E3D V4 All metal hotend

[SanjayM]

Eaglezsoar
Thanks for the kind words, and I am glad you can get up and running!

Cpunches
Just tracked back though your order, it's a bit of an odd situation.

You will see now on the website that we sell the "Normal version" and the "Bowden version" - The bowden version is drilled and tapped at the top where the filament enters in order to accept a male threaded push-fit coupler. No printed parts involved.

However in the twilight period where you placed your order we were selling the bowden upgrade as a separate "product" on the website - when people ordered the hotend plus the bowden upgrade we would drill + tap the hotend and send them out the bowden tube and couplers. So you have a hotend without threads, but on the way is a bowden attachement that is designed to screw into a threaded hole.

Your options are:
Print a coupling part - this one is nice and is known to work: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:60539
Drill and tap the top of the hotend - you need to drill out the top of the hotend with a 8.5mm diameter drill bit to a depth of around 7mm and tap to bottom with a 1/8th BSPP tap. You sound like someone who is comfortable with cutting threads!
Opt for a refund/replacement - really this whole separately purchasable part thing was a silly idea from the get go on our part, just get in contact via email and we can make things right.

All others with shipping date enquiries
I'm afraid I don't do any of the shipping etc of parts, pretty much purely engineering boff here! And it's not really the right place for me to be going over individual order details in a public forum. However! if you just ping an email to David (At e3d-online.com) who manages all the shipping he will be able to give you a proper update on things.

We are absolutely looking to be able to give more detail shipping info as soon as we can. In about 2-3 weeks we expect to be shipping with no more than a 48hrs turnaround on everything and totally get rid of this whole preorders nonsense.

Have the water-cooled triple-nozzled bowden fed handmade prototype on my desk. Hope to have beta units for sale in the next 4-6 weeks - exciting times.

Cheers,
Sanjay

[kbob]

A triple!

The RAMBo only supports two extruders, AFAIK. Is there an off the shelf controller board that supports three?

[cambo3d]

i believe the azteeg x3 does. acutally it supports up to 4 hotends http://www.panucatt.com/Azteeg_X3_repra ... ax33dp.htm

[Polygonhell]

Still requires external stepper drivers for additional extruders.
On RAMBO the fan outputs are identical to the hotend outputs and there are sufficient thermistor inputs for 4 hotends, you'd need to change the default fuse though.
It should be relatively easy to add additional stepper drivers to RAMBO from one of the aux sockets, whether or not any firmware would support them is another question.

[cpunches]

Sanjay

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I'll send you a PM here, no need for me to hijack this thread to discuss my options

Cpunches
Just tracked back though your order, it's a bit of an odd situation.

You will see now on the website that we sell the "Normal version" and the "Bowden version" - The bowden version is drilled and tapped at the top where the filament enters in order to accept a male threaded push-fit coupler. No printed parts involved.

However in the twilight period where you placed your order we were selling the bowden upgrade as a separate "product" on the website - when people ordered the hotend plus the bowden upgrade we would drill + tap the hotend and send them out the bowden tube and couplers. So you have a hotend without threads, but on the way is a bowden attachement that is designed to screw into a threaded hole.

Your options are:
Print a coupling part - this one is nice and is known to work: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:60539
Drill and tap the top of the hotend - you need to drill out the top of the hotend with a 8.5mm diameter drill bit to a depth of around 7mm and tap to bottom with a 1/8th BSPP tap. You sound like someone who is comfortable with cutting threads!
Opt for a refund/replacement - really this whole separately purchasable part thing was a silly idea from the get go on our part, just get in contact via email and we can make things right.

Cheers,
Sanjay

[SanjayM]

I reckon i'm going to go for a RepRapDiscount Rumba board, that has native 3 extruder support. And a tonne of awesome features. It's basically everything you could ever want in a board, eveything broken out, tonnes of fets, temp inputs, etc etc. Really nice. Have dealt with RRD before and they make good stuff.

http://www.reprapdiscount.com/electroni ... board.html

Exciting times.

