All About Prusa Nextruder - Prusa XL - Chris's Basement - 2024

Today we get up-close and personal with the Prusa Nextruder. We're going to take it apart, look at all the elements, and put it back together. Thanks to Dave Wilson for donating todays test subject.
00:00 Introduction
02:21 Disassembly
14:32 Assembly
33:00 Testing
37:38 Conclusion
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[@studeraustriagmbh603]

Hi Chris, I really appreciate your always precise and accurate guidelines to maintain and repair . Your explanations are not only very helpful but in fully uncommercial sense which differentiate yourself from most of the other KZbinrs presenting their ego more than adding any positive things for the open source and makers community ! Thank you indeed !

[@ChrisRiley]

That's so nice of you to say, thank you!

[@HelgeKeck]

you are the bob ross of 3d printer tutorials

[@ChrisRiley]

Lol! Thank you

[@Visitante_3]

Man the design and engineering process implied on this toolhead is far beyond from what we can see right now in other machines, great explanation

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks you! I'm really liking working with them, so far so good.

[@kodiak2fitty]

Thanks! This was super-helpful for me to work on my XL 5T recently. Definitely made it less intimidating to work on the toolheads given the lack of official documentation.

[@ChrisRiley]

Awesome, glad it helped, thanks for the support!

[@muddymaker3721]

Thanks for your invaluable content to the 3D printing community Chris✌ Clear, concise and informative as always👍

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you so much!

[@francescodigiovanni4632]

Hi Chris, your videos and explanations are very clear. Thank you.

[@ChrisRiley]

Happy to help! Thanks for watching

[@woodwaker1]

Thanks Chris! I'm sure I caused many of the problems when I took it apart. I needed your video to put it back together. Glad I could provide a unit for you

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you for the content Dave. I'm glad I could help

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Chris, thanks for the comprehensive demonstration, showing EVERYTHING! Man, this extruder has too much 3D Printed parts - the filament lever and the latch, Gee, I don't think that should be 3D Printed at all, those are SO SMALL.... I don't trust plastic as much as Joseph Prusa, ha ha ha.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks for your comment and thanks for watching!

[@danielmurphy992]

Thanks! This helped me out of a TPU disaster

[@ChrisRiley]

Happy to help! Thanks for watching!

[@RowanCorbett]

Very nice video! I’ve assembled both a MK4 and an XL Two Tool, but I was a little disappointed that the XL Nextruders came pre assembled. This is a great teardown and explainer that gives me quite a bit of insight on the variations between the two systems. Thanks so much, man!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you!

[@VincentGroenewold]

Reaaaaally valuable, thanks so much! One thing for MK4 users; forget about taking off the wires each time, I find that super fiddly and it can definitely damage them (bit of a design oversight i.m.o.). There are plastic tools on Printables that allow you to simply unscrew the nozzle and take it out, the heater block is very light and wont put as much stress on those wires + changing nozzles becomes a breeze.

[@ChrisRiley]

Great tip! Thanks

[@michaelohmit5903]

Thanks Chris for this awesome video. I just build my Prusa MK4. And I realize I missed the flat washer on the extruder motor. When I get time, I will fix it. But, thanks for the awesome video.

[@ChrisRiley]

Happy to help! Thanks for watching

[@thehappyextruder7178]

Awesome video Chris, and yes @27:27 very important to check these regularly throughout your maintenance sessions, you can get weird artifact if even one is loose.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks!

[@webfiles4utube]

Super awesome and very detailed take disassembly and reassembly. Only concern I had was the grub screw tightness, the installation guide only indicates not to over tighten to prevent crushing and damaging the nozzle tube. Does the nozzle tube appear to have any deformation from the grub screw pressing on it with your setup?

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks! That's something I have checked over and over, because I fear the same things. So far, I haven't seen any evidence of crushing.

[@webfiles4utube]

@ChrisRiley your video are like reference manuals that Prusa should actually pay you for. I'm having a tool head not extruding issue and this is exactly the video for tool head maintenance. With that said... where did you get that ~12mm metal bushing for the idler door. I'm about to take apart one of the tool head and I'm hoping that is not the reason for the extruder not extruding.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks! It's hard to find that part. You can make one yourself out of a few different common parts, but I can't find the part from Prusa. I would chat with Prusa support, that can get you one.

[@dream-bits]

Great video sir. Can you please make an in-depth guide on how to assemble the MK 4 XL with 5 tool heads?

[@ChrisRiley]

I'll see what I can do!

[@C-M-E]

While overall I can respect what Prusa's do for the community, one would assume that going into a certain price bracket with FDM printers would net you a better quality printer in the 'near commercial' workhorse sort. Personal opinion, I'm having a hard time seeing where the money goes with this model, especially in this segment. Going up just a little more would get you into very established commercial or even entry level industrial printers with high capability. Maybe I'm missing something fairly obvious?

[@ChrisRiley]

I don't have a lot of experience with commercial machines, but I would love to check some of them out. I think it would be helpful to have a frame of reference to compare.

[@C-M-E]

@@ChrisRiley Other than being able to run the specialty materials 24/7 and having a few of the niceties out of the box (primarily _high_ temp heated build chambers that feel like reaching into a broiler, water cooled mechanicals and on-call tech support), the one thing a commercial printer doesn't come with is guaranteed results, much like a regular home unit. They do tend to have a higher success rate, sure, but the fails also hurt more in terms of materials. I've seen engineers cry when 18 hour PEEK prints go bad, and that's not including the clean-up afterwards of some very aggressive filament that's a bit more difficult to clean from internals that your usual PLA nightmare. 😁 That's about all you're missing out on anymore. The difference in terms of speed has shrunk tremendously in recent years where I'm sure there's much faster printers in more home use than commercial offices and labs, all else being equal.

