Lightweight E3D v6 hotend for anycubic kossel (threaded version)

cults3d

I was not thrilled with the standard hotend on my Anycubic Kossel. The major issues for me were: - The heavy design (problem number one from my point of view) - Airflow for heatsink cooling is somewhat constricted by design, so a high-flow fan is required, which means it's noisy - The JHead V5 isn't melting plastic fast enough and is limiting the overall speed of the printer So I designed my own hotend with the first criterion to make it as light as possible. To achieve this, I went for the TriangleLab E3D V6 heatsink clone, threaded version, associated with their ceramic heatblock. The result was amazing: 89g in full working order vs 196g for the stock hotend (54% lighter). This means we can double the head speed for the same mechanical stress. No functionalities are lost with this printhead: - Full printing area is available with this hotend; it doesn't restrict it in any way. - Stock Z-probe can be reused - Independent cooling fan for parts is available as before The ceramic heatblock performs marvelously during printing, and the low weight eliminates almost all ringing, a well-known problem of this printer. Pictures of the calibration cube speak for themselves: All cubes have been printed with the same settings and the same PLA: 0.2mm layers H, 0.5 layer W, stock extruder; one set at 60mm/s and another at 120mm/s. Bill of Material: - Threaded version of E3D V6 heatsink - Heatbreak, bore version: You cannot reuse the stock one, it's not threaded to be mounted in the heatsink - Ceramic heatblock, Set2. This is not absolutely necessary; you can use a standard V6 heatblock or even Volcano, but those heatblocks are heavier than this one - 2x30mm fans. I struggled a lot to find small fans both silent (17 dB) and with a good enough flow (5 m³/h). I strongly advise NOT to take any fan with a smaller flow. dB is your choice ;) - 4x15mm M3 screws for mounting the fans - 6x20mm M3 screws to attach the hotend to the rods. You can reuse the stock screws - Magnetic plate for Z-probe can be reused from stock hotend - 2x5mm M3 screws to attach the magnetic plate - Cables and connectors Tools needed: - A 3D printer ;-) - Sanding tool to remove support attachment inside of the hotend. A Dremel will be helpful but not necessary - Small drill with 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 drill bit - M3 tap will be helpful but not necessary Knowledge needed: - How to modify Marlin Configuration.h, compile, and upgrade printer firmware - How to calibrate the printer (with Marlin auto-calibration ;-) ) April 2019 evolution: I mounted my effector with a titanium full-metal heatbreak from TriangleLab and fed it with a cloned BMG extruder. This has been a huge upgrade. I'm now able to melt Geeektech filament at 15mm³/s instead of 9mm³/s with the original JHead, that's 67% faster. As melting filament was the bottleneck of the printer, I'm now able to print at 120mm/s, 0.2 layer height, and 0.5 weight without underextruding. Thanks to the lightweight effector, the quality is very good even at that speed, better than the stock effector at 60mm/s :- Melting faster means more cooling needs. The quiet fan I indicated above wasn't enough; it got deformed by the heat after 10+ prints, so I designed the V2 in the help to minimize the problem: I added two reinforcement, two cooling holes, and a smoother connection between mounting plate and round part. To help with overheating, I also printed it in white ABS instead of black and put some aluminum adhesive tape on the side in front of the heater. Print in 0.1mm layer height, 100% infill, and support/ The upgrade with the titanium heatbreak forced me to retune all settings for PLA and ABS, so I uploaded my Cura profile too. Beware retraction settings are for a BMG dual-gear extruder. For stock extruder, stick with stock retraction speed. I also replaced all screws by nylon screws to gain even more weight! Happy upgrades!