Ender 3 pro standard hot-end.

[Pete.]

Has anyone here upgraded the hot-end on their Ender 3 pro? I want to make some mods to mine but without taking the machine out of service, so a spare hot-end would allow me to do that.

Basically I want to set it up with a metal feeder tube to keep the teflon liner from overheating when printing PetG.

 

[pawsnizzy]

Has anyone here upgraded the hot-end on their Ender 3 pro? I want to make some mods to mine but without taking the machine out of service, so a spare hot-end would allow me to do that.

Basically I want to set it up with a metal feeder tube to keep the teflon liner from overheating when printing PetG.

MicroSwiss - never looked back

 

[ajlelectronics]

MicroSwiss - never looked back

Ditto on a V2.

 

[Pete.]

Sooo, presumably there are a couple of unwanted hot-ends knocking around?

 

[pawsnizzy]

Sooo, presumably there are a couple of unwanted hot-ends knocking around?

Trust me, the state of mine, no-one would have wanted it It was skipped

 

[ChrisBailey]

I put a microswiss NG direct drive on my v2.
Its the better version of the microswiss which has geared extruder and loses no Z height.

My ender 3 hotend was leaking and a bit knackered when I swapped it out, so probably wouldnt have lasted that much longer.

Very easy swap and all part of a kit.
£130 from 3djake

 

[m_c]

If your teflon tube is melting at PETG temperatures, you have more serious problems, as the heat should never travel that far up the heatsink.
The hotend cooling fan is functioning correctly?

I'll have a couple original hotends kicking around somewhere, along with the POS that are MicroSwiss all metal hotends, as I upgraded both my printers to E3D Revos.

 

[ChrisBailey]

You can have my hot end if you want. I think the leak os fixable?

 

[MattF]

If your teflon tube is melting at PETG temperatures, you have more serious problems, as the heat should never travel that far up the heatsink.
The hotend cooling fan is functioning correctly?

I'll have a couple original hotends kicking around somewhere, along with the POS that are MicroSwiss all metal hotends, as I upgraded both my printers to E3D Revos.

On a tangent, any opinion on this hotend?

https://amzn.eu/d/8zoN6eX

 

[m_c]

On a tangent, any opinion on this hotend?

https://amzn.eu/d/8zoN6eX

Not personally, but I think they're an OK design.
I've got one of the original Creality Spiders, but I never fitted it as I couldn't find a source for spare nozzles (nobody could confirm what size thread they were at the time), and it's physically longer than the standard hotend and I couldn't be bothered having to adjust everything.

If anybody wants to make me an offer, it's the same as this one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003781064194.html

 

[Pete.]

You can have my hot end if you want. I think the leak os fixable?

Cheers Chris I will swap it for beer tokens. I will send you a msg.

Not personally, but I think they're an OK design.
I've got one of the original Creality Spiders, but I never fitted it as I couldn't find a source for spare nozzles (nobody could confirm what size thread they were at the time), and it's physically longer than the standard hotend and I couldn't be bothered having to adjust everything.

If anybody wants to make me an offer, it's the same as this one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003781064194.html

£20 plus post?

I don't want to spend a whole lot since I'm reasonably happy with the printer as-is. I did a bit of research after buying some petg and a coupe of places said that there might be trouble with the bowden tube melting, although Creality seem to say it should be OK.

 

[ukracer]

If your teflon tube is melting at PETG temperatures, you have more serious problems, as the heat should never travel that far up the heatsink.
The hotend cooling fan is functioning correctly?

I'll have a couple original hotends kicking around somewhere, along with the POS that are MicroSwiss all metal hotends, as I upgraded both my printers to E3D Revos.

So you don't rate the microswiss ones then?

 

[indy4x]

E3D Revo

 

[m_c]

Cheers Chris I will swap it for beer tokens. I will send you a msg.


£20 plus post?

I don't want to spend a whole lot since I'm reasonably happy with the printer as-is. I did a bit of research after buying some petg and a coupe of places said that there might be trouble with the bowden tube melting, although Creality seem to say it should be OK.

How about make it a nice round £30 all in, and I'll chuck in the melted mess of MicroSwiss junk that's still sat on my desk.

 

[Pete.]

How about make it a nice round £30 all in, and I'll chuck in the melted mess of MicroSwiss junk that's still sat on my desk.
View attachment 375767 View attachment 375768

Deal, send me yuour paypal details please.

 

[m_c]

So you don't rate the microswiss ones then?

I like their Direct Drive extruders, although I prefer the original direct drive version, but this is how I find their hotend ends up after a few hours of running -

It relies on a solitary M3 (possibly even M2.5) grubscrew to retain the heatbreak into the heat sink, so as well as the usual slackening due to thermal cycles, in order to change nozzles and tighten things back up, you have to remove the shroud and physically hold the heatbreak as that grubscrew isn't stopping anything from turning in the heatsink.
You also need to very regularly check the heatbreak is still tight into the hotend, otherwise you get that black molten mess creeping out and down the hotend, and eventually dragged into prints.

Creality hold that lot together with two screws, so the whole lot can't slacken off when changing nozzles.


I put MicroSwiss in the same pigeonhole as GeckoDrive, whereby they do do some stuff well, but some stuff is below average, but they get the whole "it's made in the US, so it's got to be better than Chinese" following, so you're never sure what is actually good, and what is just overhyped mediocracy.

The E3D Revo solves the issue completely, but it's an expensive system, and there is the ongoing coated nozzle saga where their release has been pushed back yet again due to a manufacturing flaw after eventually taking pre-orders following months of production issue solving.

 

[MattF]

On a tangent, any opinion on this hotend?

https://amzn.eu/d/8zoN6eX

Well, I went ahead & ordered one. Should be here at the weekend.

Haven't used the printer since the last time it threw a fit & squirted plastic out around the nozzle, so as faff with cleaning all that up, it's just getting a replacement hotend now.

Whilst I'm at it, it'll be a good opportunity to fit that CR-touch unit too.

 

[ukracer]

Well, I went ahead & ordered one. Should be here at the weekend.

Haven't used the printer since the last time it threw a fit & squirted plastic out around the nozzle, so as faff with cleaning all that up, it's just getting a replacement hotend now.

Whilst I'm at it, it'll be a good opportunity to fit that CR-touch unit too.

I have done that before and regretted it.

If anything is not right you are not sure what's causing the problem.

I now fit one upgrade at a time. Lol

 

[Pete.]

Only leak I had was my own fault. I didn't tighten the new nozzle properly and the filament oozed through the threads, insulating the nozzle from the hot-end and causing a blockage. Had to remove the hot end, pull the heat break tube and nozzle out, run a M6 tap through the hot end and wire wheel the nozzle and heat break to clean the threads for good thermal contact then re-install them (properly tightened this time). It all worked great afterwards but I won't do that again...

 

[Screwdriver]

Have you seen the mod I made to my Ender hotend? Just a little 13mm length of teflon which stops the Bowden tube from getting loose?

Linky: #16