I found heating my ender to 150 with cover removed and wiped off all I could with a paper towel before removing it. Watching ur clean up made me think the hot pre clean helpful for someone. As this a long messy process. Thanks for the pointer like u I'm learning how it all works
Thank you for making this video. I'm new to 3D Printing and the diagram at the start of the video showed me exactly where my problem was, clearly and succinctly. The rest of the video was super informative too, and knowledge I will use a lot, I'm sure. Thank you!
I'm still using an anycubic i3 mega - I just finished the Ai3m hotend rebuild (thingiverse), I recommend it if you're going to a v6. You get a much better part cooling fan. How on earth does everyone destroy these heated beds so badly! I'm 5 years into mine printing pla and petg and its still nice and black and clean on top after multiple sandings :)
Haha, I yanked off the anycubic owl that comes with the printer and left a mark on the build plate after its first ever print. Ill probably upgrade to a magnetic PEI sheet for the build plate in future
@@ThisDesignedThat My ABS prints wouldn't stick, so I made my "special" homemade solution with ABS/acetone. It was too strong and I ripped a part of the black coating off the hotbed.
Wow I have an i3 Mega and I swear, I couldn't find a single video that worked on fixing the hot end of this machine. I still have an issue with the nozzle where I have a metal-metal interface between the nozzle and heat break. The PTFE tube does not go through to the nozzle by design. This makes me wonder what fix exists to prevent filament from oozing out and blobbing above the hot end block.
Honestly i'd swap out the original V5 for the V6 as it has an all metal heatbreak. Better yet, go direct drive with the x carriage and put in a dragonfly or something similar.
@@ThisDesignedThat I have to clean my hot end today 😭😭 filament looks to be squeezing through the threads on the nozzle or something like that lol. I probably didn't clean the hot end enough when I recently switched nozzles. So this video helps give me physical insights into such things. 👍👍🥳🥳
I always heat hot end up to the working temperature right on the printer. Then it is super easy to disassemble whole thing. Just be careful. Don't get burned.
There is something very wrong with your printer. Plastic should never be burning, the plastic should be temperature controlled far below that point. Even the ptfe tube, that is extremely toxic and you need to fix that. I would replace the thermistor and make sure that it is firmly fixed. Maybe try boron nitride the heat break and thermistor into heater block, and pc heatsink compound between the cold end and the heat break. Also, if you were having issues with a melted ptfe tube, you ptfe heatbreak is likely gone bad as well. That should also be replaced.
So, after 3 years of 3d printing never having that issue it finally happened to me. Hopefully it happened to my very upgraded ender 3 with a biqu h2-500 which can reach 500°c no problem. Turns out pla just burns away leaving 0 residue at about 400-450, and I clearly remember somebody just torching the heating Assembly and being fine, has someone seen that? Can I have a link? Some notes about torching the thing: *NEVER EVER HEAT PTFE ABOVE 230°C* if you were to try this MAKE SURE there's absolutely NO PTFE around the torching area. Aluminum melts at around 600°c so if you have an aluminum heat block (which likely means you're using a thermistor) you can do this with a torch but being very careful not to overdo it, just enough to burn the pla away and remove the thermistor and heating cartridge beforehand
thanks for the tip, im going to have to try this out at some point, see if it works. Actually tonight my voron dragonfly seems to have clogged so now i need to take it apart too :(
iremove all ptfe parts and other plastic parts you want to save. when you have just metal and the plastic you want to get rid of soak the whole thing in acetone or give it a good spray of brake cleaner. Doing either of these two options will either make the melted plastic flake off, soften up so you can use a metal tool to scrap it off like it's jelly, or just dissolve it to nothing. no heating or anything
Excellent tip, Im going to have to try this next time I clean my hotend. Im guessing it will also work on nozzles? Ive got a few old ones sitting around that need a clean.
Yes i agree, but at least its not going into the landfill for now. I was just curious to take apart and understand the hotend in more detail. I've gone ahead and purchased a trianglelab v6 all metal hotend in preparation for an i3 mega x carriage that I'll be making a video on soon. Now I print mostly with my Voron I take for granted the speed and quality it prints at. I want to try and bring the i3 mega as close to the voron quality as cheaply as possible.
In making your judgement about the value of your time vs the cost of just buying new, please remember that the cost to our planet of the resources used to make the new parts, and the harm caused by sending the old parts to landfill, is in no way factored into that cost. A fantastic compromise is to buy a top quality bimetallic heatbreak and hardened nozzle - the real critical components - and refurbish the hot end with these parts, it will perform as well as a new high end extruder.
@@edumaker-alexgibson Is this even on a scale worth worrying about? I feel that's an important question here. I feel as if this is paper straws compared to the single use items in the world. This item, comparatively speaking is replaced perhaps once every multiple years, and has far fewer transitionary processes than say a smartphone from mine to user. So, compared to the regular waste output of a person, I can't imagine this is a level of waste worth worrying about. That being said, from an ease of use perspective, I think a titanium all metal heatbreak and hardened nozzle are a great upgrade removing the necessity to frequently replace the Bowden tube end or nozzle. I also value the added side effect of no longer spewing toxic pet bird killing fumes from the burning ptfe.
