I Built a Custom Hotend for my 3D Printer, Here's What I Learned

[@TommyHoughton]

Summarised User Key Suggestions: Kapton Tape → Replace with metal clips (several different possibilities) or high-temp silicone for better durability. Thermistor and Heater Mounting → Switch to a tube-style thermistor, improve mounting, and ensure clean wire management. Wire Upgrades → Use thicker wires for improved safety and performance. CHT Nozzles → Explore Bondtech CHT nozzle options DIY Silicone Sock (Or Glass Fibre Sleeve) → Add for improved insulation and heat management. Edit: After intensely researching via AliExpress, I found the perfect ceramic heater that's the perfect length, great power, and is a tube/coil/ring rather than a flat plate. Definetly will produce a part two with it in the near future. I'll try and keep this updated. Cheers!

[@cwb43068]

memory heatsink clips would work well for heater clips

[@TommyHoughton]

@@cwb43068 Those would be great too! I’ll see what I can find.

[@cwb43068]

@@TommyHoughton Youve sparked some thoughts in my head on heater options, currently in fusion drawing it up. Ill send it off to my machinest buddy and see what I come up with. I have a thermal imaging camera so I can do some real life temp modeling on the hot end for design changes.

[@wadecrawford6445]

I was thinking those black squeeze binder clips, the smaller version, for holding those ceramic heaters on.

[@TommyHoughton]

@@wadecrawford6445 For the smaller version they might work, but the ones I had on hand weren’t staying on properly. There’s a lot of options for them though which is good.

[@nikopol7993]

Use thermal epoxy to adhere the heaters - then for a silicone sock - mix up two part silicone - and dip the entire hot end, top to bottom in it - do several layers - best to have a sacrificial nozzle in at the time you're doing this.

[@ares395]

He could just print the entire Cad assembly to have a decent representation of the real extruder and make a silicon sock based on that instead. Also I'd think square mold would work better, the mold part would literally be the finished part.

[@nilshopfengartner4131]

maybe 3d printed injection mold for the sock, and use High-Temperature RTV Gasket Maker?

[@ErtsenPlayGames]

epoxy will cost small fortune ,hold maybe up to 200-250*C and will deteriorate overtime pretty fast, silicone will work fine to 280*C constant and u can use standard high temp silicone in 310mll tubes , put it on the hotend and use water + soap on your finger etc to smooth it out (or 3D print a mold)

[@nikopol7993]

@@ares395 definitely that would be ideal - but the sock doesn't have to be very thick - do even the low tech solution of dipping it would suffice

[@ares395]

@@nikopol7993 Yes, but the square mold does not need to be very large/ oversized. I feel like pouring method is generally easier and gives more consistent results and you only have to mix up one batch and are done. And it would give you stronger cast for less work so. But we'll see what dude figures out.

[@deltacx1059]

Nobody actually mentions the cost of these services, some KZbinrs advertised some other services I checked for printed parts and a tiny part cost me as much as just building a machine to make it myself.

[@TommyHoughton]

I believe I showed the prices of each of the components during the unboxing, excluding shipping though. They’re not cheap, but for prototypes I can understand the justification for some, I’d much rather pay to get a custom part than buy and learn how to cnc. Cheers!

[@charlesstaton8104]

Sure, explore other CHT nozzle designs if you must, but while you're at it, please do try a normal brass nozzle. This is something you'll probably have to see to believe, but when you have a hotend that is capable of *_actually MELTING_* the filament at high speed, CHT geometry becomes just an obstruction to flow. My daily drive hotend is about as long as yours and I find that plain brass flows about 20%-30% more than CHT. CHT is hack for subpar hotends (and 99% of all hotends are subpar hotends). My hotend is made of 3 independently-zoned CHC pro heaters (3 thermistors, 3 heaters, 3 heater outputs, 3 PID loops) - I recommend giving that a try; it eliminates the temperature gradient from top to bottom of the hotend. I see you are measuring the temperature in the middle of the hotend. That how Goliath hotend is too. I get it, you can measure at the top, the bottom, or the middle. If you measure at the top then you're reading cold filament and burning the plastic down at the nozzle. If you measure down by the nozzle then you can't react to sudden increase in demand because by the time the cold plastic makes it to the bottom and is sensed, it's too late. So middle seems like the best of both worlds. IMO it's the worst of both worlds. You have delayed reaction AND burning of plastic at the nozzle. That's where the 3 zones comes in. Your hotend should be capable of 150mm³/s at least, probably more, with some tweaks. I have hit 168mm³/s with mine but that was in extrusion test (0.8mm nozzle, that's all i use). Actually printing that fast doesn't give great results. I usually print at 100-120mm³/s. I typically print at 0.5mm layer height and 1.2mm width perimeters, 0.8mm width infill. Printing that tall and fat, at that flowrate, it doesnt actually look like you're printing all that fast. Until your 1kg part is done before you even finish episode 2 of whatever you're binge watching. I also don't have cooling but i can get away with that because I'm almost always printing parts that are larger than a whole Ender3. I should also mention there is a point of diminishing returns as you keep increasing hotend length. That's why I stopped at 3x CHC. I did also try 4x and 5x CHC, and they were not better. 5x was actually worse. Yours looks precariously close to the point of diminishing returns. Oh, and your wire melted off the smaller heater because the heater wasn't touching the heatblock. The heater *_MUST_* have good contact, a suitable surface to transfer its heat into, or else all the heat is contained in the heater itself, and the heater is not a great vessel for containing heat. Good at generating heat, but not at containing it. It was melting down internally where you couldn't see it, and you only noticed when that heat conducted up the wire to the outside of the heater. Heaters absolutely must fit and make good contact, and you would benefit from having some high temp thermal compound between heater and block (boron nitride is great).

