this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
22 points (100.0% liked)

3DPrinting

15654 readers
141 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]

There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I just changed my stock Ender 3 hotend to a Volcano to get back to a more durable printhead after wrecking my Creality Spider head and have gotten it to where I can print something monolythic (like a brick or boot dryer type thing that doesn't have much actual detail) without much issue, but printing something with any detail, such as a character piece for DnD results in an absolute whispy disaster. I'm still trying to print stock recommended speeds and stock temperatures (PLA at 200C, PETG at 240C, etc at 50 to 75mm/s) and retract from none to 9mm trying to find something that works. Nothing does so far, even when I go to playing with temps (PETG 200-260C, PLA 180-240C) Where should I set my baseline settings to be able to get close to the CR-10 head that I started with? I originally upgraded to the Spider, which is now discontinued, because of printing ASA and the CR-10 creating a lot of jams as the bowden tube degrades inside. I have also heard good things about the Volcano and was curious about them. I'm still running the stock extruder, btw. I'm betting my problem is simply that I don't know how to use this head yet, though I guess I could have gotten a dud.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] fhein 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like Teaching Tech's calibration guide.

And if you don't mind me asking, where have you heard good things about volcano hotends, and what things specifically? Unfortunately it can be difficult to know who to trust nowadays as there's a lot of affiliate links disguised as buying advice, paid "reviews", and well meaning people who confidently repeat what they've heard without knowing anything about how true it is. Personally I've always thought of volcanoes as a niche item for increasing your print speed while potentially sacrificing some quality, but I've never used one myself so don't trust me either :). Some people appear to be able to calibrate them properly but oozing seems like a very common problem. If you bought some random cheap hotend off amazon there's definitely a risk that you got a dud, as you said.

[–] Thurkeau 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks like I may be going back to an all metal hotend. I had some decent luck with a Creality Spider, though I've found that it isn't in production and the choice of nozzles limited to pretty much the 04 nozzle that comes with most printers. What's the CR-10 all metal hotend that is popular and useful and with a good variety of nozzles?

[–] fhein 1 points 1 year ago

Could it be the Micro Swiss you're thinking of? AFAIK it is ok, though a bit over priced. Personally I would stay away from the cheap clones you find on Amazon/Aliexpress/Wish as the quality can be a bit of a gamble. Other CR-10 compatible hotends that I've heard good things about include Phaetus Dragonfly BMS, Mellow NF Zone, Slice Copperhead. If you just want an all metal CR-10 style hotend I would get one either from Trianglelab or Mellow, who are known to have relatively good manufacturing quality. They've gone up quite a lot in price so they're almost as expensive as a Micro Swiss. Best value option is probably to just buy a high quality all-metal heatbreak and reuse the cooler and heat block from the stock hotend, in case you still have those.