On today's episode I'm going to show you a simple hot end fix for any Creality
machine Ender 3 CR 10 CR 10 Mini Ender 5 any of them
it makes your hot end work better longer with less stringing and less issues I'll
show you what it is and today's Filament Friday
Filament Friday is brought to you by these patreon supporters all this starts back
in January of 2019 I found Luke Hatfields or one bad Marines fix on
Thingiverse for the hot end and I made a custom coupling, a 3d printed coupling
that would go on the top of your hot end and screw in place well that coupling
didn't work out after a couple months it broke I printed a new one
it broke I finally just abandoned the design I still have the video out there if
you want to watch it but what came out of it was I found that luke Hatfield's
design was really really good in fact this machine has been running for 14
months without any issues the only reason I'm going to take it apart is
for today's video this all starts with the Creality hot end design most of
the Creality machines CR10, CR10 MINI Ender three all have the
same design that the PTFE tubing goes into the hot end and butts up against
the nozzle and you need that tight against the nozzle because if there's
any gap you'll get leakage you get blockage you get extrusion issues I did
a whole video on that previously and mine the problem was the coupling the
coupling did not hold up and it let the PTFE tubing back off and so you can get
better couplings and I've showed that and you can go with better tubing like
Capricorn tubing but you don't need to go that far because what Luke Hatfield
came up with was a very clever design and this is a mock-up of the
hot end, that is to take a small piece of PTFE tube put it inside the hot end then
put a washer little plastic washer on top of it and then take your coupling
slide it down to the end and screw that on top and as you screw this down you're
pinching that little piece of PTFE tubing tight against the nozzle and
that's what I installed on this Ender three instead of using standard
PTFE tubing though I used Capricorn tubing for the insert and that's because
Capricorn tubing has a higher temperature rating than the PTFE tube
that comes with the Ender three so what I did is cut a small piece of Capricorn
put it in there for my insert and this thing has run 14 months flawlessly in
fact it would continue running that good if I didn't take it apart for this video
now why is that important it's because I found on a stock machine and I have
several Creality machines to attest to this the last 20 millimeters of your
PTFE tube that touched that hot in tends to bake or deform or lose its
lubrication now some will say it's PTFE - they can't lose its lubrication but
here's what I found if I cut that last 20 millimeters off and then slide the
PTFE tubing down all my stringing all my issues go away if I do the old trick
where you take us piece of sponge put some olive oil on it
clamp it over the filament going into the extruder let it run a little bit and
then take it off it lubricates it enough that that thing will do about 20 or 30
prints with no stringing no issue so basically as lubrication to that last 20
millimetres of PTFE on this machine with the insert I used a Capricorn tubing for
that little insert and because of that the last 20 millimeters has not been
damaged because of that higher temperature resistance of Capricorn this
thing went 14 months and will go longer with no stringing no issues in fact some
of my machines back here that have Capricorn going from the nozzle all the
way up to the extruder have done the same I've had no issues I haven't had to
cut off that last 20 millimeters so there's definitely a difference in the
PTFE tubing and how it handles that last bit of heat right at the nozzle and
that's what gives you problems on a stock Ender 3 or CR 10 that the
Capricorn eliminates but there's one issue with Capricorn I really don't like
and that's the inner diameter the inner diameter is a 1.9 millimeters where the
diameter of the stock PTFE to is more around the range of two
millimeters there's a common belief that the larger diameter is worse for
stringing and retraction because the filament can actually wiggle and wind
in there and so when you retract you're actually just unwinding it instead of
actually pulling it back and retracting you're gonna get more stringing and the
longer your PTFE tubing the worse that issue is but I haven't found that I did
a video recently where I did different lengths of PTFE tubing and it didn't
affect the stringing at all what affected it most was that last 20
millimeters that wasn't working properly so I actually like to use the stock PTFE
tubing from an EZR extruder which gives me very consistent flow and I can
print with flexibles I can print with pretty much any material I want and I
get good pressure good force of the filament and then go through the stock
PTFE tubing which is a bigger diameter but then down here in the hot end that's
where you have the Capricorn and it's nice and straight it's not bent like
this so you have less resistance and it goes straight in right to the nozzle and
with Luke Hatfields fix it squeezes tight against the nozzle and so to me this is
the best hot end setup that I have in my shop an EZR extruder, the stock larger
diameter PTFE and the Capricorn tubing insert. 14 months ago when I did the Luke
Hatfield insert on this machine I didn't tell people how long to make
the PTFE tube insert and I did that on purpose
I have a lot of comments asking how long to make it and I said well you gotta
measure your hot it and people didn't understand because Luke Hatfield has
guides to cut your PTFE tubing based on your machine but I've got a lot of
different Creality machines and various generations and what I found is they're
not consistent so the guide I don't know how that works because this machine
right here is like 40 millimeters depth and this one is 36 so it's like a 4
millimeter difference between these two so if I give you a tube based on this
one it's gonna be too long in this one so I'm gonna install on this and I'll
show you how to measure yours so you get the right length and then just use a
cutter like a Capricorn a really good cutter that cuts straight
to cut your PTFE tubing and then you'll have the perfect size insert the first
thing you want to do is heat up your hot end remove the filament from the PTFE
tubing and then let this thing cool and unplug it the next step is to unscrew
the coupling here at the hot end and pull the PTFE tubing out of the hot end
now we need to measure for our insert and how I do that is I just take a piece
of 2.85 or three millimeter filament and straighten it out and put it inside the
hot end push it against the nozzle take a marker mark it level with the top of
the hot end and then I measure this and it doesn't have to be perfect as long as
you're close you can use a caliper if you want but this one's measuring 35
millimeters I think I said 36 earlier it's 35 millimeters deep from the top of
the nozzle to the top of the hot end now if you don't have this size filament you
can use 1.75 which comes with your machine just make sure you get to the
edge push to the edge so you're on the edge of the nozzle and not inside the
center of the nozzle because if it's a clean nozzle this will actually slide
into the center now I also use something different and that's my washer this is
my own washer I designed in Tinkercad it's got a funnel effect on the top and
it's a little bit stronger I like this it's four millimeters thick and then I
like to get three millimeters about three millimeters of thread on the
coupling when I screw it in so that's seven millimeters so 35 millimeters -
the seven millimeters says I have to cut my insert 28 millimeters long let's take
the Capricorn tool put it on a piece of PTFE and cut it to 28 millimeters I have
my 28 millimeter piece ready to insert and what I should have mentioned is
before you take all this apart print your washer it only takes a few minutes
to print but you've got to have this printed ahead of time so print that
first before you do any of these steps so I have the washer have the insert
drop it into the hot end it goes in there pretty easy then the washer the flat
side down the concave or funnel side up put it in there and then just push it
down with your thumb and now the coupling you want to slide this off the PTFE
tubing blow any little particles out of it and
then start screwing this in place by hand and then you want to use a wrench
to finish it and just tighten this until you feel it's firm because you're
squishing that PTFE down so just tighten it it's gonna take well one and a half
or two turns and then you'll feel it tighten up and once that's in place then
you can insert the PTFE tube all the way in to that washer and it's ready to
print. I loaded the filament it's printing good in fact it printed this box for a
future electronics projects so stay tuned for that.
the only improvements I want to make now is I want to replace this extruder with
an EZR extruder and get this spool mounted to the side this is actually a
really simple fix but really effective at making your hot end much better.
If you like what I'm doing here maybe check out some of the videos that are popping
up if you want to help support the channel patreon is really helpful and
all the parts and things I use for my videos are linked in the description
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next time right here at Filament Friday