[@charlesstaton8104]

Oh one more suggestion is to support the hotend better. You are putting a lot of stress on the heatbreak and while it does still print, you will notice artifacts as you progress, from the nozzle deflecting. Check out hotends which address this by using triplex stabilizers. Like peopoly Lancer hotend, do yourself a favor and look to that one for inspiration. It isn't long enough, but everything else about it, they did right.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks for bringing this up, I do have a couple of standard nozzles that I can test out. I believe I've heard of this in the past so it doesn't surprise me. I'm glad to hear someone's tried using multiple CHC Pro's, I thought it would be crazy, but well worth a go. I'll look into multiple thermistor support so that I can mount at least two thermistors in the future. Is there an article or such that helped you with the config side of things? I've never fully looked into it, but keeping the correct temps throughout the entirety of the block is worth pursuing for sure. I haven't much about this topic so I'm keen to learn more. Since I got up to 90mm³/s being conservative, I think that's a good estimate. Your setup sounds extremely efficient for what you're doing. That's awesome. I think you're right about diminishing returns, I wouldn't dare go any longer, despite how appealing 100mm heaters seemed. I'm looking at finding an in-between around 50mm, and optimising as much as possible. I would've loved to have seen a 5x stacked CHC Pro, it would be surreal. That's a really good explanation, most likely what happened too. I'll make sure future mounting has no compromises. I must get my hands on some boron nitride paste, it's been spoken very highly of. Thank you so much for this constructive feedback and information, this will help me immensely! I appreciate the time you took to write it all. Cheers!

[@TommyHoughton]

More supports are planned, it was a key flaw of this build. I’m interested to see how bad it gets. I’ll look into getting one! It’s a great value model what I’ve heard. Thanks again!

[@charlesstaton8104]

PID auto tuning multiple zones that are thermally coupled can be problematic, may require some manual adjustments.

[@charlesstaton8104]

@@TommyHoughton I'm trying to answer your question about multiple thermistor multiple zone heating but youtube keeps deleting my comments and I don't know why. This such a bad platform for exchanging ideas. Do you have a discord or something?

[@the555timer]

10:52 that's what you call messy?? that's the cleanest work bench I've seen

[@jasonhoffman3288]

agreed, amature..

[@JaredBrewerAerospace]

Great video! Loved your ambition in designing a high-flow, water-cooled hotend. *Things that went right:* -The custom-machined copper heater block and heatsink looked fantastic, especially with the nickel plating. -Achieving high flow rates up to 90 mm³/s is impressive. -The Artemis extruder integration worked smoothly. *Things that went wrong:* -Water cooling had leaks due to fitting issues; the PTFE fittings didn't seal properly. -Mounting heaters with Kapton tape led to durability problems and wire failures. -Filament leaked from the top of the hotend, affecting print quality. -Lack of part cooling caused issues with layer adhesion and print finish. *Things you can improve:* -Replace Kapton tape with metal clips or high-temp silicone for secure heater mounting. -Switch to tube-style thermistors and improve mounting for better reliability. -Use thicker wires to handle higher currents safely. -Add a DIY silicone sock or glass fiber sleeve for better insulation. -Explore Bondtech CHT nozzles for enhanced flow rates. -Focus on solid mounting solutions and clean wire management. -Incorporate effective part cooling to improve print quality. Can't wait to see Part 2 with the new ceramic heater you found. Keep up the great work!

[@TheAdeptGuitarist]

To reduce leakage, there are fittings that go inside the heater block, so that the nozzle butts up to the fitting, then the fitting butts up to the hot side of the heat brake. These are usually used to allow for regular v6 nozzles to be installed in volcano heat blocks (for example a diamondback v6 in a volcano style heater block). Since you have a custom heater block, a custom one of these would need to be made. It is also possible that the clearance of the threads of the heat brake to the threads of heater block, and the nozzle threads to the heaterblock threads is too large but less likely from the amount of leakage shown. A clip similar to what bambu labs uses for its hot end could be a solution to your problem with the heater catridge and thermistor fitment to the heater block as well.

