So here’s a lesson I learned. If you want to push the limits of your printer, Don’t print your extruder block out of PLA.
I replaced my original Mendel90 Wade’s extruder, that had cracked, with one that I printed out of PLA. The PLA softened due to heat from the J-head hotend, and the extruder motor, causing the motor to sag, and eventually the J head to become floppy in the mount, and the mount screws to stretch out the holes. When I originally tried to print this part out of ABS, I had several bombed prints because the part warped and started to lift.
So this time I re-glued the cracked original extruder with ABS/Acetone slurry, and mounted my new E3D hotend on it.
Printing at 250C, I was able to complete a fine print with no lifting. I’ll just hold onto this one as a spare, as the repaired original extruder seems to be holding up well. In the photos below, the white part is Protoparadigm ABS, and the green is Fabberdashery PLA.
Here are the settings I used on the successful ABS print:
Filament 3.0mm Protoparadigm ABS
Extruder temp: 250C (E3D-V5)
Bed temp: 125C - glasscoated with Aquanet hairspray
Slice: 0.2mm
Nozzle: 0.4mm
Perimeters: 3
Top & Bottom Layers: 3
Infill: 65% Honeycomb
Brim 3mm
Support: On, 2.5mm
No worries. I’ve got the same extruder you have. I’ll probably get my Bowden set up (I’ve got a PLA extruder body) before I try to print ABS, but I found that the top of the E3D didn’t even get warm at 230, so that might be overkill.
You had the E3D hot-en on when the heat effected it?
I have run prints of up to 13Hrs long with the E3D and the top few fins were still only room temp to the touch , I wouldn’t have thought that would have effected the PLA extruder?
Maybe the stepper if it got real toasty though.
Maybe a heatsink on the extruder stepper?
The way I read it was that he was using a j-head when the extruder block melted. And that motor current heat was a major factor.
However if anyone ever experiences an issue with an E3D hotend melting it’s printed mounting parts i’d be interested to know, it was designed to allow PLA mounting parts. (Even if that isn’t a great idea due to motor and bed heat - for some people it’s their only option, and if you’re just printing PLA anyway it’s no big deal)
Sanjay is correct… The PLA Wade’s block exhibited problems while being used with my J-head hot end. From what I have seen so far, the E3D hot end is very cool at the interface with the Wades Block.
