E3D V4 All metal hotend

[lordbinky]

Either way, it should be.

[Nylocke]

We got McSlappy rockin a Finn avatar now too

[milosonator]

My first attempt to remove the filament was a failure. I had my pliers in the freezer as well, to make sure the nozzle didn't heat up too quickly. Unfortunately when I twisted, the filament twisted too and it broke off at the end of the nozzle. There was no more filament to grab, so I reset the procedure. Right now I have another piece of PLA in the nozzle and this time I put the freezer to the max! Hopefully in a few hours it will pop right out.

[mhackney]

I haven't done this with 3mm filament. You could coat take the nozzle off, cut a 4" section of filament. Coat the tip of it with mineral oil or vaseline - sparingly, then hold the nozzle in pliers and heat with a lighter or candle, pushing the filament through. As soon as a little comes out the tip, remove the heat and chill.

[milosonator]

I haven't done this with 3mm filament. You could coat take the nozzle off, cut a 4" section of filament. Coat the tip of it with mineral oil or vaseline - sparingly, then hold the nozzle in pliers and heat with a lighter or candle, pushing the filament through. As soon as a little comes out the tip, remove the heat and chill.

Thanks for the suggestion, I thought since there is much more volume of potientially shrunk PLA compared to surface area that It would be even easier. In a few hours, we will know. If that doesn't work, ill try your suggestion.

Update:

I've failed at another freeze test, the filament is just not strong enough to overcome the friction of being stuck to the nozzle. However, after some attempts, the vaseline method did pay off. But due to the warmth of the nozzle, the measured length of the bore cannot be realiable! But since that is all I have to work with I did some measurements, and established that is pretty much 2mm.

Then I grabbed a 2mm drill bit and tried to dig down another 1 mm into the nozzle, reducing the bore to about half its original size. After trying to do this, i've re-measured using the vaseline method. The tip of removed PLA probably strechted a bit, BUT: I quite accuratly removed 1mm of the bore. You can see the beatifull 2-staged rocket that is my rocket now.

Two-staged rocket, looks very smooth

Now it's time for some static extrusion tests, but moving the filament by hand already _seemed_ to be easier after the initial flow.

Comparison of the before and after inner nozzle inprint

Update 2:
Statically extruding material went very well, too say the least. At 180 degrees, at 40 mm/min (filament) speed, long hauls of filament extrude without hickups, as it should!

Illustration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blnxfb0Izxw

[McSlappy]

Don't trust the Ice King, Finn - you know his plans are no good! And Icy!

I found that shortening the bore of my nozzle did improve ooze quite noticeably but I still fail on PLA prints. Interestingly it seems that the faster I go, the more likely the print will succeed still testing this, but I actually managed a 6 hour PLA print which ran at 80mm/s when I couldn't pull off a 30 minute print before.

Still testing, so don't hold me to that just yet.

[McSlappy]

We got McSlappy rockin a Finn avatar now too

I'm glad we got another hero, I was worried about fighting the Ice King alone.

[milosonator]

Don't trust the Ice King, Finn - you know his plans are no good! And Icy!

I found that shortening the bore of my nozzle did improve ooze quite noticeably but I still fail on PLA prints. Interestingly it seems that the faster I go, the more likely the print will succeed still testing this, but I actually managed a 6 hour PLA print which ran at 80mm/s when I couldn't pull off a 30 minute print before.

Still testing, so don't hold me to that just yet.

Do you print with 3mm or 1.75mm filament?

Ill try to print later and then we will see if it worked.

Update:
First print out looks great. No jams, all looking good. More prints will determine if this was a permanent solution for my problems, but at this point it looks very promising. Need to tune my minimum layer time though.

Calibration piece after nozzle modification.

Update 2:
aaaaaand it starved again.. any more tips?

[bubbasnow]

looks like v6 is coming out soon? website has countdown and filastruder has a sale on v5

[McSlappy]

Is now a good time to perhaps again suggest a sub forum for hot-ends or something. This thread is for the V4 e3d and the V6 is about to launch :/

Anyway...

Speed seemed to help, but I've also been experimenting with oil to lubricate the hot-end. It's been done before with Kinder Surprise eggs and foam and whatnot... It was even suggested to me about 40 pages back, but I've avoided it because it felt like a band-aid rather than a solution.
For a band-aid it's working pretty well... I'll be printing a multi-hour PLA print today with a couple of drops of oil every 30 mins for a full blown test today. If I can print PLA with this mod, I'll be happy until the V6 arrives

I'll update later today (3am for most of you)

Perhaps Princess Bubblegum has a solution...

[bvandiepenbos]

Brian, what sorts of issues do you have? I know that a few of us had progressed along a debugging curve - polishing the SS barrel, making sure the PTC did not snag, too aggressive gripping of the extruder cog raising burs on the filament, and debarring the entry into the SS tubing. You should be able to easily push the PLA by hand at temperature. If not, move the filament up and down by hand and find where the friction is.