[@TommyHoughton]

I made a small one for the nozzle, but another one would be useful for the heatbreak since both dimensions were a bit wrong. I think I'm out of the spacers though. That's possible, but I made sure the threads were all the same when CAD, I think I'm just terrible at hot tightening. A bambu style clip would be fantastic, but I haven't found anything larger, and I don't know the exact term to find other types. Cheers!

[@aaamott]

Bimetal heartbreaks - love them, but they come loose easily (at least the titanium thread does). After 3 or 4 years of using them, I finally found that pinching them with some big pliers to squish the thread a bit makes them stay. I couldn't keep the titanium tight for the life of me, but with a tiny bit of thread damage it stays in perfectly.

[@TommyHoughton]

Yeah, I've been worried about that happening, I trusted the non all metal one more for surviving the hot tighten. Great tip with the pliers, I'll give that a go as I'd much rather use it over the ptfe lined one. All the best with your projects! Cheers!

[@ThylineTheGay]

depending on the metal compatibility, could you not _solder_ it in?

[@TommyHoughton]

@@ThylineTheGay It would be possible, but definitely a permanent solution. I wonder if anyone has tried it yet…

[@aaamott]

@@ThylineTheGay ooh that's a good point. Harder, but if you never intend to remove it again... The solder definitely has to be a tin only solder. Low temp solders will melt.

[@lawabidingcitizen5153]

@@aaamott Tin still melts at 232°C which is easily reached in 3D printing. Maybe a lead-only solder which would melt at 327°C? The toxicity would make me hesitate though...

[@handlemchandleson1]

Howdy Tommy!! 15:06, when your extruder wire melted it was maybe due to the wires facing inwards towards the hotend block, it could have shorted out right on the metal and caused the wire to act as a fuse, I have worked with those DCDC relays and they often can fail shorted too. Wish you luck on this project

[@TommyHoughton]

Hi there! There's a high chance that's correct, that would explain why the relay failed too! I look forward to improving for next time. Cheers!

[@fabiocarra1997]

me happily printing stupid stuff with my slighty modifed ender 3 pro this dude:

[@Anziilife]

When you removed the capton tape on the heater cartridge, you expose the solder joints, they short against the metals on the hotend (why didn't you install them solderjoints out?) and that might be your problem resulting in the glowing wires.

[@TommyHoughton]

I probably should have covered then with more capton tape. I wanted to install new joints but I couldn’t melt the solder. I’ll be much more cautious next time. Cheers!

[@Jeralddoerr]

What a cluster-F... Wish I had time to fix everything for you... but thanks for posting!

[@TommyHoughton]

I’ll keep working on it until it breaks. Thanks for checking it out! Cheers

[@GeekDetour]

I liked watching your video a lot - but when it finished, I still got a question: "Why?!" It is not as if you were trying to surpass a limitation you were having with a commercially available hot-end. (...) It is just for the pleasure of trying to build one yourself, isn't it? 🤣

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks, Everson! It really was a "because I can" type of video haha. Commercial hotends, even budget ones are getting so good now. I tried to overtake some more premium alternatives, and while I did well in terms of flow rate, quality and useability needs some work. I think my next step is designing a hotend using all the "correct" design principles, maybe one that has the highest flow per mm of hotend total length? All the best with your projects! Cheers!

[@shaynegadsden]

I haven't really done anything with 3d printers but is normal not to used some sort of thermal paste, you aren't working with precision ground surfaces here so a lot of heat is just being transferred optimally. Also those solid state relays(ssr) are designed to be mounted on a heatsink, it would need much of one. And a final point ssr have known issue of current leakage it's only small but the larger heaters also have a smaller resistance which may be the cause of the small amount of heat a simple solution is to just have a master relay a mechanical one that isolates the feed to the ssr when turned off

[@sunnyzhu169]

I was playing around with super volcano recently and for long melt zone design,leaking is just always a thing.I solve this by adding a red copper spacer(3*5*0.5) in between the heat break and the nozzle.then screw them tight without the need to even heat it up.And do notes that a red copper is a must and the dimension has to be exact same or else you will ruin the extruder. I hope it helps❤

[@TommyHoughton]

That's a great idea! I should have looked into something like that. I will try and make a better design for V2, but having this option for next time will be helpful. Thanks!

[@slavkosky]

Not sure if anyone else mentioned already, but im pretty sure those standard ptfe fittings are made for air applications. I believe they make water-versions of them

[@Shukodoshi]

Instead of using a silicone sock, you could wrap the heater block in woven fiber glass. Fire proof, insulating af, cheap, and easy to apply. Still need a bit of kapton, but just to keep it wrapped around.

[@TommyHoughton]

Good idea! I think I found some of it for cheap, that combined with some of the other methods I've been recommended will work amazing. Cheers!

