Build your own 3D Printer: Which hotend to pick!

I cut open my very first hotend for this one.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Eric Satie - Gymnopedie No.1 (Baptiste Remix)
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

[colsoyeti]

Hi Tom, 4 years on and this video is still a great source for anyone new to 3d printing. I found it useful for planning my hotend upgrades.

[TitanOne]

"Other than self-confidence" The line that made my day :D

[ravener]

i tried to buy a knockoff hot end, the hole wasnt drilled and it was basically a block of aluminum

[jasonross]

5:12 I remember the first time I bottomed out my z drive. Really gives a guy confidence! Way to add a little humor to your videos. Good job! learned a lot from listening to you. Keep them coming. (Couldn't resist one last pun)

[ultrapowermae]

Well... Your videos are getting even better - more rounded, "relaxed", confident. Can't wait for the next ones.

[Izmirization]

just wanted to say I am deeply appreciative of the work you do and am a patrreon to the extent I can give.

[ThreenaddiesRexMegistus]

Haven’t looked back since fitting a Revo Rapid V6 hotend to my Anycubic i3. It has direct drive and handles LW-PLA single wall prints without jamming. It’s also a tidy looking setup. Worth every cent for the fully loaded kit and the supplier printed a mounting to suit which saved me the hassle.

[VladOnEarth]

Speaking of clones. Original V6 last time I checked was $70-$100, which is beyond ridiculous for what it is. If they set a fair price they could get much more business, but for me, throwing a $100 for each hotend is a thinkless waste of money. For example "original" heatsink costs around $20, Chinese is $2 and they are absolutely identical. You don't need original for that, at all and overpay so much. the only parts that actually need to be of high quality is nozzles and the heatbreak, but again, they can be purchased elsewhere for a fair price.

[bradleymorgan]

Voice at the beginning was smooth as anything I've ever heard..

[MAcDaTHo]

lol, cool introduction, XD

it was so harmonic, suddenly there was a cup of coffee, an injurance guy and a unicorn in my room!

[Ambr]

AMAZING, I would definitely love an update for this in 2025

[jeffwilliams]

Can't play this video on my tablet. Keeps stating, "click to retry". Just viewed a couple of your recent videos on the same tablet. I can still go back and view those. Thanks again for all you do. You are the most knowledgeable source I have found on 3D printing.

[iMacGeekDK]

This really helped me. Looking forwards to the nex videos. Greetings from Denmark!

[SeniorTentacles]

Funny enough my new hot end is sitting at home right now waiting to be installed when I get off work. perfect timing.

[wpavelski]

Great video, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge. Hugs from Brazil.

[stylesoftware]

Just like to confirm for your viewers, the aliexpress E3D is flawed, constant jams with PETG, a jam at the 2 hour mark with PLA, every time!. Changing temp and retraction made no diff. Required full disassembly for unjamming - nice.
I pulled it apart, there is a manufacturing void wider than 2mm above the transition zone that prevents you even pulling out jammed filament, the all-metal height is way above the transition zone causing retraction to stick to the metal (I guess). An M4 to M5 metal pipe, so you can't easily modify the setup. I drilled the heck out of the heatsink (M5) and heat pressed some rounded M4 nuts. Screwed in the usual M4 heat pipe (not sure of its technical name?) with metal the end towards heat block and teflon end inside the heatsink.
It now works like a dream with PLA and PETG. Doing the PLA at 150 speed, PETG at 100 - still tuning for higher :-)

[jaistanley]

Good info Tom. Loads of useful information packed into another great vid. Though: remember, you don't have to sit on the fence anymore. It'd be great to get your opinion on what is 'best', or at least your preference. A build-log/guide with the reasons you chose each component would be ace!

I recently converted a cheap CTC printer from their generic hot end to an E3d by using the smooth chimera style heat breaks, drilling the heat bar and using the CTC thermo-couple. At first the all-metal jammed all the time until I used thermal compound between all the components, and linishing the mating surfaces to get better contact. That solved all issues and now I can print all sorts of different temp materials. Your video doesn't mention the importance of a very sharp thermal gradient at the transition zone for preventing jams... Am I correct?

Jai

[ericawatts]

Great video :D Love the intro LOL

It should also be noted that if you are a heavy printer ( like me ) with a PTFE based hotend, you will be changing the PTFE liner eventually, (seems like i end up having to change them every couple thousand hours or so)

[shrimperlincs]

It's been 6 years. Please can you do a reboot?

[UltraSpidey]

Good video, very informate. I was a little disappointed you didn't showcase the more exotic hotends like the diamond, the cyclops, chimera, kraken etc