Has anyone tried this: https://www.hotends.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=88
Should I buy this ??
The J-head is arguably the most used hotend and works well for its users.
However, the all-metal E3D hotend has (imho) become the new gold standard for hotends, so i’m recommending that wherever I can.
you can’t beat a jhead from the original creator. you won’t be sorry you got one.
Someting like this?: http://www.e3d-online.com/ourshop/prod_2672343-E3Dv5-All-metal-HotEnd-3mm-Direct-Extrusion.html
or this: http://www.e3d-online.com/ourshop/prod_2781405-E3Dv5-All-metal-HotEnd-3mm-Bowden-Extrusion.html
Thanks for quick respond 
It’s damned hard to beat a “real” j-head from Brian @ http://hotends.com if you print PLA. My E3D is not nearly as robust as my j-heads with PLA.
agree with @Thomas_Sanladerer here. The j-heads are good. I have that very version from http://jheads.com. I also have an e3d. The e3d is a generation beyond the jhead.
J-heads are pretty much hands-down the best hot end you can get if you’re getting it legitimately through http://hotends.com (the original designer and maker of the jhead) and aren’t really interested in printing polycarbonate or other high-temp materials. The J-head will handle most materials just fine. Nylon is a little close at 242C (PEEK melts at 246C) but still doable.
The E3D has a much broader range of temperatures, and is also a very good choice. Avoid knockoffs.
In what way is it better then others?
How do you define this metric?
@Marcus_Wolschon a hotend isn’t defined by a single metric, but some factors on which i judge them are:
- Long-term reliability (i’ve had Budaschnozzles and the older Reprap-Fab hotend fall apart mid-print)
- Extrusion precision (does it react quickly to E moves or does it lag and ooze?)
- Achievable temperature (i’m not really comfortable with cooking PTFE liners or PEEK at 280°C)
- Speed (brass blocks and heater resistors are prone to cooling too far if filament is fed too quickly)
- Ease of use / maintenance (Can the nozzle be swapped out? Does it come with a standard thermistor? How is it mounted?)
On top of that, it can be converted from 1.75 to 3mm with a simple PTFE sleeve swap. It’s hand-assembled by reifsnyderb (he idles in reprap) to ensure that things are tightened to specification, PTFE down the center means that the J-head is one of the easiest nozzles to clean as far as jams go (with 3mm). You simply heat up the filament to glass transition temp, reverse, and it will pull the full plug including the tip of the extrusion all the way out. Out of the buda, makergear, j-head, knock-off j-heads, printrbot, and more - the legit J-head has been the most reliable, fuss-free hot end I’ve seen. (disclaimer: I do not have ~any~ experience with the E3D yet, so do not discredit it)
@Marcus_Wolschon
It’s easier for me - maybe more subjective - I judge it on ease of use, print quality, and reliability. I’ve tried the E3D, and I simply don’t get as good prints out of it as I do with the j-head, and I’ve had a jam a couple of time on PLA. Take a look at my albums - 99% of what’s posted was printed with a j-head, at speeds ranging from < 30mm/s to > 200mm/s, in ABS, PLA, HIPS, Taulman 618, 645, and some PLA/PHA blends.
I see reliability mostly as an issue with the filament drive. Same for ease of use since you screw in your hotend once and idealy never touch it again.
As for jamming, did you try the same material and settings with different heads to back up this claim or is it purely guessing that the hotend had anything to do with it?
(I’m trying to figure out what objective properties make a good vs. a bad hot-end and how the J-Head objectively performs on this scale.)
So:
- cartridge heater (no NiCr wire)
- good thermal insulation to keep filament above hot-end cool
- thermocouple instead of termistor
- detachable nozzle for cleaning/replacing
- long lasting, non-stick coating on nozzle outside
- low friction on the inside
- avaliable for 3mm and 1.75mm for different types of toolheads
@Marcus_Wolschon lack of friction produced by the hot end ends up making your drive more reliable. The J-head has a nice little melt zone, and the PTFE lining means very very little friction.
Whereas you have something like the Makergear which is just a crappy brass threaded bolt bored out and it takes a ton more force to get extrudate to make its way through the end.
Or the Budaschnozzle where I’ve had heat creep all the way up past the printed mounting bracket, and the filament mushroom out and cause a blockage that requires nothing short of removal of the whole extruder mechanism.
@ThantiK thanks.
@Marcus_Wolschon Well, every time you jam your head, you’ll be removing it, and that’s something I’d rather not be doing, not to mention nuking your print. I’ve tried TL’s Magma (crap), JGR’s Aluhead (decent, but lined with PTFE), Prusa’s V1 Metal, Budda 1.0, Arcol and loads others.
As with all things RepRap, try and see what works best for you.
I Haven’t had filament jam up in a hotend for ages now and always only pull out the filament and screw off the nozzle but not the entire hot-end or even toolhead to clean it with a solvent.
(Would be hell to remove an entire hot-end in that case due to all the cables nicely tucked away out of reach.)
I should point out that I don’t use PLA (as I prefer for my parts not to go droopy on a hot day) so I can’t speak for the E3Ds performance in that regard. For ABS, it out perfoms my Jhead. e.g. higher print speeds while maintaining consistent extrusion, less heat creep and less ooze.
@Tim_Rastall LOL - we don’t get many 60c days up this side of the world, and I love the smell of PLA in the morning.
Be interesting to see your progress as you get your Tantillus running - a couple of us are running CoreXY’s in excess of 200mm/s with what we consider to be pretty consistent extrusion - and until I get more Smoothie love, I don’t think I can push it much further.
@John_Driggers I think if I was hitting 200mm/s I’d be happy enough, especially as intend to run a fat infill nozzle and use kiss pro’s ‘infill every night layers option’. Gen 1 Smoothies a bit scary for me, will wait till Gen 2 I think. Also only 4 steppers 
ALSO pics of your core xy hmm?
#TVRRUG uses earlier J-heads very successfully, they have been consistent quality and reliably & timely supplied in quantities that others have been unable to achieve.