[Flateric]

That does look like a real nice solution. Might have to just order up one to try it.

[SanjayM]

Hi All,

Just a quick one as we are working way into the night shipping stuff.

To everyone that has a pending order with us:

Everything is shipping!

All orders made before June 11th have shipped. Everything else is shipping over the weekend, possibly Monday for some of the very recent orders.

Everyone is receiving the most up-to date hotend, which is effectively the v5 now. Many performance and ease of use tweaks have been done, but the fundamentals such as mounting dimensions, overall length etc (the things that matter for making it fit your machine) have remained identical. You will just be receiving a hotend that is lighter in weight, and has a somewhat improved thermal performance.

We hope to move to a permanent state of "shipping within 1-2 days of purchase" by the end of the week.

Concerning water cooled and multi-nozzle hotends

Because there seems to be a bit of speculation/confusion surrounding this I am going to let the cat out of the bag.

We have on the way a small prototype run of a 4 nozzled, water cooled, bowden fed hotends.

We are calling this new hotend "Kraken" - A multi tentacled water borne monster!

The total footprint of the hotend is only 30*40mm in XY plane, the Z height from top to tip is under 40mm, and the 4 nozzles are arranged in a rectangle only 20mm*18mm apart. The weight without electronics looks to be around 110 grams, which is barely the weight of 2x E3Dv5 hotends. Each nozzle to have separate temperature control. Each nozzle can be individually levelled and adjusted in height to be planar with the bed in a very easy and quick way.

The small size and weight despite 4 nozzles is due mainly to the high efficiency of water cooling, even with only a tiny amount of water flow and a small cooling channel we still have a massive excess of cooling capacity. The second reason is a new way of mounting/gripping bowden tubes which has all the convenience and grip of pneumatic push-fit couplers, but with significantly less bulk and weight.

We intend to keep the price reasonable, and below the price for buying the equivalent number of E3Dv5.

But to be clear - Kraken is not a replacement for the normal v5 hotend, which will remain our main product that suits most users. The Kraken is designed purely for multi-nozzle bowden feed applications. Futhermore it is not finished! We will be shipping the majority of our beta prototyping run to trusted testers. I expect problems to occur and tweaks to be necessary. I will start a separate thread once things are ready, and the final version of Kraken will be developed in a public/interactive manner so the community can input what it wants/needs so that we can give you guys what you want.

Kraken will be open-source when sold publicly.

Cheers,
Sanjay

[Generic Default]

Is the hotend that comes with the bowden tube and push fit connectors mandatory for the Rostock? I'm going to buy one of these in the next day or two and I want to know if the bowden push fit connectors are the same type that the Rostock max bowden cable attaches to.

I'd really prefer not to pay the extra 16£ for a tube and two connectors, and I'm wondering if I can use the parts that came with the Rostock to get the filament into the E3D hotend. How did you guys with working E3ds get your bowden cable connected securely to the hotend?

[Broose]

How did you guys with working E3ds get your bowden cable connected securely to the hotend?

We use something like this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:57889

[Eaglezsoar]

I went to the E3D site to download a copy of the assembly pdf. Imagine my surprise when I tried to download it up pops a window to login to Facebook. There was also a button that says Skip Login. I cleverly pushed the button to skip login and up pops another window from Scribd that says: To download this document you must become a Premium Reader. Requesting money to download an assembly pdf, that is an insult to all who have purchased your Hotends.

Sanjay, you produce a good product but the support clearly needs some work. I should not have to login to anything just to download support materials.
I am not a member of Facebook or Twitter and I never will be a member.

I should not have to pay money to get a copy of the assembly manual.

I have purchased two of your hotends but with this kind of support I may look elsewhere for any future Hotends.

I also would like to know what is the difference between version 4.1 and version 5. I do not see any reference to version 5 in the "downloads" area.

[Eaglezsoar]

How did you guys with working E3ds get your bowden cable connected securely to the hotend?

We use something like this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:57889

Cambo3d makes an aluminum version of the above thing and you can find it by going to Seeme's List on the forum.

