Final E3D Hotend Assembly

Part of a series on installing the hotend.

Last Step from E3D

Note:
These instructions are for the E3D V6. The wildly popular E3D Lite6 should never go above 245˚C so I'd recommending stopping at 240˚ here instead of 270˚ if you have a E3D Lite6.

In the official instructions this is the last step assembly instruction before some guidelines usage. We are getting closer to done. Hang in there. They suggest you do the final fitting when the hotend is fully detached, but that means I'd have to undo all the things I previously did. So I gathered up my 7mm socket and adjustable wrench and went to town.

Ready for action

A direct copy/paste from the instructions because they explain it perfectly. The default Printrboard firmware I uploaded had a max temperature of 275˚ so if you tried to get the hotend up to 285˚ it'd just shutdown and disconnect.  I went for 270˚ and it did a good job of keeping things tight.

Do be careful. You're metal tools on the metal hotend will conduct heat. If things start to get hot at all just put your tools down. Don't risk burning yourself.

• Set the HotEnd temperature to 285ºC. If you did not do a PID tune, then approach this temperature slowly, exceeding 295ºC will permanently damage the thermistor.
• When the HotEnd is at tempereature, tighten the nozzle whilst holding the heater block with a spanner. This will tighten the nozzle against the HeatBreak and ensure that your HotEnd does not leak. You want to aim for 3Nm of torque on the hot nozzle - this is about as much pressure as you can apply with one finger on a small spanner. The nozzle does not need to be torqued down incredibly tightly to form a good seal, when at lower tempreatures the aluminium will contract and hold the Nozzle and HeatBreak together.

It wasn't too difficult to get the tools in place with the hotend already attached.

Hotend Construction Complete

Now you are done hacking on hardware. Time to prep your Printrbot bed detection.