The NF Sunrise Direct Drive Extruder Has A Trick & It's super satisfying

The Mellow NF Sunrise is a beautiful CNC'd direct drive extruder coming from China. It's got super-power which all other extruders lack, but is that functionality enough to make it the best option on the market?

[MichaelJHathaway]

A plastic gear is actually better engineering (not stupid) and has better alignment, binds less. And as long as it is made from a high temperature plastic like Nylon, it can handle a heated chamber. For lubrication/heat conduction, I would recommend adding a very light coat of TinkSeal to the outer edge of that plastic gear, the detent and bronze bushing. I would get a copper block from e3D, and titanium heat break, cheaper and easier. Slice is way over priced. I like the lever because you don't have to keep adjusting your spring pressure. I would much rather have the NF Sunrise than the BQ or Sherpa extruder.

[supergiantbubbles]

You knocked the Sherpa mini for having to unscrew the tension arm and then you knock the NF Sunrise for having a lever to negate that need. Whatever man.

[nickmumby]

Having owned both the BIQU H2 and nf sunrise I can say the sunrise is superior.

I've had two BQ's and both have quality control issues. Grinding gears, Prints were never great.

Now replaced with the sunrise and wow its so much better! better prints immediately after installing.
I disagree with your conclusion on the Bq being better a design - Not having all metal gears is an advantage. The open frame is better. Better stepper. On the BQ if it clogs you have to remove the whole extruder and disassemble.

Another thing.. Maybe test them in a printer before you post a review? 🤣

[BenEBrady]

The only advantage I see for the loading lever is that you don't have to "upset" the filament tension if you are having an issue loading filament.

[istvanmaasz]

I don't see that in your heated chsmber you would get to glass transition temp of nylon. If you do, the whole heatsink would warm up to that (because that's the environment temp) and would cause issues with the raw filament you are working with. The lever is a nice thing, yeah it adds a bit if weight but it's essier to change filament, depends on what you want. Also a direct mounting on an ender is a big bonus for a lot of people. Also it's size is compact. Heatcreep you are not able to test that way if the throat doesn't make full contact with the heatsink though, because it's not threaded, and I didn't see you using paste, it might happen.. as for the heatbreak, having the bottom part steel wouldn't consern me, less heat transfered by the heatbreak and you can compensate that lost part of melting zone by using a volcano (which you can order this with)

[ickmat]

its titanium thread and not stainless steel.

[GamingStuffChannel]

I dont know if someone already mentioned that, but the hot side of the heatbreak is not of steel, its titanium.

[matthewweinberger]

please review the lgx lite, it looks to really be something special from the specs ive heard. and possibly the CHT nozzle

[mongini]

the review is great... except from the nonstop bashing of the "meeeh! chinese copycats!!!"
and just by the way: its just fine that the larger gear is ny Nylon blend. This way you prevent binding cause of that tiny bit of flex it allows, it doesnt need lube and hey, not even Bondtech uses metal at this point, (because they are smart, you know)

for Flow: just add a copper block and CHT nozzle and print as fast as your printer can run ^^
My Dragon Hotend (normal flow Heatbreak) with Orbiter Extruder and Copper nozzle can print at 250mm/s if i need speed. regular print speed for good looking parts are goin at 150mm/s on my Voron-ified Ender 5 without a hitch and without ringing... cooling is my worst enemy with small parts and have to set a minimum layer time for small stuff.

[profounddevices]

the nylon gear will not fail inside a printed chamber. nylon 6, 6 fails at 482c, nylon 12 fails at a temp > 200c, i dont know about warping temps or about other material combinations but if heated metal block goes above 160c then pla will not flow in extruder anyways. so nylon gear should not be a deal breaker, other than metal gear might handle more load.

[brandoneich]

Nice review! I've been really excited, and waiting, for this review when you mentioned you ordered it a few months back.

One thing that I noticed that you did not mention, is that the sunrise is a little less bulky (when compared to the h2), which can help on a corexy printer, so you don't have to worry as much about losing y-axis printing space.

Another way to help prevent that the latch door coming out, would be to integrate a little blocker on the exposed side. This could be implemented with your fan duct which I believe you could also Mount at the front. That being said, you are right it's stating that it is an oversight.

I'm fairly certain they use Pom or acetal for the plastic gear, which thankfully does have a high deformation temperature.

Also, are metal gears actually better? Can't they cause binding like initially with the h2, or other issues or you don't want metal on metal. It also saves a little bit of weight.

I wonder how this would do with a volcano block. You would get high or flow theoretically. Not sure how easy it would be to route the cables in a volcano block. Since the wires run vertically and I'm not sure what the clearance is look like on the NF sunrise without actually having it in hand.


Hope the transition to the new place is going well! Thanks for this review! Glad to see more content here now that you're settling in a little bit more.

As I stated before I love your critical approach. Whether or not I agree with you all the time that's a different story LOL. But I do appreciate when someone nitpicks all of the things because it really draws your attention to potential improvements and the faults of the product itself.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! :D

[MisterDeets]

I think it's an option to put a volcano hot end on this extruder. That should increase the speed of extrusion. Also the door hinge pin may be trapped by mounting that section to the gantry. I am not that put off the nylon gear. I may just order one now that I have seen this review.

[kingkeif]

I like the plastic gear as an easily exchanged point of failure. The pin seems like it wont be an issue; when it gets hot it will expand. Above all, I ordered this after seeing it bolts directly to my ender 3 pro metal plate. Its the winner imo. Thanks for the review

[saschacontes]

I think the plastic gear is an advantage. It separates the heat from the motor and the filament driving gears. Had in the past serious issues with got gears fail to move filament properly.

[jmtx.]

The filament release arm is very useful because having to readjust the spring tension everytime is disgusting.

[garagewizzard]

Goodness, I hope they aren't using any kind of thermoplastic on wrapping the wires, the connectors, or the bowden cable. Or the fan.

[wktodd]

Thanks, It was your suggestion of integrating the stepper parts into the extruder body that inspired the design that I'm playing with at the moment . I've incorporated the stator and rotor of a 32mm stepper and a set of dual drive gears into a MSLA printed body (lots of trouble getting the alignment correct, had to machine the resin parts to get the accuracy) but, i got a very light extruder as a result . Still testing reliability and I am worried about thermal stability.

[marcusd]

Very nice video with no whining! More of these, please 🙂

[alexshepherd]

I think there is one major advantage that you haven’t mentioned - there are holes through the CNC-machined aluminium that appear to have the right spacing for mounting onto a Creality carriage plate or - in my case - a Tronxy X5 carriage plate. I mean that the hole spacing seems to mimic those on the original hotend red-coloured heatsink.

With the Biqu H2, or a Mosquito hotend for that matter, you have to make up a mounting and this can affect your print area/make it difficult to reach the edge of the bed and, if made in plastic, can distort or wobble.

The promise of a nice solid mounting for the extruder and hot end together is enough to sell me on this NF Sunrise. Short filament path and low-profile is also useful for my enclosed printer. There’s a cost advantage over several other hotends, plus the reports many people have had of seizing gears on the Biqu H2.

Thanks for a nice review and flow test! :)

[AndehX]

Just an FYI, while copper conducts heat better than stainless steel, stainless steel will still get just as hot as copper, it will just take a bit longer. So the point about a copper heatbreak being "better" isn't really accurate. A copper heatbreak will just take less time to get up to temperature. Performance will be the same though.
Also the point about the pin near the end is really a none issue honestly. I mean realistically, that pin is never going to move since the "door" will never move. Plenty of other extruder assemblies have pins like that in them, and those are literally never points of failure.
If you put the Slice engineering heat block on the nf sunrise, it would also print at 172mm/sec. Just thought I'd add that, since the point about the sherpa mini being a "better" extruder is technically incorrect. That cheap heat block on the nf sunrise is what limits the print speed, not the extruder itself.