[SanjayM]

Eaglezsoar
Seems scribd may have changed the way they deal with downlaods etc. Paying for an instruction manual is obviously a stupid concept and not our intention. We are not getting money off this in any way, it's just the way scribd have things set up now.

Will get an alternative download link sorted as soon as possible - in the meantime you can of course still read the manual on the scribd link as before.

I am in the process of sorting out the whole documentation/downloads/support situation on the site, as it's not as clear as I want it to be right now, and needs to include v5 info. But this has to come after physically shipping stuff to people who have paid for and are owed items.

Just to be clear - it's not our intention to withold/monetise documentation or information, that would be entirely counter to our whole philosophy as a company. It's simply a matter of there being a limited number of hours in the day, a huge level of demand, and that we are a small company adjusting to truly massive growth in a short timeframe.

Hope that sets things straight, and if you have any other comments do just let me know.

[Eaglezsoar]

Eaglezsoar
Seems scribd may have changed the way they deal with downlaods etc. Paying for an instruction manual is obviously a stupid concept and not our intention. We are not getting money off this in any way, it's just the way scribd have things set up now.

Will get an alternative download link sorted as soon as possible - in the meantime you can of course still read the manual on the scribd link as before.

I am in the process of sorting out the whole documentation/downloads/support situation on the site, as it's not as clear as I want it to be right now, and needs to include v5 info. But this has to come after physically shipping stuff to people who have paid for and are owed items.

Just to be clear - it's not our intention to withold/monetise documentation or information, that would be entirely counter to our whole philosophy as a company. It's simply a matter of there being a limited number of hours in the day, a huge level of demand, and that we are a small company adjusting to truly massive growth in a short timeframe.

Hope that sets things straight, and if you have any other comments do just let me know.

The fact that you responded at all tells me all I need to know about your Company. Taking time out to answer my comments shows that you care more than anyone else that I
have ever dealt with. 99% of Companies that I have dealt with would not have taken the time to comment, that places you and your Company in a top position for me. I know
that you and others are working your butts off trying to deal with all the orders you have received and that is an enviable place to be, it shows that you are succeeding and will
continue to succeed. As far as the downloads are concerned, I wanted to make you aware of the problem and now I know that it will be fixed. In summation you are great at how
you take care of your customers and your efforts ARE appreciated. I am looking forward to seeing the version 5 info and I will most likely order two of that version as I have done
with version 4. I have no interest in the multi-headed water cooled options but I sure am interested in the single versions. Thanks for responding and may the success of your
Company bring success into your personal life. A person with your beliefs is rare and you deserve to personally share in the success. Please do not respond to this message you
have done what needed done to satisfy me. Thanks!

[Generic Default]

I know this might be slightly off topic, but Sanjay was talking about the water cooled multi-extruder earlier. Would it be possible to use ferrofluids to cool the hotend? Ferrofluids don't need a pump because they naturally flow to remove heat. Maybe it's out of the question, but just consider it.

[Flateric]

But correct me if I am wrong here but ferrofluids are prohibitively expensive. Also the heat still needs to then be removed from the ferrofluid and the fluid itself is also fairly weighty (heavy) so to include a support system to remove the heat before the fluid could be recycled, further adding more weight to the effector would be counter productive. Especially since we all in the delta world are, or really should be trying to make the entire effector and it cargo as lightweight as reasonably possible.

[Flateric]

Well I feel the heat issues with the E3D hotend have been greatly reduced and addressed by E3D relating to PLA.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/CvFIh9N.jpg[/img]

The heat range before jamming is not as large as a jhead for instance, but it is no longer razor sharp, meaning it used to be a couple degrees high and it was a prob, a couple degrees low and it was a different prob. I find the butter zone for PLA on the E3D to be between 175 and no higher than 200. This is a general overall number and not specific to any type of PLA in particular, which will obviously have specifics. But for me I start at 180 and go from there. I have to have more and stronger reasons for each 5c I go up. Meaning that last 195 to 200 needs a damn good reason because I do not like going that close to a plugged hotend.

