E3D V6 Printer Head Mod!

[Flavored Coffee]

Hello All,

I just finished modifying my Rostock MAX V2, to include the E3D V6 Printer Head. It did take away from the total height a print could be but, it was easier than I thought. I actually put it off and thought about it for awhile. There are no real instructions to change this out, and the thermistor is not the same one. So, it really takes a little work to actually pull it off. I figured, it was time for a change, the Iron PLA, is out, and I'm almost ready to start printing out prototype electric motors.

JWE

[BenTheRighteous]

I'm glad you're happy with your mod, but! Always a but...

There are plenty of bracket designs out there that mount your e3d v6 mostly above the effector platform, so that you don't lose any build height.

626Pilot made a good one that I use, but it's personal preference, and if you don't miss those few cm then it's probably not worth worrying about. But I just wanted you to be aware.

I'm sure you'll like the e3d, good luck with your prints!

[Jimustanguitar]

The Iron PLA is ferrous, but is it conductive? Can you align the magnetic particles?
Maybe you'll have to rig up an electromagnet around the nozzle to orient the iron particles...

[barry99705]

The Iron PLA is ferrous, but is it conductive? Can you align the magnetic particles?
Maybe you'll have to rig up an electromagnet around the nozzle to orient the iron particles...

That would be pretty slick, wonder if you could make the print magnetic? Another thought is be careful with magnets around the still hot plastic! You could end up with something like this happening!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TuMPp4FWBw[/youtube]

[Flavored Coffee]

The Iron PLA is ferrous, but is it conductive? Can you align the magnetic particles?
Maybe you'll have to rig up an electromagnet around the nozzle to orient the iron particles...

It could be very interesting but, it's not transparent, like the metal flake paint you're thinking of. The paint, is a cool idea but, this stuff is more like the plastic refrigerator magnet but, the iron, doesn't let anything happen except that it sticks to magnets. In other words, this stuff, can't retain a magnetic field and would never make a good magnet. It doesn't contain anything except iron.

So, you can make magnetic actuators on the fly. Combine and use ideas that you may have seen in part, in hard drives, DVD players, any electric motors or solenoids, and potentially, start coiling to make motors, shaped electromagnets, solenoids and actuators!

The same company does make an electrically conductive version of the pasta but, it's a different formula and doesn't have any magnetic properties, it just conducts electricity.

http://www.proto-pasta.com/collections/ ... uctive-pla

[TFMike]

I think 3dx tech offers conductive filament, also can you elaborate on your electric motors you want to print?

[Rina]

I need and electrical set for my el motor, is there a better price than this? https://www.mrosupply.com/tools/power-t ... tool-corp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Greg von Plettenberg]

Hi
I have just cooked my original max v2 hot end, and as I live in South Africa I am limited as far as spares are concerned. I have managed to source an all metal hot end that looks just like yours with a 100 k thermistor.
I intend to copy your method of attachment as I have never needed the full height. My question is what do I have to do in terms of calibration, and will the 100k thermistor work or should I try salvage my original ?

[626Pilot]

F-Electric makes conductive PLA using carbon nanotubes, I think. I've been talking to their CEO about how to do contacts. The resistivity is 0.75 ohms/cm^3, the lowest I could find by far. I looked at other conductive PLA and it was more like 17 ohms/cm^3. In theory, it should be possible to generate an electromagnetic field with the stuff. You'd use normal plastic for an insulator. What would you use for the core?

I think iron PLA could be magnetized, but with significant difficulty. I would not expect the iron particles to rotate once the plastic is cool. Maybe if you put a strong electromagnet next to the thing while it was being printed? Wouldn't be nearly as powerful as a pure iron magnet, either.

[keokolo]

Don't know if this post is old and people have found out by now, but the E3D V6 hot end goes easily on top of the base plate, and gains a few millimeters of clearance. There are a lot of these mounts around for the Rostock Max V2. You just 3D print one before swapping. They might need some adjustment and the fan fits very snugly under it but the whole assembly needs to be very snugged down on the plate to keep rigid. The problem is finding the screws, I just modified the clampdown plate to take the stock screws. This is one of many 3D print ones out there. It needs to be ABS.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:346200" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Maddog]

I installed the ezgroove mount from SEEMECNC for the ROSTOCK MAX V2 because I wanted to use some higher temperature material. Poly-carbonate.
SEEMECNC does not support the ezgroove even though they sell the mount, so I need help making it work.
I attached a j-head hot end I bought on Amazon. I used connectors for wiring for easy assembly or removal from original hot end.
After connecting it up and manually extruding some PLA, I tried to print the 20mm calibration cube. The hot end quickly stopped putting out PLA.
I took it apart and cleaned everything many times. Same result! I verified the temps with a temp probe and tried 240C even. Same answer.
Everything works OK with the stock hot end and extruder. What's the trick to get the J-Head to work on the ROSTOCK MAX V2?

