Hotend

[Dale]

Hi, I am new to the forum but I been visiting the forum for a while checking for options and advise, I am building my first printer and I am now at the stage where I need to buy a hotend I like the E3D that Eaglezsoar posted I was about to buy it when I found this other all metal hotend similar to the E3D but I think it has more pizazz it comes in colors rather than just silver, it is here http://www.infill3d.com, has anyone here tried one?
I ran into it when I was looking at a geared extruder for my project in Thingiverse their extruder is very cool with small herringbone gears, it is at this link http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:443680 on first view I just saw the extruder but there is a link to their website for more STL's once there I saw they sell hotends, I did saw stl's of parts made for their hotend like extruders and attachments, the stl's look very well thought out I think I saw like 5 different extruders in Thingiverse and quite a few fan shrouds at their site, has anyone tried any of those items?
I am hoping someone has tried the stuff coming out of this guys, since I don't want to be the first one to try something new on the other hand they do look legit there is videos in their page of the hotend printing, I might buy it anyway is not that expensive compared to other ones but it be nice to hear from someone that has tried their products.

[Generic Default]

If you only want a single extruder setup, that one looks fine, but it is an E3D clone. Several other E3D clones exist and they don't usually work as well as the E3D. Also keep in mind that the company that makes it chose to anodize or paint it black for more consumer appeal, but that makes the thermal performance worse than if it were left metallic.

If you want multiple extruders for more print capability, check out the Kraken or Tri hotend. You will probably want more than one hotend in the future.

For now just understand that the cheaper clone hotends may not work as well as you want. They copied people's designs exactly, so that tells you a little bit about their business model.


The cold end geared extruder looks pretty cool. You can print most of the parts but you'll need to buy springs, bearings, screws, and that hobbed bolt to make it work.

[McSlappy]

Hey Generic, you get the site sorted to handle Aussie payments yet? Or can I just paypal you some money?

[Dale]

Hi Generic Default, thank you for all the input I did a bit more checking on the hotend since I was worried when you said that the color makes the thermal performance worse, I did contact Infill 3D to get more information. It turns out that the hotend is anodized not painted and anodized parts cool better than just being left metallic something about being porous, they did note that it is very little since it uses forced air whatever that means I guess it is because of the fan but they did say it is mostly for looks; now I can get the red one
I just want one hotend I have no need for multiple hotends right now, it is just more complications for features I won't use.
The hotend does look solid it looks far from cheap, I was looking at the manufacturing pictures on their site it does look top notch, anyhow I am planing on using their extruder so I guess I will support them and buy a hotend, I will be the first one to take the jump since there is not anyone that has tried it here. I will let you guys know how it looks and performs when it gets it.

[DavidF]

Dale, Careful, that looks like a pretty exact copy of the e3d V5 hot end wich was finicky with pla.... I could give a rats rear about color, a quality print is all that matters...

[Dale]

Thank you for the concern DavidF I appreciate it, I did my home work I am not jumping into it lightly I did look at it closely before I order it, that hotend is not new it's been out since god knows when, I found a heated thread in the RepRap forum from last December, even the guy from E3D got in the thread, it was funny to read his comments he kind of play it down and now it seems to me he copied some of it's features with the new v6, Google "Infill3D" and you find that thread.
For what I can put together that hotend that l thought it was similar to the E3D v6 that Eaglezsoar showed actually is a semi-copy of the Infill3D since back on that thread they where talking about the size of the Infill3D and how it was 3/4 the size of the older E3D version that was bigger.
I think is going to be fine there is too much information on their site to be a scam I was impress by the manufacturing pictures is all CNC looks very high tech, they have replied to all my emails and as I mention before the work they are doing with parts and addons for their hotend looks phenomenal and all free, if I am going to use their models for free might as well give them a bit of support.
When I get the hotend I'll post if it is a cheap crappy hotend or a good one, but for what I have seen so far it looks good.

[Polygonhell]

The big difference between that Hotend and the V6, is in the later the PTFE tube runs in to the cold section, that design looks likes the V5 or V4 where there is no PTFE in the Hotend itself.
I don't have a V6, I do have 2 V5's and a V4, only one of the V5's will reliably print PLA.
I also have a kraken, which is closer to the V6 design with the PTFE running into the cooling element and it will reliably print PLA.