Michael,
5-10 minutes into print it starts to under extrude then quickly jams. I have done all the things you suggested, other than polishing the bore.
I can push it by hand easily. The shorter orifice length does reduce back pressure.
I may have to print PLA with my J-Head, it never has any problem.
And just use the E3D for ABS

[mhackney]

You situation is very odd and so far the only one that the short bore did not help. Are there a lot of retracts in this print?

[McSlappy]

... and myself. Almost identical results.

I can feel a difference with the backpressure as a result of the shorter nozzle bore. My retracts now sit happily at 1.8mm with no ooze which is a much less than before. I can definitely see an improvement on that front.

My problem seems to occur 20-40mins after print start - or right away if I've just stopped a print. As though something were building pressure or heat and causing a jam.

I have theorized that perhaps the filament retracts were cumulatively transferring heat upwards into the heat sink and then once it reached the right temp (60 degree GTZ?) it would jam.
It could also be the backpressure still causing an issue, but I've dropped the bore length down to .5mm, which was as far as I felt safe drilling.

This led to experimenting with increasing the print speed and I seemed to have better results with that, but not perfect.

I mentioned before that I've also been trying oil as a nozzle lubricant - and was even about to launch a 6 hour print to test it fully... Then I had a zeroing problem that I'm sorting out

So not only am I one of the guys who had trouble printing PLA from the e3d, I'm also one of 2 who is having troubles after the kickass fix. bvandiepenbos I feel your pain. By the way, what filament are you using?

Hopefully I'll sort the zeroing today and test the oil fix

Maybe the e3d has trouble printing upside down?

[McSlappy]

Fixed my zeroing issue, now back to testing PLA again... only 15 hours left for the print :/

[milosonator]

Another jam, printing at 210 degrees (10mm/s) constant extrusion, no retracts.

This is what it looks like when i retract the filament from the hotend.

picture of the removed filament

[McSlappy]

That looks identical to all the filament I've pulled out - that little step there....

Anyway, I woke up to a perfect 15hour PLA print, using the PLA which was most problematic. Using oil (I had some old sesame cooking oil which worked fine and smells dandy) every now and then.
It's not what I would call a 'fix' since it feels like a bandaid (as I've said). But at this point, I'm just happy to be able to print PLA beautifully.

How much oil?
I started it in the afternoon, and was putting a single drop (by dipping a skewer in the bottle and allowing a drop to form on the end of the skewer) on the filament as it went into the extruder. About every 30 minutes (it was running at 55mm/s). As it got late I went to bed, I left a few drops on the roll (on the parts that I knew would feed off) and it ran for a further 6 hours alone.

I would say it's a medium difficulty print, there are a decent amount of retracts (1.8mm at 15mm/s). Though judging by how effortlessly it printed this, I wouldn't be afraid to try a more stressful model at slower speed.

Anyway. There you go

[Flateric]

I honestly cannot explain why I have and continue to have zero issues.

I'll try measuring bore tomorrow.

[McSlappy]

Flateric, don't complain about good fortune!

[Flateric]

I would really like to know why however, so that I can spread the goodness around.

[McSlappy]

You kind Canadians and your helping people all the time.

I'd like to know too, but mainly so I can print without oil

[Polygonhell]

I would really like to know why however, so that I can spread the goodness around.

I honestly think,it was just manufacturing variance.
I have a V4 and 2 V5's and only one of them has ever printed PLA reliably, and you'd think that one was a different hotend.
I think the issue is a combination of nozzle length and the quality of the finish on the inside of the stainless piece, if you get unlucky your stuck with polishing the thermal break and shortening the nozzle, if your lucky you think they are an amazing Hotend.
Hopefully the V6 is more comsistent.

[Eaglezsoar]

I would really like to know why however, so that I can spread the goodness around.

I honestly think,it was just manufacturing variance.
I have a V4 and 2 V5's and only one of them has ever printed PLA reliably, and you'd think that one was a different hotend.
I think the issue is a combination of nozzle length and the quality of the finish on the inside of the stainless piece, if you get unlucky your stuck with polishing the thermal break and shortening the nozzle, if your lucky you think they are an amazing Hotend.
Hopefully the V6 is more comsistent.

The V6 that I received as a beta test was absolutely consistent. I was shocked that I could not get it to plug.
If the whole V6 series prints as well as the one I received, they will have a true winner on their hands.

[McSlappy]

Eagle, do you sleep?

[Eaglezsoar]

Eagle, do you sleep?

Rarely. Disability + pain = Little Sleep.

[McSlappy]

Oh, sorry to hear that mate at least we get to enjoy your company while you sit in agony :/

I don't suppose Ohio is a 'green' state yet is it?