[@Shukodoshi]

@@TommyHoughton np. I use the stuff meant for auto body repair for insulating my print bed and heater block for my PPS and beyond printer, works well and last hundreds of hours at over 330c.

[@amogusenjoyer]

Thank you for providing the costs for every custom parts, very helpful!

[@Doyle69]

"Work bench is still very messy" Me: DAMN thats a tidy desk!

[@yashmandal9541]

Use silicon sealant for leakage. Make sure its properly applied and dried off.

[@elrictraver8275]

I love this video. Mostly because I'm looking for some kind of solution for the hotend on my ender5s1's I'm really getting tired of them leaking out the top of the block and am starting to think about just building my own hot ends for the three machines I have. I don't want crazy speed or anything, but something that would be easy for me to maintain, and cheap.

[@justOVERCH]

15:24 you need to change the solder. ordinary melts at a temperature of 260C°. even if you take a wire with a larger cross-section, the solder will remain a weak point. on all factory hotends, the wires are welded¹ and sealed with sealant. (using the technology used to weld 18650 batteries)¹

[@TommyHoughton]

I did try, but even at 480C° it wouldn't melt, presumably because the heaters can supposedly reach 500C° and therefor something much crazier than regular or silver solder is used. Really annoying. I didn't want to risk ripping them out either. Cheers!

[@madskillsgaming4745]

Teflon tape may stop the water leaking and the filament leaking, I'm pretty sure that there are high temp version.

[@TommyHoughton]

Good idea, I'll note that for the future.

[@wilurbean]

Aluminum isn't used because it's the best hot end material, but it's the easiest to tool up and machine for mass production while being OK elsewhere

[@TommyHoughton]

That’s true, it’s a good balanced material.

[@michits1118]

You could try covering the hotend heater block in high heat resistant resin (just a small layer that it insulates it enough)

[@TommyHoughton]

That's a good idea, someone else suggested high temp silicone. For now I've wrapped it (poorly) in nichrome resistance wire and a glass fiber sleeve which is working well enough. The main thing is the thermistor needs to be securely mounting. We'll see how it performs in the next video, hopefully by the end of the month. Cheers!

[@jakobfindlay4136]

Those thin ass wire look like they'll burst into flames with the first real print

[@TommyHoughton]

Luckily they didn't, but I really didn't like them, especially on the big heaters. I tried to solder new ones but could not get the solder to melt onto them. Assuming these heaters can actually do 500c, they're probably using some extreme high temp solder that I'd need a heat gun to melt. Cheers!

[@jakobfindlay4136]

@@TommyHoughton heaters unavoidable for now but I meant the ones feeding the relay

[@TommyHoughton]

@@jakobfindlay4136 Thanks for the clarification, yeah they're a bit too small for this job, I'll swap them for smaller AWG wires.

[@safwan096]

pinnacle of engineering

[@foxxo-dev]

What firmware do you use for your printer, and how did you get it to work with the mobile app? Octoprint?

[@TommyHoughton]

I used Klipper firmware and the web interface, Mainsail. Cheers

[@AvengerSho]

use a funnel? or maybe print one if you dont have any use teflon tape on the threads to easily prevent leaks use a small deskfan in front of the printer as a temporary part cooling fan if you dont have metal clips, make simple ones out of noncoated paper clips

[@fionahoughton241]

Very interesting and well put together video, Tommy - loved it! 😀❤️

[@ErtsenPlayGames]

you can go with vulcano oryginal Bondtech CHT nozzle to go 70mm3s+++....++ (it can go even faster) ----but if you want to go building your own --- remember to have space to make it tight , make hole for thermistor in PT100 metal tube not only glass ones (like one prusa etc use) ----15:10 - wires from heating elements wont hold squeezing them and touching hotend or you will get them shorted like you show there ---- 9:10 you can insulate it with silicone by either 3D modeling a mold for it and pouring some inside or go buy tube of standard cheap high temp silicone in automotive store (look for 310mll big ones - they way cheaper long term) and apply it on the hotend straight from tube then use your finger dipped in soapy water to make it smooth but better option is to just order glass fibre silicone sock (sleeve) === silicone fiberglass sleeve --- you can order it by meter , it can hold 260*C -- constant or more with bit shorter lifespan ---- longer doesn't mean better -- to long wont change anything or even make things worse .................... thats what she said 😆 ---- remember you can break the heatbreak with too long heat block if it start to bend touching printed part to fast etc ----20:40 --- there is also a chance that extruder motor can't keep up with the speed

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks for your comment! I haven't tried any of Bondtech's nozzles yet, I should be fair and give them a go. Originally the plan was to use a tube-style thermistor, but I changed to a glass thermistor as I was unsure. I should have followed through. Yeah, those wires need better management, they definitely shorted on something. Good idea! I need to get a tube or two of high-temperature silicone to make a sock and insulate everything. We'll see if I continue using this block or try to make it again but better. I don't do a ton of printing anyway so a glass fibre sleeve would actually be an excellent solution. That is too true, I think a design in between the small and large one would be the best of both worlds. The stress on the heatbreak is something I'm looking into, I haven't printed anything too fast just yet, so I'll be monitoring it closely in the next video. That's a possibility. I haven't played around with tuning it and such just yet. I can always increase the current and add a heatsink but we'll see what problems arise first. Thank you for your constructive feedback and ideas! I really appreciate it! Cheers

[@CitrusIntellect]

There may be a way to fix your problems with filament and make it even faster, You could probably use a Bondtech CHT Nozzle And make the tolerance between the heating block and nozzle threads (if you have any) very tight. Also love the video!

