Hexagon Hot End?

I've installed my Hexagon with great success. I must say, it's a great design, especially being able to be used for direct or Bowden extrusion by way of the removable grommet at the cold end. The silicon sleeve has solved my temperature fluctuation issues completely, though I haven't been able to test with a ducted print cooling fan design yet. Wiring and installation was easy. You need to print just the fan bracket from the following thingi link to mount the print cooling fan before removing your existing hotend.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:226998

 

That is a huge fan for the cold end radiator...

 

That's the 40mm fan that came with it. The photo probably makes it look bigger than it is. I want to duct it and use the same mounting position so I guess I'll be designing that soon unless someone's already done one.

 

My experiences with the hexagon haven't been all that great so far. After about 1kg of filament I got a blockage, a pretty bad one that nothing can unblock the nozzle. Reprapdiscount (and everywhere else) are out of stock of the 1.75mm 0.40mm nozzles so I ordered one from a local suppler.

Problem is, the new nozzle threaded part height is just 1mm shorter than the original nozzle. This doesn't allow the top part with the cooling fins to meet with the top of the nozzle even when fully tightened and allows filament to ooze out. I have tightened both when heated to 270 as much as physically possible and tried again with the same issue.

If only the aluminium heater block was not as thick or the cooling fin thread was a little longer I probably wouldn't have any issues. But it seems its been designed only to take the original nozzles and to that exact size and spec.

Here's a photo of what my hotend now looks like:





I'd probably still buy another hexagon or at the least a nozzle to get this one working again but how long do I have to wait till they are back in stock ?

Anyone got any tips to maybe try and fix this and prevent any gaps ?

 

I've tried a blowtorch, heat gun, boiling it and a acetone bath for 48hrs but whatever is clogging it is staying there

Thanks for the PM about nozzles, but I'd prefer to keep working with a 0.40mm nozzle

 

Have you tried pushing a fine pin/needle through the nozzle exit to try push the blockage back out.

 

I haven't been able to find anything that thin around the house. Also I did read some people saying not todo that becuase in almost all cases it will make the hole larger, I guess I got nothing to loose if I can just find something suitable to jam in there.

 

Guitar string is what I hear works well. E chord I think but that changes with nozzle size I guess.

 

Turns out that a resistor leg is 0.35mm which I was able to use and was able to unblock the nozzle. Unfortunately after about 5 mins of printing it has clogged again.

 

Awesome and bummer. I'm upgrading my hobbed bolt which I received today then will be doing a lot more printing with the hexagon. Hopefully I don't have the clog hinging issues you're having. Afaik 1d1 has had a lot of success with the hexagon.

 

More than likely my clog issue is not the hexagons fault but rather mine for using cheap filament. I just wish I could have used other nozzles with it.

When my hexagon was working, it was working great.

 

The Ultimaker 2 trick is to do this:

Heat the hot end up. Normal ABS temp (if you're using ABS). Push a wire into the nozzle. Cool down to a much cooler temp like 190 or so. Pull the filament back out, pulling the wire through the nozzle backwards.

The wire acts as a structural element to allow the filament and blockage come out as a single piece.

 

You might also want to check the length of the .4mm nozzle bore.
E3D's were having similar issues when the bore length was > 1mm from tip to the beginning of restriction.
Boring it down to 1mm or less seem to have fixed the issue for most.

 

For some reason the pictures you posted are not visible, can you post again please.

The hexagon nozzles are designed for the hexagon hotend, some reseller should have 0.4 on stock, in case not, we will have ready 0.4 nozzles after 2-3 days anyway.

 

Here's a little thing I've been working on.

 

Mike, very nice. What about using the aluminum mounting plate that comes with the hexagon? I'm looking forward to seeing the render with attached cooling. I have so many upgrades to do, does it ever end lol?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

The aluminum mounting plate has some drawbacks. It's 25mm width (above is 20) and has no way to secure down the hot end to prevent it from rotating. I also have slots in the j-head holder for aligning a spring.