Answered Hotend Leaking [Dirty Prints - Blemishes]

ohhhh ok cool man. I'm doing a test print right now, I'll let it run for a couple hours and examine later.

Please tell me if you know, regarding the kapton tape why is the heat block wrapped in it in the first place. Is it just to secure the wiring or does it serve any other purpose? I'm doing the test print without the tape so that I can observe any leaks, I just want to ensure I'm not introducing other problems by having the tape absent.

 

Considering it was threaded to what I'd say is "hand tight", perhaps me tightening it might help.. what do you think? I say "hand tight" because it was 210 degrees so I used pliers but like I said it was not snug at all.

 

So if I were to remove it, what is it that I would be looking to verify. Like what does removing it help me see? Do you perhaps have a link to a tutorial in mind that would explain all of this?

 

btw I'm trying to find a diagram showing the anatomy of this particular unit. If you know where that is I would appreciate it.

 

I got the leaking problem, too. I feel like somehow the hot end came loose -- the part that attaches to the heater block seemed to be leaking.

Also, mine is now screwed (er... unscrewed?) because when I separated the hotend into two segments -- the heating block and the cold end -- I was no longer able to screw the cold end into the heating mount/block; it just galled/stripped the soft aluminum threads, so now it's no longer tight.

I think my only solution may be to order a new hotend.. worst part is, the best source for this (Printed Solid) appears to be out of stock

 

That sucks. I've tightened mine and now I'm doing a long print with a different colour, hopefully I don't see it leak out.

 

Thanks

 

OK so tightening it didn't help after all since I've figured out how to expose the issue. So I guess I over tightened it for nothing probably broke something new. I hope not anyway.

I did a print with the nozzle about .1mm lower than usual (.75mm offset instead of .85mm), It started oozing out the top a bit.

 

It looks like you have a J-head and overheated the PTFE and cracked it and now it's leaking.

 

You know that's a shame to hear because I've never run this above 210C and I knew this was a known issue for the kickstarter 'betas' and was hoping/assumed this issue was addressed post-kickstarter.

So considering that, if I get a new PTFE tube, wont this just happen all over again? I'm curious why stick with this design when it just not a good design.

 

It's better for PLA than an all metal hot end. You might have also cracked the PEEK from over tightening it. Disassemble it and see what's going on inside. Replacing the PTFE is a good option if you have some available. It shouldn't happen unless it's over tightened.

 

at the risk of sounding negative this is kind of b.s. Not really any point paying a premium for a pre-assembled printer when you have to take it apart and fix it yourself anyway. I expected to have to deal with tweaking and calibration but having to replace known sketchy parts annoys me. So to date I'll have had to replace the bed, replace the hot end, drill out and replace improperly threaded screws, replace SD card reader, reinstall calibration probes. Arg, I'm just annoyed, no explanation or justification needed, I won't accept it anyway.

Thanks for your input guys. I suppose I'll request a new sleeve and see how far it gets me. I should have waited to buy this printer as it looks like they fixed certain issues shortly after I bought mine.

Don't get me wrong as I have many many hours of successful prints despite these issues. But either I keep requesting and replacing sleeves on an ongoing basis or I fork out a good chuck of change for a better hot end, which is kind of a shit solution. Whats the point in an $800 printer when it's really a $900 printer considering I have to throw away the included hot end and replace it with $100 one. That's rhetorical. I mean, just ship me the kit for $700 without a hotend at that rate and make me pick and install one myself.

 

This issue was happening before I even touched it so if it was due to over tightening that's from factory. But thanks for the extra information either way.

 

p.s. if you can't tell it's angry rant monday.

 

the hex one is all metal? or whats the main difference?