[@TommyHoughton]

Someone else also suggested a bondtech CHT nozzle, I'll consider it for the future. A tighter tolerance would help as well, I should maybe get some boron nitride paste too. Thanks for watching and your comments!

[@TallynTech]

OH brother I just noticed your pump is higher than your reservoir you need to fix that before you burn up your pump my guy. Air in the system will always go to the highest point in the system and the only part you don't want to be the highest is that pump. It's all good to have some air in your rad thats normal just do what you gotta do to get your pump/res slightly lower than your rad and you'll be good.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks for the tip! I’ve made that mistake in the past so I’ll try to avoid it happening a third time. Cheers!

[@m.t-thoughts8919]

Why dont get inspired PCs? Build a case for it and use server fans by Noctuar. Also Watercooling componets from different companies

[@larkbox8427]

If ptfe tape fails to seal water leaks in fitting threads look at fernox lsx sealer.. soft silicone tubes come in all sizes and seal nicely against tubes a lil smaller and being elastic can be coaxed on..

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks for the tips! I'll look into them for future designs. Cheers!

[@AndrewLomas-oc9qf]

this is the quality content I need

[@TommyHoughton]

I'll keep working on it! Cheers

[@nilshopfengartner4131]

all / bi metal mk8 , 40w heater in copper block and .6 CHT steel nozzle, been getting consistent 25mm3 on my e3 with "rapid petg", but i'm lazy, that's some nice tinkering you got there

[@TommyHoughton]

That's a great setup! Is the 40W enough for what you're doing? I recently picked up an 80W cartridge heater from I think Kingroon? But I believe Mellow now makes 100W ones which is crazy. Thanks for watching! Cheers!

[@tonypearson3379]

Great vid tommy a few prices just for interest isn't youtube great😊 keep up the great work

[@TommyHoughton]

@@tonypearson3379 Thanks Tony! I look forward to showing you the changes I’ve made. Cheers!

[@anoirbentanfous]

O-rings and teflon tapes are your friend

[@MitsumaYT]

Neat work, although I think it would have been easier just to buy a TriangleLabs STD6. With a nozzle its 69mm long, so pretty much about the size of what you built. PTC style hotends using a flat heater like yours also use a clip style to keep the heater on, paired with some high temp thermal paste. Check out the Rapido 2 UHF if you need inspiration for a clip style mount.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks! I actually received an STD6 and Rapido Ace from Trianglelab a couple of days ago! The STD6 is going on the Ender 5. It's a huge device, can't wait to test it. Good tip with the clip and thermal paste, the new Rapido hotends have some design choices that I should take inspiration from. Cheers!

[@Sfernan888]

im guessing the leads of the heaters shorted on the block?

[@TommyHoughton]

It's the most likely possibility, better cable management would definitely be in store for next time. Cheers

[@ravenous14]

@@TommyHoughton If that SSR was faulty with the first heaters, it would've kept pumping power until that wire burned out.

[@TommyHoughton]

@@ravenous14 Maybe that's exactly what happened!

[@rusencelik1272]

Please do the second part. I am waiting so bad atm

[@TommyHoughton]

I have the heater for V2 but it’s going to be ~2 months the earliest until I can allocate the time for it, it won’t be a crazy video, but still fun and focusing more on the design. I’ll do my best to make the wait worth it! Cheers

[@OuyaWoelders-hi9bn]

why dont you just use a mechanical relay, you will need to make some drive circuit and it might be a little loud but they can be very relaible and robust. you can also use some ptfe tape to seal everything.

[@TommyHoughton]

I haven’t heard of a mechanical relay, I’ll check them out.

[@coledavidson5630]

Set this up on a core xy machine with cooling for EXTREME SPEEEEEED

[@hhoop3876]

What fan duct did you use for your old hotend?

[@TommyHoughton]

For the TZ2.0 I used a print from moolin on printables, it had mounting for the artemis built in. It wasn’t amazing but worked. Cheers

[@wadecrawford6445]

Those ptfe tube connectors aren’t watertight, right? I wouldn’t think so

[@TommyHoughton]

I had my doubts, I think there’s a dedicated watertight model available, I’ll look into it for the future. Cheers

[@Telendro]

Very nice, for mounting the ceramic heaters you could maybe use the holders for glass beds if you find big enough ones. Or just cnc 2 rectangle with a threaded hole on the side where you can put in a screw to tighten both heaters to one another hope I could help. Maybe I should also try to upgrade my 3d printers.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks! I tried ones that I had on hand but they were too small, some bigger ones would be a much better alternative over the tape. So a sort of clamp design? That could work well too, I might even have enough for that on hand. Cheers!