[@williamerskine6035]

Super informative video, well done! You have a great presentation style. At 1:48 you mentioned that the lights on the XT extruder are also a pair of buttons and will load/unload the filament. I had to try it and there was no play in the 'buttons' when pressed and nothing happened. What's the scoop? Did you edit/speed up the ending scenes of the tool selection, homing movements etc? It seemed faster than mine.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you! At one time, they were buttons and they still have it in the manual. They are only used when the machine is in a certain state. I will go back and verify what that state is. And yes, that was sped up.

[@magomat6756]

My xl is just delivered so I am very intrested to learn

[@ChrisRiley]

That's great! Good luck!

[@dream-bits]

Danke!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you!

[@duanehouck2919]

To be clear... this is the XL Multi-tool version of the extruder. The MK4 and the single tool XL are different.

[@jakefromstatefarm8545]

He said it was the xl toolhead version

[@duanehouck2919]

@@jakefromstatefarm8545Agreed, but he did not say it was the Multi Tool version and I thought it would be helpful to others who might be confused when their Nextruder does not match what he is showing.

[@ChrisRiley]

🙂👍

[@johnnymac1976]

It's interesting how the heater cartridge is pretty far away from the nozzle bore/threads with the thermistor between the two. Chris, is the hot-end copper?

[@ChrisRiley]

The heat block appear to be all aluminum, I could be wrong, but it seems way to light to be copper.

[@zilogfan]

Awesome video and detial, I learned a few things. Also you missed a calibration where you loosen the drive outer gear and it rotates a bit while you snug them. I think it lets that locate a bit better just in case it is not concentric with the sun gear... It was part of the mk4 build and I assume same on xl...

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you!

[@zimmy1958]

Great vid Chris, I like the Nextruder. My first close look at the the toolhead style.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Zimmy!

[@Den-ml7zg]

Damn that thing is huge. Another great vid.

[@ChrisRiley]

It's a big one! Thanks

[@75keg75]

Did anyone see the Prusa video that dropped today with the box? The opening shot had a printer on the right. Did you see the right Z screw setup. It looked very different to anything i've seen before from Prusa. Thoughts on if it is a Mk4S? and it an updated nextuder.... or is that stock fit mark 4? @Chris Riley - the 5T XL arrives monday (26/2/24) and they didn't hit me for 5% duty so a bit cheaper (by~300) than I thought. so keep this vids coming :)

[@duanehouck2919]

@75keg75 Good catch! Now I'm really curious. I can't figure out what it would be.

[@herr_rossi69]

I don't think it's a new MK4. I don't see any differences except on the right z axle. And the part looks as if it was attached to the original screw connection. I have no idea what it is used for. I've only heard that a Prusa camera is coming.

[@ChrisRiley]

Awesome to hear about your XL! I didn't see that, I will have to go find it.

[@MelSavageKiller]

2 minutes in and i am already learning something new, who would have known they were buttons and not just status lights lol.

[@duanehouck2919]

I could be wrong, but I they are just lights on the XL Single tool.

[@MelSavageKiller]

I will check as mine is a single tool upgraded to a 5 tool@@duanehouck2919

[@mirco485]

I was also surprised and immediately tried it out on my MultiTool XL. Unfortunately, only the cover broke. I couldn't determine any function, not even when the extruder was heated up.

[@ChrisRiley]

🙂👍

[@Kmakaot]

Я не знаю когда я смогу себе позволить XL, но это было очень познавательно! 👍🏻

[@ChrisRiley]

Возможно когда-нибудь. Спасибо!

[@StephenBoyd21]

Prusa have certainly spent a lot of time designing the nextruder.

[@ChrisRiley]

🙂👍

[@awilliams1701]

It's interesting seeing the difference between the mk4 and the xl version.

[@ChrisRiley]

Yes!

[@ScienceMessiah]

can this be DIY'd or are clones available? Would be nice to get a base XL and add cloned extruders as prusa's gotten pretty greedy.

[@ChrisRiley]

I'm sure clones will be coming soon enough.

[@3D_Printing]

Plenty of details :) What no Cambus

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks!

[@robgarner4728]

For the price they are getting for these, it should work without fail for along time.

[@duanehouck2919]

So I agree that $2100 is a lot of money, but let's compare Apples to Apples: Voron 2.4 LDO Kit is almost $1500. The XL single tool is ~$2100 delivered. I have both and they both have their strengths. The Voron 2.4 kit takes a lot longer to assemble and you don't get support from LDO (admittedly, the support from the community is great, but not part of the price of the machine) and LDO didn't have to spend the time and money to develop the design. Also, with an XL, you get the Prusa ecosystem. So I do not see how the price is out of line with other printers. Prusa is far from perfect, but so is any 3d printing manufacturer.

[@ChrisRiley]

👍🙂

[@awilliams1701]

I think I like the xl version better than the mk4 version.

[@ChrisRiley]

👍🙂

[@sivisjoe9877]

The printed tool head is cool, but I refuse to do this on a commercial machine.

[@ChrisRiley]

👍🙂

[@fw4809]

THOSE ARE BUTTONS!?!?!

[@ChrisRiley]

🙂👍