Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Good video.

You do nice work for this community, gene

Thanks. Mostly I cuss a lot and throw my glasses though.

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Haven't seen a stick like that in a decade. Oh, crap. It's really been a decade!

[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9k0X ... img001.jpg[/img]

Ewwww! Mudhens!

The grip is for my F-15C simulator project. It's a real grip and made from pure unobtainum.

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Then where'd you get it?

Found it on eBay in 2003.

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geneb wrote:Found it on eBay in 2003.

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eBay, when you absolutely positively have to buy a Mig-28 today.

No such airframe.

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Great video. I've been considering upgrading my hotend. Do you recommend upgrading the stock hotend above replacing it (e.g, E3D, J-head, etc.)?

Well from my experience, the stock hot end does a great job. I've run a bit over 1.7km of PLA in various colors through the stock hot end on Orange Menace and I've had ZERO jams on it.

I've been running ABS on Blue Max and it hasn't jammed on me either - both are using the stock nozzle as well. (Orange Menace has a .5, Blue Max has a .35). I ran a 100% fill print last night for five hours in ABS without any issues.

Frankly, the only reason I'd go with a custom hot end is if I needed to run material at temps that would cause the PEEK section in the stock hot end to fail.

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dsnettleton wrote:Great video. I've been considering upgrading my hotend. Do you recommend upgrading the stock hotend above replacing it (e.g, E3D, J-head, etc.)?

Do it. You will wonder why you didn't do it sooner. Aside from being able to print with nylon and trimmer line now (which are awesome), I've found the E3D heats faster than the stock end, retracts are better/cleaner, and filament changing is easier/cleaner.

cope413, you might want to check out how the new nozzle design performs. I've been told that it improves retract performance due to the smaller melt zone. I haven't had a chance to try it out myself though. (the hot end in the video is destined for a machine that's not completed yet)

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I got my machine mid-to-late June, and I got a .35 nozzle sometime in July/August - so one of those would have been the "new" design, no?

If you look at the video, I compare new vs old hot ends. They've always made the .35 nozzle. The new one has a different tip to it and it's not threaded the whole length.

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The heater cartridge looks like the same one that ships with the E3D hot end. You can probably find the same thing from Mouser or DigiKey. As long as it's 12VDC/40 watts and narrow enough to fit, it should work.
Another way to secure it (other than wrapping it with foil) would be to tap one of the small holes leading to the place where the cartridge goes for a grub screw. That's how it's done with the E3D.

One mod you might want to try is to insert a very short (1-2mm) round metal spacer into the heater block before installing the nozzle. This would have the effect of standing off the nozzle flange from the heater block. That's another trick form the E3D and I think it's part of the magic that keeps it from getting heat soaked.

It appears I have the "old" one. Perhaps one of the last ones to ship with that kind given I got mine June 23rd, and it looks like it was changed shortly after that.

Even with the .35 nozzle I didn't get anywhere near the clean retracts I get with the E3D.

I would love a screw-in thermistor though... not really sure why that isn't universal at this point now...

Should I change my firmware (repetier) from the generic thermistor table to the 100K thermistor?

I wouldn't bother unless you have a way to verify the temperature reading.

cope413 wrote:I would love a screw-in thermistor though... not really sure why that isn't universal at this point now...

That would be heavenly.

Nice video Gene. Thanks for sharing. I just ordered the new nozzles. They make a lot of sense to me. the original blunt nose gave me a lot of problems grabbing extrusions and wreaking havoc.

I have been having big issues with the pressure of the filament "push" wear out the PFPE tubing to fitting connection on both ends. Any suggestions?

Are you saying the push-fit connector is failing, or the PTFE tubing is failing?

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Likely the PTC fitting is failing. I had a few failures on the stock end too.

Here's the mcmaster part to replace them...http://www.mcmaster.com/#5225k503/=ozexef

Do yourself a favor and buy 5-6 of them so you have them when they go out again.

Ahh, ok. The only time I've had that part fail is when I had a hot-end jam and I was using the original Steve's Extruder. (March?)

If you don't have an EZStruder, you might want to get one as well as the top mount for it.

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geneb wrote:Thanks. Mostly I cuss a lot and throw my glasses though.

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Isn't that a bit hard on the glasses? Just take a deep breath, relax a few seconds, chill out a little, then throw the glasses.