[@AttemptedMaker]

Absolutely Insane bro, nice work.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks Scott! There's been some amazing feedback on this one which has been awesome. I can't wait to advance. Cheers!

[@JamesChartrand]

You need to dial in your temp and that’ll help with the oozing

[@TommyHoughton]

I’ll do a couple of temp towers once I finish the current upgrades, Cheers!

[@jakobfindlay4136]

Metal spring clips to hold the heater would look nicer then capton tape

[@TommyHoughton]

Great idea! I didn't know the name of those so I couldn't find any. Definitely a better solution over tape. Thanks for suggesting! Cheers!

[@EricHanuise]

To couple the heaters to the flow block you could simply build pockets for them in the block. One part, no tape, just fit a metal shim to hold them in place.

[@TommyHoughton]

That's a great idea, much sleeker than anything else so far too. I'll look into that for a V2. Thank you! Cheers.

[@ELWILLIWILLY]

why didn't you put a cooling system? I saw a user on tiktok, with a printer similar to yours and as cooling, he did not put fans on the hotend, but he printed and assembled a model similar to those of the elegoo n4

[@TommyHoughton]

I'm installing it in the next video, I had too much stuff to do, and the timeframe wasn't looking good enough. I hope to release the next video by the end of this month. Cheers

[@ELWILLIWILLY]

@TommyHoughton It would be nice if you fix the cooling system in the next video. to fix it you should: 1 put some silicone plumbers between the radiator and the hose connection, 2 where the 2 water pipes join, you should go to the hardware store and buy 2 reducers and 4 metal clamps (the ones that tighten and open by turning a screw with a screwdriver), 3 I recommend you put the pump and radiator in the back of the printer, so you will have more free space and height in the z, 4 specific attachments are needed to fix the ptfe tubes to the radiator , similar to these, but have more stability and a rubber band inside

[@TommyHoughton]

I appreciate your suggestions, I'll see what I can do but I can't promise anything. Putting the pump and radiator at the back would be a great idea.

[@ELWILLIWILLY]

@TommyHoughton I hope you can fix it. Anyway if you don't make videos in calligraphy with pcbway, try to have the parts printed by jclpcb, it's the same as pcbway, only having the pieces printed costs a lot less because it's in China, for me a piece in steel costs me $32 on pcbway and instead $8 on jclpcb. instead regarding shipping the rates and times are the same for me who live in Italy. Also if you find a problem in the files, contact them with the online chat and they will fix it and re-stamp the files for free, they are super helpful

[@Mr_Pewpy_But-Whole]

this is just an E3D SuperVolcano this video is just hype

[@TommyHoughton]

It's more expensive than it too, but it's much smaller and I like the design over the SuperVolcano. It's certainly easier to buy a supervolcano and get extremely high flow; lots of great options nowadays. Cheers!

[@charlesstaton8104]

Supervolcano is an 18 wheeler and this is a rally car. Supervolcano has loads of unnecessary thermal mass that make it unresponsive to rapid changes in demand. Supervolcano is built on concepts taken from industrial extrusion processes and has no business being on a 3D printer. This is what the Supervolcano should have been.

[@TommyHoughton]

@@charlesstaton8104 That's a great analogy! Cheers

[@mitsubishimakes]

So when can I buy this hotend on aliexpress?

[@TommyHoughton]

I don't even think AliExpress Stores would dare produce something as dodgy as this haha. Thanks for your continuous support Mitsu! Cheers

[@diegocastaneda607]

What board/screen are you using to run the printer?

[@TommyHoughton]

Hi there! Just the basic Ender 3 4.2.2 board (I shorted the SKR Mini E3 V3 a while ago) and a BTT HDMI5. Will be stealing the Manta E3 EZ from my E5 shortly. Cheers!

[@nyantun5315]

You know I was expecting like nylon print or something else but dude try so hard to just to go back to stone ages🤣

[@TommyHoughton]

good point, I should have printed something worthy. Cheers

[@dionizycichomski6448]

15:25 I think that you shorted those cables, terminals of heater was mounted touching hot end 🤷‍♂️

[@TommyHoughton]

That's the most likely cause, they must have pressed against it during movement or something. My next iteration will have better cable support. Cheers!

[@tablatronix]

Those are pneumatic fittings are they not?

[@TommyHoughton]

I believe so, but not the same ones as I see used in water cooling setups, I think they're missing a seal or such. It's something I'll research more for the future, since I kinda just grabbed them without planning. Cheers!

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

Nice work!

