hacksaw and a drill press, drill extra holes for a thermistor and resistor and use the Kapton as "some sort of heat resistant insulation" before you polish it up with fiberglass and colored Teflon.