I'm Tom and today i'm going to show you how to assemble what is currently the most popular
3D printer hotend - the E3D v5.
Now the E3D is popular for a couple of reasons: Well, first of all, it's an excellent hotend,
and second of all, it's what is know as an all-metal hotend, which means that there are
no plastic parts used to hold the individual parts of the hotend together, like the PEEK
insulator in designs like the Jhead.
Instead, they are using a machined stainless steel heat break and a large aluminum wheatsink.
So what that means is that the E3D hotend can be run at temperatures up to 300°C, or
even hotter with some modifications, without the risk of the hotend melting down, which
is great for printing polycarbonate or some ABS varieties.
It also means that, with the fan on-board, the temperatures inside the hotend are very
tightly controlled, so that the heater block and nozzle stay hot while the heatsink and
the groovemount stay cool, which is a problem on other hotends and would cause issues especially
with printing PLA.
Now, when you order an E3D, you're going to get a kit with all the parts you need.
You'll get the heatsink, the heat break, the heater block, a nozzle, a heater cartridge,
a thermistor with some parts for assembly, a fan with a shroud and some screws and kapton
tape.
Because i ordered a bowden version i also got the couplings for the bowden tube and
the bowden tube itself.
The only difference on the actual hotend from the direct-drive to the bowden version is
the top end of the heatsink - the bowden one has a thread for the coupler, the regular
one simply has a flat top.
Other than that, they are the exact same hotend.
You will also need a philips number 1 screwdriver.
Now, for the actual assembly i'm going to start with the trickiest part first, and that
is installing the thermistor.
When handling the thermistor, keep in mind that the glass body and the thin legs are
quite fragile, so try and bend them as little as possible.
So the tricky part here is fixing the thermistor in that hole right here while keeping its
legs from shorting to each other or to the heater block.
This is where the Kapton tape comes in: we're going to use it to insulate the thermistor's
legs and also for attaching it to the heater block.
You want to touch the sticky side of the tape as little as possible to keep it sticky.
I'll be using my own Kapton tape for this, but you can do this just as well with the
supplied bit of tape - just cut a strip off each time you need a piece.
Same result.
Also, if you want it to stick really well to the heater block, clean the block with
a bit of acetone or alcohol.
First up, to insulate the thermistor's legs, what i like to do is to take one strip of
Kapton tape and wrap it around one leg and then use another strip to insulate the second
leg and to tie the two legs together.
Leave about a centimeter uncovered on the end.
Then strip a short part of both ends of the high-temp wire's glass insulation.
Slip a ferrule over each of the wires.
Bend both the ends of the thermistor's legs and one side of the high-temp wire into little
hooks and hook them together.
Slide the ferrule over the joint and crimp it down - you can use a regular pair of pliers
for this if you don't have a crimping tool.
Then use some more tape to insulate those and to really tie everything together.
So next up, slide the thermistor into its hole on the heater block and bend its legs
90 degrees so that they sit smooth on the side of the heater block and make sure the
thermistor's head is as far inside the block as possible.
This next part is really critical to your hotend working reliably, so take extra care
and do it as nicely as you can.
Take a piece of kapton tape and secure the thermistor to the heater block with it.
Now, tape won't last long when it has to adhere to a straight surface like this, so make sure
to have a single piece of tape going around at least two corners of the heater block for
securing the thermistor.
Once you're confident that the tape is going to properly secure the thermistor in its hole,
we're going to move on to the more fun parts of the assembly.
Take the nozzle and screw it into the heater block from the side that has the threaded
hole in it.
Once it's all the way in, unscrew it by a quarter turn.
This will make sure that the nozzle will actually seal against the heat break and not the heater
block.
Then screw in the heat break from the other side.
Just make it finger-tight for now, we'll tighten it down later.
Next up, add the heat sink.
Screw the fan onto the fan shroud and slide that over the heat sink.
For the heater cartridge, you'll need the little grub screw and the hex wrench that
came in the kit.
Now, what i like to do is use the wiring from the heater cartridge as a strain relief point
for the thermistor's wiring, so i'm going to install it so that they both have their
wiring on the same side of the heater block.
Center the heater cartridge in the heater block and use the grub screw to secure it
in place.
It doesn't need to be super-tight as you can easily dent the heater cartridge this way.
Basically, tighten it until the grub screw feels like it's not going to fall out on its
own.
So if you're assembling a direct-drive hotend, the assembly is basically done at this point.
If you've got a bowden hotend, you'll also need to add the bowden connector.
Clip the insert into the main body of the connector and screw that whole thing into
the top of the heatsink.
Don't use tools to tighten this down as the plastic thread will easily snap off if you
over-tighten it, just give it a firm twist by hand.
Make sure that the bowden tubing has a nice and straight cut on its end, then slide it
into the hotend as far as you can.
To release it, hold down the insert with one hand and pull the tubing out with the other.
Now there's one more step to finishing it off, and that's finally tightening it down.
Configure your printer's firmware to use the right thermistor table for the Semitec thermistor,
which is usually number 5.
Also check that the maximum temperature is set to 300°C for the hotend.
Then hook up the hotend to your printer and heat it to 290°C - make sure to connect the
E3D's fan directly to 12V.
Use a 16mm wrench to hold on to the heater block, then tighten the nozzle with another
wrench or a ratchet.
Again, this doesn't need to be super-tight - E3D recommend using just one finger to tighten
it.
Then let go of the heater block and lightly tighten the nozzle one more time - this will
actually tighten the heat break inside the heat sink.
So that's it!
Before you start using your brand new hotend, don't forget to run PID autotune, adjust your
z-endstop's height and calibrate your extruder if you haven't done so already.
After that, you're all set for taking your E3D hotend for a spin.
So that's it for today - as always, thanks for watching.
Please let me know if you liked this video and consider subscribing to my channel.
Now i'm going to make me another cup of rooibos.