[@Latrocinium086]

Great work.check you footage though. That thing is swinging. You might have to do some dampening.

[@TommyHoughton]

Good call, I'll look into that as I'm definitely leaving performance on the table (and quality.) Cheers!

[@ELWILLIWILLY]

will you ever mod an anycubic kobra 2 neo?

[@TommyHoughton]

I don't think so, It's not a machine I'd go out of my way to get, and I have my doubts about Anycubic sending one out for a video. Cheers

[@besewaxe4985]

Your description has a typo, "V2 will unmatched"

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks for calling that out! I've fixed it now :) Cheers!

[@jesse00077]

Is it possible to dial mm3/s on Marlin ?

[@TommyHoughton]

I’m not sure, sorry. Linear Advance might be the thing you’re looking for, it’s the Marlin equivalent of Pressure Advance. Cheers

[@RossRadford]

How much are the employees at PCBWay paid? Are they treated well?

[@TommyHoughton]

While I don’t know since I haven’t personally toured their premises, nor would I ask what their wages are (not sure why I would know in the first place,) there are several more established KZbinrs who have produced documented tour videos on site. They’d have much more information than someone like me. Multiple PCBWay employees have social media accounts which I’m sure you’re welcome to contact. Cheers

[@teitgenengineering]

very cool! i hope to do something similar soon.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks! Good luck with your projects! I'm sure Everest would love an overkill hotend haha. Cheers!

[@Kenagon]

you can find humebeam's silicone sock kit on printables and modify it

[@TommyHoughton]

Thanks for sharing that! I took a look at it, and while modifying it is possible, It would probably be best if I design my own whole one from scratch. I'll look into it. Cheers!

[@stefanguiton]

Great video!

[@TommyHoughton]

Thank you!

[@mitsubishimakes]

hey look at that delta in the back at 27:25

[@TommyHoughton]

Delta Spotted! Surely It'll get the treatment the other machines are getting...

[@mitsubishimakes]

​@@TommyHoughton You're gonna give it the maximum blursed treatment, im sure

[@TommyHoughton]

@@mitsubishimakes only way to put it haha

[@CitrusIntellect]

What happened to the BIQU H2 V2S Lite?

[@TommyHoughton]

When asked to review the Artemis Extruder, I uninstalled it. I wasn't able to use custom hotends (it uses a m4 thread instead of m6) with it either so I've taken it off for now. I still really like it so maybe I'll use it in the future. Cheers!

[@CitrusIntellect]

@@TommyHoughtonOh that makes sense, I was inspired by your Ender 3000 build and got the parts and it destroyed it’s self to a faultily BIQU H2 V2S Lite unit, now I’m just trying to make a faster printer

[@TommyHoughton]

I'm honoured to be an inspiration :) Sorry to hear it destroyed itself, I hope you get up to speed (literally) as effectively as possible. Let me know how it all goes! Cheers!

[@CitrusIntellect]

@@TommyHoughtonThank you! Cheers!

[@CitrusIntellect]

@@TommyHoughton Apparently my stock extruder destroyed itself also XD. I plan to get a new hotend and extruder later on.

[@nikopol7993]

Love the content, keep it up.

[@TommyHoughton]

Thank you so much! You are the first person to ever send a super thanks to me, It really means a ton :) I'll keep learning and improving. Cheers!

[@FilmFactry]

Tightly wrap with copperwire.

[@TommyHoughton]

Good idea, that and a glass fibre sleeve will work well. Cheers!

[@westernaustralia_]

230w for a hotend is crazy tho

[@michalrimmerak1646]

Oh fuck, these PCBWay prices are insane 😮

[@TommyHoughton]

They add up quick, but for prototyping it can be justified. Much cheaper than purchasing the equipment, skill and time. I believe I chamfered most of the part edges too, which increases the price by a lot. It’s completely understandable that’s it’s still quite the sum. Cheers!

[@steffankaizer]

i dont understand hotends AT ALL. like what could possibly be difficult about this? heaters exist. injection moulding machines exist and they are measured in cubic feet per minute. cubic as in volume. why cant it just be a ceramic tube the same inner diameter as the filament and heater wire wrapped around the outside. insulation around that. why does a hotend need cooling? i dont get it.

[@amdy7783]

Because the plastic can only melt at the nozzle tip, otherwise pushing the filament into it will just make a total mess

[@woutervossebeld4664]

Couple of reasons: We need super precise dosing of plastic so the screw extruder from an injection moulding machine won't have the same quality as filament, it's also way heavier, like near a kilo of mass. As for cooling, well. Heat creep, and not ruining your mounting (often plastic for hobby/diy machines is the reason.

[@Jeralddoerr]

Can that even retract flow? It's so loooooong..

[@TommyHoughton]

I did a retraction tower, but it kind of melted haha. Will try dialling it in the next video. Cheers!