So there you go. If these guys can manage to nail down their shipping to reasonable times then they should be shovelling one of these off to nearly everyone in my opinion.

[Batteau62]

Flateric,(and othere3d owners) do you use the OEM thermistor, or the screw in one that is so popular? I'm building mine now. I'm looking for the best temp control like we all do

[cpunches]

Personally I use a screw in thermistor on the E3d and the stock hot-end. I had a terrible time trying to get the ones I used RTV, or kapton tape, to affix to the hotend to stay put. Also it's a lot easier for me to remove them if I want to move the same thermistor to a new hotend.

[Generic Default]

Did anyone else have problems with them shipping it? Sanjay told me he shipped my hotend on July 23rd and that I would get an automated email with the tracking number shortly, but now four days later I still haven't gotten the tracking number and I think he lied to me about shipping it.

EDIT:

Nevermind, he shipped it on the 23rd and the tracking number was just delayed from error. Problem solved, ignore this post.

[cpunches]

I've purchased two E3d hotends as well as some misc. parts. In my experience Sanjay and David have gone out of their way to make sure I (and others) am a satisfied customer. It does take a while to get the items from the UK to the US. I always got a reply from them whenever I had a problem and communicated with them via email as well as this forum and G+.

Did anyone else have problems with them shipping it? Sanjay told me he shipped my hotend on July 23rd and that I would get an automated email with the tracking number shortly, but now four days later I still haven't gotten the tracking number and I think he lied to me about shipping it.

[Flateric]

Personally I use a screw in thermistor on the E3d and the stock hot-end. I had a terrible time trying to get the ones I used RTV, or kapton tape, to affix to the hotend to stay put. Also it's a lot easier for me to remove them if I want to move the same thermistor to a new hotend.

I agree with this as well. However it is possible to easily make your own threaded thermistor. Just use the little brass bit from the back of any spare computer related product you may have kicking around (modems, routers, old video cards, old motherboards, anything with a db9 serial port, vga port, etc)

Either use JBweld and simply weld the thermistor into the female side, or use fire cement, or high temp epoxy. Thread the hole and your set.

And also yes, I would also agree they have been putting in a huge effort and seem to be full 100% committed to customers and service. I think the initial issue were simply a case of "OMG demand is far outstripping our expectations" and being caught in the position of having to play catchup.

I'm going to bet that they are by far the most popular all metal hotend on the market. A very good position to be in, but one that I don't think they fully realized at first they would be in so quickly. This is a real compliment to their product and design and confirmed by the market speaking with it's wallet.

Clearly congratulations guys! But you have to sustain it long term which I have no doubts anymore you will.

[thenewguy]

What are you entering in for the settings on kiss.

Hotend came with a .45 nozzle so enter that in kiss for nozzle size or would .50 work better and what about layer height? .2?

Also the same question for the .25 nozzle which I also purchased. But yet had time to play with.

[Flateric]

Be careful with that .25 nozzle, it is very difficult to dial in correctly especially with PLA of any type. The tip is so small that it easily backs the filament up while allowing it to swell in the hotend and jam. Far far less of an issue with ABS and most other types of filament. I can honestly say I have fed every single type of filament currently on the market through mine.

I'll check the settings for you in the morning. But I am certain my layer height was .2, temp was 190 and print speed was decently high.

[thenewguy]

Be careful with that .25 nozzle, it is very difficult to dial in correctly especially with PLA of any type. The tip is so small that it easily backs the filament up while allowing it to swell in the hotend and jam. Far far less of an issue with ABS and most other types of filament. I can honestly say I have fed every single type of filament currently on the market through mine.

I'll check the settings for you in the morning. But I am certain my layer height was .2, temp was 190 and print speed was decently high.

Working nights also? Haha

I put .45 in for nozzle size and nozzle fill? I think also had .2 for layer height. I got really good prints once I did a few adjustments. I upgraded the extruder, hot end, and arms at the same time. Huge difference. Then using kiss on top of that was sweet.

So I have good prints but was woundering what other people used for settings.

Btw I only use abs for now.