Depending on where you live it may be better to clean the hotend, rather than wait for the delivery. I'd rather spend a day cleaning one instead of waiting for several weeks for a new one to arrive.
I know it's not an option for everyone, but the only way to clean a V6 hotend is by throwing it into the closest bin, and buying a not-shit hotend. Like a Revo, or similar. The V6 is outdated. and needs to become ancient history.
@@ThisDesignedThat that's why i wrote that it's not an option for everyone. The V6 eats your money and your time. Cleaning it, failed prints, reassembling it when it inevitably unscrews itself. Broken heater wires. Broken thermistor wires. Not even to mention the complexity and danger of breaking something when changing nozzles. Yes, modern hotends are more expensive. But only in the short term. Over the lifetime of the product they are cheaper. Especially of you factor in wasted time.
I have good luck with my v6, but it is a fake one. I have a titanium heatbreak and a copper heater block. and a pt100, running off an amplifier chip. It works very well, but has the same issue that his does and you need to tighten it well for it to work properly. It isnt really a big issue for me since I don't replace nozzles until they are worn out.
This process is a disaster, every time I have to do it I result with a blister somewhere in a finger you never thought it vould be. This things should cost 5 dollars complete so you replace it and keep going.
Dont use clones. You save a little initially but the print quality ends up being crap and you have to replace nozzles more frequently. Support British manufacturing and buy genuine e3d.
When I saw that hotend covered in burnt gunk, I knew this was the video I was looking for.
Good luck with the clean up!
I found heating my ender to 150 with cover removed and wiped off all I could with a paper towel before removing it. Watching ur clean up made me think the hot pre clean helpful for someone. As this a long messy process. Thanks for the pointer like u I'm learning how it all works
super helpful, thanks - we just had our first "burnt end" occur, and I'm currently following your guide to get the gunk off. 😅
Glad it helped!
Thank you for making this video. I'm new to 3D Printing and the diagram at the start of the video showed me exactly where my problem was, clearly and succinctly. The rest of the video was super informative too, and knowledge I will use a lot, I'm sure. Thank you!
Glad it helped
Soak in acetone! It doesn't melt like abs but it softens and gets rubbery.
great tip thankyou
I'm still using an anycubic i3 mega - I just finished the Ai3m hotend rebuild (thingiverse), I recommend it if you're going to a v6. You get a much better part cooling fan. How on earth does everyone destroy these heated beds so badly! I'm 5 years into mine printing pla and petg and its still nice and black and clean on top after multiple sandings :)
Haha, I yanked off the anycubic owl that comes with the printer and left a mark on the build plate after its first ever print. Ill probably upgrade to a magnetic PEI sheet for the build plate in future
@@ThisDesignedThat My ABS prints wouldn't stick, so I made my "special" homemade solution with ABS/acetone. It was too strong and I ripped a part of the black coating off the hotbed.
Wow I have an i3 Mega and I swear, I couldn't find a single video that worked on fixing the hot end of this machine. I still have an issue with the nozzle where I have a metal-metal interface between the nozzle and heat break. The PTFE tube does not go through to the nozzle by design. This makes me wonder what fix exists to prevent filament from oozing out and blobbing above the hot end block.
Honestly i'd swap out the original V5 for the V6 as it has an all metal heatbreak. Better yet, go direct drive with the x carriage and put in a dragonfly or something similar.
@@ThisDesignedThat what would you set as the retraction distance for direct drive? I've been getting awful results at 0.5mm and no extrusion at 1.5mm
thank you, i am off to go clean it, hopefully it will work
Good luck
Thanks for this! Plenty of very helpful insights right here! :D
My pleasure!
@@ThisDesignedThat I have to clean my hot end today 😭😭 filament looks to be squeezing through the threads on the nozzle or something like that lol. I probably didn't clean the hot end enough when I recently switched nozzles. So this video helps give me physical insights into such things. 👍👍🥳🥳
Yup, got my hot end cleaned! This video (and a few others) really helped a lot for preparing me going in. Thanks again for this!
Happy to hear you got it fixed! First time is always slo but next time it happens you'll breeze through it.
I always heat hot end up to the working temperature right on the printer. Then it is super easy to disassemble whole thing. Just be careful. Don't get burned.
There is something very wrong with your printer. Plastic should never be burning, the plastic should be temperature controlled far below that point. Even the ptfe tube, that is extremely toxic and you need to fix that. I would replace the thermistor and make sure that it is firmly fixed. Maybe try boron nitride the heat break and thermistor into heater block, and pc heatsink compound between the cold end and the heat break.
Also, if you were having issues with a melted ptfe tube, you ptfe heatbreak is likely gone bad as well. That should also be replaced.
Excellent video sir! Thanks
So nice of you
So, after 3 years of 3d printing never having that issue it finally happened to me. Hopefully it happened to my very upgraded ender 3 with a biqu h2-500 which can reach 500°c no problem. Turns out pla just burns away leaving 0 residue at about 400-450, and I clearly remember somebody just torching the heating Assembly and being fine, has someone seen that? Can I have a link?
Some notes about torching the thing:
*NEVER EVER HEAT PTFE ABOVE 230°C* if you were to try this MAKE SURE there's absolutely NO PTFE around the torching area.
Aluminum melts at around 600°c so if you have an aluminum heat block (which likely means you're using a thermistor) you can do this with a torch but being very careful not to overdo it, just enough to burn the pla away and remove the thermistor and heating cartridge beforehand
thanks for the tip, im going to have to try this out at some point, see if it works. Actually tonight my voron dragonfly seems to have clogged so now i need to take it apart too :(
exaclty what I needed, thanks!
iremove all ptfe parts and other plastic parts you want to save. when you have just metal and the plastic you want to get rid of soak the whole thing in acetone or give it a good spray of brake cleaner. Doing either of these two options will either make the melted plastic flake off, soften up so you can use a metal tool to scrap it off like it's jelly, or just dissolve it to nothing.
no heating or anything
Excellent tip, Im going to have to try this next time I clean my hotend. Im guessing it will also work on nozzles? Ive got a few old ones sitting around that need a clean.
push it in and out try telling the wife that lol great video thank you
Great video👍
Fantastic video
To me, for a hotend as cheap and plentiful as this, I would recommend just buying a new one, and taking the opportunity to upgrade if possible.
Yes i agree, but at least its not going into the landfill for now. I was just curious to take apart and understand the hotend in more detail. I've gone ahead and purchased a trianglelab v6 all metal hotend in preparation for an i3 mega x carriage that I'll be making a video on soon. Now I print mostly with my Voron I take for granted the speed and quality it prints at. I want to try and bring the i3 mega as close to the voron quality as cheaply as possible.
In making your judgement about the value of your time vs the cost of just buying new, please remember that the cost to our planet of the resources used to make the new parts, and the harm caused by sending the old parts to landfill, is in no way factored into that cost.
A fantastic compromise is to buy a top quality bimetallic heatbreak and hardened nozzle - the real critical components - and refurbish the hot end with these parts, it will perform as well as a new high end extruder.
@@edumaker-alexgibson Is this even on a scale worth worrying about? I feel that's an important question here. I feel as if this is paper straws compared to the single use items in the world.
This item, comparatively speaking is replaced perhaps once every multiple years, and has far fewer transitionary processes than say a smartphone from mine to user. So, compared to the regular waste output of a person, I can't imagine this is a level of waste worth worrying about.
That being said, from an ease of use perspective, I think a titanium all metal heatbreak and hardened nozzle are a great upgrade removing the necessity to frequently replace the Bowden tube end or nozzle. I also value the added side effect of no longer spewing toxic pet bird killing fumes from the burning ptfe.
Depending on where you live it may be better to clean the hotend, rather than wait for the delivery. I'd rather spend a day cleaning one instead of waiting for several weeks for a new one to arrive.
I think you should get more views. Good video
Nozle you can burn to red gloing color and the boil it with citric acid - it will be almost recovered)
interesting idea, I dont have a torch to heat to glowing red though :(
I know it's not an option for everyone, but the only way to clean a V6 hotend is by throwing it into the closest bin, and buying a not-shit hotend. Like a Revo, or similar.
The V6 is outdated. and needs to become ancient history.
But the revo is almost 10x the price of a 3rd party v6. The v6 is still going strong and does a good job for most normal filaments
@@ThisDesignedThat that's why i wrote that it's not an option for everyone. The V6 eats your money and your time.
Cleaning it, failed prints, reassembling it when it inevitably unscrews itself. Broken heater wires. Broken thermistor wires.
Not even to mention the complexity and danger of breaking something when changing nozzles.
Yes, modern hotends are more expensive.
But only in the short term. Over the lifetime of the product they are cheaper. Especially of you factor in wasted time.
I have good luck with my v6, but it is a fake one. I have a titanium heatbreak and a copper heater block. and a pt100, running off an amplifier chip. It works very well, but has the same issue that his does and you need to tighten it well for it to work properly. It isnt really a big issue for me since I don't replace nozzles until they are worn out.
This process is a disaster, every time I have to do it I result with a blister somewhere in a finger you never thought it vould be. This things should cost 5 dollars complete so you replace it and keep going.
Dont use clones. You save a little initially but the print quality ends up being crap and you have to replace nozzles more frequently. Support British manufacturing and buy genuine e3d.
Step 1. Get Clone
Step 2. Get original e3d heatbreak and nozzle
Step 3. U have as good as original v6 for less than 20 bucks + spare parts
Freds
Boil that shit!
I did try but doesnt get the plastic hot enough