[@Jeralddoerr]

@TommyHoughton Well, your hot end is so long. I guess it's all filled with melted filament... when you try and retract, the hard filament can only pull so much on the melted... I guess I'm trying to say I'd be surprised if it could even retract at the extruder tip. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

[@TommyHoughton]

@@Jeralddoerr I do, I’ll do some stringing test prints and test if I can actually retract, I’ve never used a meltzone this long so I don’t actually know what to expect. I’ll share any findings I come across in the next video.

[@aapovaarala]

Good video honestly

[@TommyHoughton]

Thank you for watching :) Cheers

[@ThylineTheGay]

26:31 custom Voron printer :D

[@TommyHoughton]

That would be awesome! I have some ideas written down that I hope to make happen next year similar to that, (a full metal Voron is one of those ideas 😄I plan on getting my hands on at least a V0 early next year.) We’ll see what happens, Cheers!

[@tuxontour]

there are metal cable ties ou could get those

[@TommyHoughton]

I was considering them, but I was unsure how well they'd perform, definitely better than tape though! Cheers!

[@Phusion28]

W video, very enjoyable and informative, cant wait for the next part Only negative, no meme this video......

[@TommyHoughton]

The real meme were the friends we... (the real meme was the sheer amount of terrible decisions I made.) Cheers Leo, looking forward to showing you the next project.

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

So...no 500C?.. I wanted to C if it would actually catch fire.. (fr tho I'm GLaD it didn't 6.6)

[@TommyHoughton]

Unfortunately not. I would have certainly tried, but my thermistor mounting would fail, followed by the thermistor itself. Would have been fun just to see what would have happened though lol. I have a new coil heater for V2 planned for early next year which I’ll be properly testing. Cheers!

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

@@TommyHoughton hopefully you're able to get all that worked out without too much trouble, these things do tend to be a bit tiresome to get functional..

[@bernardomelo652]

can you test with aluminium?

[@TommyHoughton]

If I make one out of aluminium, I'll make sure to do proper testing. I hope to produce a V2 sometime early next year. Cheers!

[@bernardomelo652]

@@TommyHoughton Amazing, thank you!

[@ultimatedude80]

BABE WAKE UP Tommy Houghton put out a new video

[@TommyHoughton]

I might even do it again this month, surely. I appreciate your support! Cheers

[@ctbdjc]

BAKE WAKE UP someone posted a new BABE WAKE UP comment

[@yuvaltal6417]

Replace the tape with metal wire

[@TommyHoughton]

That's an interesting option, it would be more durable and hold better. I'll see what I can do. Cheers!

[@corrupted1850]

I would just get a Vzgoliath

[@TommyHoughton]

It's an excellent option, much better than this. This contraption turns out to be around the same price as the Goliath but more hassle which knocks it down quite a few points. Hopefully I can get my hands on a Goliath in the future. Cheers!

[@charlesstaton8104]

​@@TommyHoughtondon't waste your money on Goliath. I have one and it won't even come close to what you have made.

[@Reds3DPrinting]

One thing I for sure learned is I REALLY WANT THAT EXTRUDER!! Lol

[@TommyHoughton]

It's grown on me quickly, stay tuned for the next episode which will have some actual speed printing! All the best with your projects! Cheers!

[@ctbdjc]

cool

[@nope-x9y]

death trap🙅 insta-death 👍

[@inh415]

Just buy a Goliath hotend?

[@TommyHoughton]

I wanted to give making my own a go, the goliath wouldn't have existed without some tinkering too. It's a great hotend and I hope to get one eventually. Cheers

[@ferrumignis]

FWIW those super cheap Chinese SSRs are garbage, Brand name SSRs are not so cheap, but you get what you pay for.

[@TommyHoughton]

I can agree with that. I’m willing to take the risk with these cheaper relays for now, but the sooner I can upgrade to a proper one, the better.

[@Arek_R.]

So many fails...

[@TommyHoughton]

So much learnt! Cheers

[@darkshadowsx5949]

its completely unnecessary

[@mitsubishimakes]

Sounds like your printer isn't fast enough to utilize it 🤣

[@DiomedesDominguez]

The worst part is the printer and every time he talks as it is a good machine for thinkering, it's almost is this video has 6 to 10 years old and was re-uploaded around 5 hours ago.

[@ManuelGranados-ey2tt]

The ender 3 IS great for tinkering. Cheap, vast library of mods already made, and well documented in every way. Any machine made after the ender 3 is either less well documented or more locked down.

[@ectoBRUH]

The ender 3 on klipper is absolutely fantastic for tinkering, though that's about the only thing it's fantastic for

[@snubberless]

Absolutely no precision at all, huge mess

[@TommyHoughton]

It's definitely not suitable for smaller models but for large objects it's a game changer. Although the Ender 3 really limits the use cases with its build volume. I'll be testing what I can really achieve with it for my next project. Cheers!

[@Progs420]

​@@TommyHoughtonhaters gonna hate! You're doing awesome stuff! (: