Nozzle alternatives
As most of what I print is for general household/garage/workshop use I decided to change my MK3S+ nozzle to .6mm. This afternoon I installed a nozzle sourced fom e3d and, after a small Z axis tweak, have happily printed some fence post caps re-sliced for this nozzle. I am more than happy with the quality and the speed improvement is very welcome. A close look shows no evidence of leakage around the nozzle so I am, overall, a happy bunny.
I found the nozzle change not too difficult and I managed to avoid burning my fingers but the process raised a couple of questions. First as I am contemplating more nozzle changes, for maintenence, necessity and whim, I wonder, in other users experience, how many changes will the hot end tolerate before those adjacent fine wires get damaged? Following on from this I was wondering if there is an alternative quick change nozzle system that will suit this machine? I am aware that such things exist in general but would be very interest to hear anybody's first hand experience in this area in particular on a MK3S+.
Thanks
BJ
I use a thin 17mm spanner (bicycle repair kit) to hold the hotend and a 7mm spanner for the nozzle. I did glue on a silicone sheet to insulate the 17mm spanner but it long since dropped off.
Cheerio,
RE: Nozzle alternatives
I know of an easier way to change nozzles on the MK3/S/+ with almost zero risk of damaging the wires, but it requires replacing the stock hotend with a Slice Engineering Mosquito model. Not cheap at all, although it has the additional advantage of eliminating almost 100% the chances of heat creep printing PLA, the Mosquito hotend being far more efficient isolating heat from the heater block than the E3D V6 model (which frankly leaves a lot of room for improvement ).
Three years ago I replaced the stock extruder/hotend assembly of my MK3S+ with a kit composed of a Bondtech LGX extruder plus Mosquito hotend. Not a single episode of heat creep since then. You can change nozzles single-handed, no need to hold the heater block with a spanner. Also, in this configuration the thermistor/heater wires exit the hotend from behind, going straight into the textile sleeve with the rest of the extruder cabling. The 7 mm socket spanner never comes near to those wires
RE: Nozzle alternatives
Thank you, that makes sense and I'll try it next time.
BJ