Hey guys, we’re getting custom J-Head Mk V-BV bowden hot ends made for our Deltaprintr kickstarter project and were wondering if anyone here would be interested in getting one as well? These will be made exactly to the same specifications as the J-head to ensure that it works reliably and efficiently. The only thing that we are not certain of at the moment is if we will be cutting out vents in the PEEK for optimal cooling like the J-Head Mk V-BV currently has. If we aren’t, then we’d recommend them to be used with PLA only. I personally never used a fan on a J-head for over 2 years and never had problems printing PLA.
We already received our first PEEK sample and should receive a sample of the brass nozzle as well. For now we combined our PEEK design with a regular J-Head Mk V-BV brass nozzle for testing. We also modified the PEEK holder part to fit 6mm baltic birch wood. This way you’re not limited to attaching the hot end to only printed plastic pieces, but also to 6mm wooden platforms. (typically baltic birch)
These hot ends will retail for around $40 a piece in comparison to the $56.99 J-heads.
We’re looking for a few beta testers who would be interested in helping us test these for performance for a few weeks. In return for helping us out and giving us feedback, we’ll give out a few for $30 a piece (push fit, ptfe liner, PEEK, brass nozzle). Anyone interested?
I’ve got a PrintrBot Simple, and a RigidBot on the way. Not sure if this would qualify for your beta testing, but I’d be interested to help out. I’ve been thinking of converting my PB-Simple to Bowden anyway.
@Alex_Glenn We have yet to find out If anything, we’ll cut the vents out.
@Carlton_Dodd Doesn’t matter what printer, if you can help, that’ll be great! Make sure you reply on the following link so that I can keep track. Once we get the parts, we will begin shipping them out through our online store.
I’m not a hotend designer, but I think you may have it backwards - without vents the hotend would work for ABS, but would have jamming problems with PLA. Our experience is that J-Heads (originals, from http://hotends.com) need cooling to work with PLA for long prints, and the same is true for other designs, all except the Ubis.
That might possibly be explained by some testing Nophead did: http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2013/10/mendel90-design-improvements.html?m=1 The Ubis hotends always ship with a piece of firehose insulation, and I suspect that may be their secret. As it happens I have one of my J-Heads apart for unclogging right now, and some self amalgamating tape will go on it when it is rebuilt.
Even with that I’m not sure you could get away without vents, though…
I didn’t have time to get to this last night, but @Bill_Owens has it spot on. Being as the J-head vents are rather intricate, maybe a new style could be milled that doesn’t quite require the 5-axis in order to have it done.
You bring up some good points Bill. We are going to test and see what we can do to keep the price low but not sacrifice quality of prints or limit the materials.
I have personally used my J-head for over 2 years to print PLA only and it never clogged up or had any issues.
If anything, we’ll cut the vents out.