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Hey, I did something silly. Some time ago I bought an E3D v5 hotend. I just assembled it tonight and after getting it all mounted and pretty-looking realized that it had no place to screw in the bowden-style tube coupling. I went back to the docs and their site and realized that they now have separate direct and bowden versions. I can swear by my life that wasn't a distinction when I bought the damn thing. That was back before they released the v6 anyway. Is there any way I can salvage this particular unit?

Return it or it's another excuse to build an i3/cartesian printer.

I figured out a solution but I haven't quite been able to execute it. I'm using this E3D Mount and there's enough space on the bolts above the top plate that I could slip on another one of these pieces with threads to accept one of the bowden tube couplers. I tried converting the STL back to an object file to make the center hole smaller but I don't know how to convert the faces back into closed polygons.

Here's one I used for my E3D-V4 that was before they had a bowden option.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:57889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Edit: Another option is you can get a Bowden V5 heatsink for $23.95 from Filastruder here. If you don't have it, you'll need one of E3d's Bowden couplings which you can also get from Filastruder. The threaded part of the standard RMax bowden coupling is too small.

The v5 bowden heatsinks are totally gone at this point, apparently. Anyone have any suggestions on how to modify/remake that mounting piece to fit a pneumatic coupling?

JeremyAgost wrote:The v5 bowden heatsinks are totally gone at this point, apparently. Anyone have any suggestions on how to modify/remake that mounting piece to fit a pneumatic coupling?

Too bad they don't have any more.

I would just print out the top part of http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:57889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and use that instead of 626pilot's top piece.

Oh that's awesome! Thanks a lot I'll give it a go on my Orion tonight

So I printed it and (with effort) screwed the threads of a pneumatic coupling into it but while just testing the extruder feed the coupling popped out. I fired up my soldering iron and heated up the coupling while screwing it in again and it's staying put for now but I'm not confident it'll hold. What did you guys do to mate the pneumatic coupling to the unthreaded, plastic top piece?

JeremyAgost wrote:So I printed it and (with effort) screwed the threads of a pneumatic coupling into it but while just testing the extruder feed the coupling popped out. I fired up my soldering iron and heated up the coupling while screwing it in again and it's staying put for now but I'm not confident it'll hold. What did you guys do to mate the pneumatic coupling to the unthreaded, plastic top piece?

Ideally you would use a tap that is the size of the PTC to make the threads in the plastic.

Or you could use a 5mm heat-set insert.

g.

Eaglezsoar wrote:

JeremyAgost wrote:So I printed it and (with effort) screwed the threads of a pneumatic coupling into it but while just testing the extruder feed the coupling popped out. I fired up my soldering iron and heated up the coupling while screwing it in again and it's staying put for now but I'm not confident it'll hold. What did you guys do to mate the pneumatic coupling to the unthreaded, plastic top piece?

Ideally you would use a tap that is the size of the PTC to make the threads in the plastic.

I used a 5mm tap for the standard SeemeCNC push-to-fit coupling as Eaglezsoar suggests and haven't had any trouble with it popping out. The heat-set insert is an even better solution, especially if you take it apart often.

Grrrr. Wish I had a tap kit. Maybe I know someone who does.

EDIT:
Looked up heat-set inserts. Thinking I need 94180A361 from this page? Wish I could find them in a hardware store, but I've never seen them anywhere.

If your using the SeeMe push fit connectors, you can get away with just running an M5 screw through the plastic to establish the thread, a tap might be marginally better, but the plastic is soft enough a machine screw will do the job.

I was able to use a socket set on this pneumatic coupling from one of the newer SeeMeCNC hotend kits, which allowed to apply enough pressure and torque to thread it into the ABS part. Yay! Thanks everyone loving this E3D hotend already. (And yes I know the blue-printed parts are awful. They're from that very Rostock which badly needs a belt tensioning. The yellow part came off my Orion.)
[img]http://i.imgur.com/qtPceSb.jpg[/img]