[Polygonhell]

I assume by JHead you really mean E3D Copy, the JHead is a PEEK hotend that looks like this https://www.hotends.com/index.php?route ... duct_id=88" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
However vendors commonly refer to "all metal Jhead" when referring to E3D copies.
Without seeing the actual hotend it's difficult to comment, all metal hotends are not very forgiving with PLA, the need a fan blowing over the fins (some knockoffs don't include fans) and the machining quality of the stainless section has to be very good or they tend to jam.
The cheap Chinese copies tend to not be machined to the open source designs specifications and there are several critical dimensions on hotends, not least of which is the nozzle orifice length.
It's possible you have a badly designed/machined one and it simply will not print PLA reliably, it's possible you can fix the issue by shortening the nozzle orifice, or polishing the inside of the SS section.

A lot of these knockoff hotends are junk, and I would not recommend anyone buy them, but you can get lucky.

[Xenocrates]

I'm betting you bought an all metal "J-head", probably one of the twenty dollar pieces of crap they sell. It's an E3D knockoff, and one of the first ways to economize on a design like that is to reduce the finish quality. The heatbreak is critical, and the finish internally is one of the most important qualities. And even genuine E3D hotends have trouble with PLA. Reduce your retract to 2MMs, and slow it down. That will help reduce the jamming. Then proceed to find the seller feedback amazon usually sends, and report them for selling an illicit knock-off that doesn't work. After that, possibly buy an actual E3D heatbreak and nozzle, if you can't get the jamming under control. Make sure that the heatsink is A) aluminum, and B) cool to the touch. Add thermal paste between the heatbreak and the heatsink. You want the heatbreak to be as cool as you can manage. Do not add thermal paste between the heater block and the heatbreak. This is counter productive. You can buy thermal paste from most computer shops. I personally prefer arctic silver.

And finally, a bit of a rant. You can feel free to ignore it, and that's why it's seperated.

The hotend is the most critical part of a printer. It is the main component through which your parts flow, and it must be in spec, and consistent, to deliver parts which are both. They are almost impossible to hurt if well designed and not abused, and will last multiple printer generations and thousands of hours, unless you buy something made by a terrible company like those J-head knockoffs on Ebay, those shysters at makerbot, or they people you bought yours from. When you only have to spend the money once to get consistent good results for the life a printer you just spent a grand on, and many hours assembling, why would you cheap out to buy a bad hotend that, even if it only fails 5% more, will rapidly cost you more than the price differential in wasted time, filament, and electricity. It's like going and filling up your sports car from a jerry-can full of something flammable you bought for ten bucks on a street corner, or pirating an OS to put on your latest and greatest computer. It's more likely to waste your money, and potentially damage what you've already got, than it is to be an actual deal for you. Go ahead and save yourself the money and headache long term. Consider that 20$ an investment in an education, put the hotend either in a parts tray if it has E3D compatible parts that don't suck, or more likely, a trash can, get an actually good hotend from an actually reputable vendor, and stop relying on Amazon to vet cheap Chinese knockoffs that aren't sold by them, but rather through them. Invest in tools and parts made in countries that make them well, be it the US, Britain, or Germany. Your time, since you have the money to buy a printer, is likely valuable enough that wasting it making shoddy crap work is a negative value proposition, when you can get stuff that works, like it's supposed to, out of the box.

[Maddog]

Interesting feedback. Thx, I think.
That's the problem with 3D printers, it's hard to find any information about what to do. There is plenty of advice what not to do. Tons of Chinese crap out there with labels of E3D on it.
Amazon makes it easy to get stuff but not good feedback on what does not work. Look at these 3 links of what looks like exactly the same hot end. $20 vs $90.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017QW ... ge_o02_s00

http://www.amazon.com/3D-CAM-Printer-Fi ... TN1T4YRH2G

http://www.amazon.com/E3D-All-metal-Hot ... RY934NK5DB

[Xenocrates]

They are designed to look like the same hotend. That 90$ one is the genuine article. The differences are all but invisible to those unfamiliar with machining, or the hotends, which is why those companies do it. The people behind the genuine one released all their shop prints, but under a non-commercial license. That made it easy for good actors to work with the designs, to modify, improve, and integrate. But the trouble is that it also made it easy for unscrupulous companies to make money off it.

Take a look at the surface finish on the CAM hotend for example. They didn't bother to remove what look to be bandsaw marks from the heat block, and the slot is neither centered, nor offset in a logical direction (towards the bottom, where it would allow that chunk to flex to fit the cartridge better) It has just a cone bored at the top, and the majority of the lines on it, even though it's a product they are taking pictures of, are neither sharp, nor consistently chamfered. Instead, it looks like it was thrown down a flight of stairs. The nozzle has a small number engraved, rather than the proper (and more useful) pips on a number of sides. Also note that they wrap the thermistor leads in Kapton tape rather than fiberglass sleeving.

The cyclemore is very similar. Hell, they both use exactly the same dimensional render. The only difference is a massive PTC connector at the top, adding bulk and mass, very unlike the proper models, and making it Bowden only.

Hotends are pretty critical, and so it pays to do the research, and buy them from legit vendors. Personally, I prefer to buy from the manufacturer directly. Means I never have to worry about someone trying to cheap out and slip me a dud. When in doubt, ask. That's what we're here for.