Hot end fix or replace?
Yaacov Finkelman
Hi,
I have a well loved hand-me-down mendel, from Daniel Grauwickel. Many upgrades have been made, and much time and love have been invested in it.
Today the hot end stopped. The hot end has not gotten upgrades so it was time to take it apart and see what I can do. All apart and the problem is clear.
See pic. http://forums.reprap.org/addon.php?14,module=embed_images,file_id=20986
The beige tube is clogged with pla. I try to clean it with acetone. No luck. I try to drill it out, but I make a mess of the teflon inside. So...
What is this beige tube caled?
What is this set up for the hot end called?
Do you think I should replace the beige tube or should I upgrade the set up? If upgrade what setup do you recomend that can reuse the hot end itself?
Thanks!
kwixson
That beige part is called the insulator by the way, and is generally made from PEEK so you'll sometimes see references to that.
Take a pic or two of your extruder and x-axis carriage so we know what you have and can say what you can replace it with.
If I had to guess I'd say you're probably not set up for a regular groove mount, and you may vet we'll want to switch over to a Greg Frost extruder and use one of the groove mount hot ends out there.
J-Head hot ends are pretty popular right now. I can't speak from experience but I've heard people speak highly of them.
FYI, what likely happened with your current extruder may have been a result if the top end of the melt zone getting too hot. What was your ten set to and what kind of cooling were you using?
B Gray
If your nozzle and barrel etc is still good you can get a makergear peek ptfe insulator for like 20 bucks. This will be a groove mount. You might have some issue with the length of the barrel as all the new hot ends have a shorter barrel. But a cheap solution to get extruding again.
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Yaacov Finkelman
Gray, thanks for the recommendation. I will look into that.
Kevin, I attached a pick of the printer. Hot end removed for original
pic. It has a Greg's Hinged style extruder which works well and was
recently converted to use a Bowden tube. I have pin printing at 195c
with pla, the only cooling is the big metal plate it was attached
original pic.
This insulator seems to be a component that has been reperpest. I am
still hoping someone will recognize it and I can just replace it
exactly. I attached more detailed pics of it.
Thank you all
B Gray
I have that exact insulator. It was a prototype brian Reifsnyder sent me years ago to test on my cupcake. The makergear insulator I mentioned will work for you
Daniel Grauwickel
I would upgrade.. If that's the original I bought it on eBay many years ago and most likely is discontinued. I recommend maker gear as well..
B Gray
As well side note those parts look like they were purchased off me in 2010 or 11. I had one set that was clear pla and I had switched to green to finish it off.
B Gray
If for some reason you need this exact one I have one I never used as a backup because my first one never died and is still on my cupcake
Yaacov Finkelman
It is the original from when you sold it to me.
Thank you both for the advice!
You should both be proud of the work you ech did on it. It is still
kicking and being awesome!
kwixson
Whatever you use you will want to add active cooling on the insulator when you are printing PLA or you're going to have the same thing happen again sometime. Having a fan blow directly on the insulator is essential for PLA. You might also want to experiment with lower temps.