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Hotend help

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016.

  1. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    So both of my hexagon hotends are acting up, clogging/leaking. I know it's overkill but I'm just going to order new hotend assemblies because I don't have time to guess what's going on and have more failed prints. Anyways, should I just go back with the hexagon? Hexagon AO? E3d? What would you guys do? I read up on installing an e3d but not sure if it's worth it. 3dmakerworld is only 3hrs away so I plan to order from them so I can have everything running by the weekend. Cost isn't a factor I just need them reliable asap. I may order 2 hexagons and an e3d lite6 to play with.

    Thanks



    OK scratch the e3d6 lite idea. May just get the full metal one.
     
    #1 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2016
  2. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    I'm wondering if my problem are the spools I'm using. I've measured them 1.87+ in some spots. Guess I'll try another spool.
     
    #2 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    1.87 mm is way oversized and might cause jamming in a Hexagon hot end. That is 10% over nominal, most of the better filaments advertise +/- 0.05 mm. Ask the vendor to replace the spools if they are that far off.
     
    #3 WheresWaldo, Feb 3, 2016
  4. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    ok. I'll check a couple new spool sizes and get back with Intservo. I'm going to order 1 Hex and one E3D and maybe the volcano upgrade.

    Thanks!
     
    #4 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
  5. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    Well just ordered $200 in hardware I probably don't even need. Hopefully I can get something working tho! If not I have spare hotend and nozzles. Thanks again.
     
    #5 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Spares are good.
     
    #6 mark tomlinson, Feb 3, 2016
  7. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Just to clarify my previous post. The Hexagon hotend has one of the smallest diameter heatbreaks on the market. Even E3D-Online only recommends using filament that is 1.70 - 1.80 mm for their hotends and theirs is 2.0 mm diameter (Hexagon is only 1.8 mm if memory serves).
     
    #7 WheresWaldo, Feb 3, 2016
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  8. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    Yeah i should have had spares by now anyways. Cool, i ordered one hex, one E3D v6, and the "eruption pack" to start playing around with larger nozzle sizes.
     
    #8 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I like the volcano. You can really print some models a lot faster.
     
    #9 mark tomlinson, Feb 3, 2016
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  10. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    sweet, good to hear! it was an impulse purchase. i think it will help out a ton on the bigger stuff i print.
     
    #10 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
  11. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    one more question, do you guys use any cleaning filament?
     
    #11 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I have tried a sample, but I have not needed it.
    I have some (a lot actually) spools of nylon and that works fine for cleaning if you need it.
     
    #12 mark tomlinson, Feb 3, 2016
  13. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    ok thanks. i won't bother with any. i was emailing intservo about some filament issues and he mentioned running cleaning filament through.
     
    #13 Nathanfish, Feb 3, 2016
  14. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It can't hurt, but I have never had any problem with filament stuck in the nozzle (not since the oiler anyway).
    When I did play with the cleaning filament sample it just seemed like nylon would have worked as well (OK, so the cleaning filament may not actually BE nylon, but it seemed similar).
     
    #14 mark tomlinson, Feb 3, 2016
  15. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Cleaning filament, at least from eSUN is PVA, so it completely melts and does actually work. The E3D guys suggest using cleaning filament, they also suggest using what is called the atomic pull method of cleaning a hot end. Believe me when I say that cleaning filament is easier than the atomic pull.
     
    #15 WheresWaldo, Feb 3, 2016
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  16. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I use the sun cleaning filament about once a week or if I change from or to exotics. I got a bunch of burnt junk out of my nozzle once but havnt since so I keep using :)
     
    #16 Geof, Feb 5, 2016
  17. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    Well i spent all day yesterday putting my printer back together with my new aluminum middle plate, 10mm Rods and bearings, and the E3Dv6 with the volcano block and the 1mm nozzle. This thing rocks now, perfect for what i need. Pretty much cut my print time in half without a whole lot of tweaking yet. The only problem i was having was it not printing at 100% infill very well but i think i fixed that.

    Come to find out my problem all along was over sized filament. 3 rolls of eSun PETG were over 1.8mm and that's what was giving my Hex all the problems just like you guys said. It has all ran fine through the E3D so far. He offered to refund me the rolls but i finally got both my printers reliable because of it so i'll just hope there's no more issues. He did refund me for a spool of PLA+ that they had a recall on because the color was wrong and said they were working on their manufacturing process to increase quality by the summer. So that's good to know if anyone buys eSun.

    I'll probably update my other thread as well on the aluminum plate and stl files.
     

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    #17 Nathanfish, Feb 7, 2016
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