The problem with trying to assess Hotends from pictured is that it's impossible to know some of the critical dimensions.

[Dale]

I agree with you Poligonhell no one can assess the item by a picture everything is up in the air, as I said before I will post my experiences with the hotend when I get it.
I bought 4 different materials PLA, ABS, PET+ and Nijaflex to test the hotend but I do not know when my machine is going to be complete since as I mentioned before I am still building my printer however I do have my 3D print Sensei with a few years experience with 3D printers that is showing me the ropes perhaps I can get him to let me test the hotend with him will see what he says that guy is always busy.
I wanted to get Nylon filament but for what I understood it won't adhere to glass and it needs a different surface that is rough like Garolite and I do not want to start complicating my life just yet changing bed surfaces, so I leave that one for a later time.

[Dale]

I got home today and it is like Christmas my filament and hotend are here! I took a close look at it and it does look awesome love the color red, I know some of you guys do not care about looks and just function but I do care about both I want my machine to look good and perform well.
I bought the assembled SunBurn hotend, so is not in individual parts where I could rate one part at a time, I did remove the fan duct, wiring and heatsink and look in the inside and everything looks good, the hole where the filament runs looks smooth, it looks 100% quality I checked the entire hotend I see no scratches dents or anything that could be consider as defects.
One thing that struck me is the size this thing is very small, the nozzles are tiny, I did buy the additional sizes in 0.3mm and 0.5mm for now I am leaving it with the 0.4mm that came assembled with, all in all it looks fantastic.
I got a hand signed letter from the managing director in the package I thought that was a nice detail also the pneumatic fitting and Allen keys.
I did send an email to Infill3D this past Friday asking a few questions I got a response today, the email goes into detail is quite long when I get back I'll post some interesting facts.
I took some pictures to post but I forgot to lower the mega-pixels from the camera and they are too big to post, when I come back I'll resize them and post them. I am on my way to show my brother in law the hotend maybe he let me test it in one of his machines.

[teoman]

Glad you are enjoying the cosmetics.

Out of curiosity, where do you keep your printer?

[Dale]

Thank you Teoman, my printer is in parts in my office that is where is going to live when it is complete.
Here are some pictures, I removed the fan and wiring that is what you see in one of the pictures the other is the metal parts of the hot end.
I paid a visit to my brother in law to show him the hotend I was hoping he wanted to test it on one of his machines, I was surprised he did, I think he was more exited than me to see it working, he installed it in one of his machines in 5 minutes after going over the manual of the hotend he calibrated a few things that took time I think he spend about 45min calibrating, after he completed doing his thing we printed the first part with black PLA that he had, we downloaded the duct for printing with PLA from their website.
After that part was done we changed filaments to the clear PLA that I bought, we downloaded a medium size part of the i3R and printed it, it did come out white, I was thinking it was going to be more clear.
Thereafter we downloaded a big part the front grill of the i3R that part I didn't stick around to see since it was getting late, he called me today and said it came out perfect, I'll go by on the weekend to check it out.
So far the hotend did what is supposed to do, my brother in law liked the hotend and in fact he is actually keeping that one I am ordering another one.
I asked him to try the other filaments, I'll check with him soon. I am getting derailed from some work things that need my attention when I am done I'll look a bit more into the 3D printer it is fascinating stuff.

[teoman]

Looks nice, seems to print nice aswell.

[geneb]

Now that's a neat looking hot end.

JOHN! *ANODIZE*!

g.

[Dale]

I got this picture in an email from my brother in law, he said that part took about 8 hours to print and sucked up about 1/4 - 1/3 of the filament reel, I got to go pick up my filament before he use it all.

[Nylocke]

It appears to have a longer nozzle, steeper angle, which in my experience has lead to better surface finishes, though if taken too extreme (Merlin hotend extreme) that can be a bad thing. Looks like the kind of surface finish I got out of my Picos. If only they didn't have all sorts of other problems...