The vendor was quite splendid in handling the issue though, and a correct one should be in the mailbox when I get home this evening. I was told that I could keep the all metal h-head to "tinker" with.
Well having the whole weekend, I decided to try an use the all metal version in my printer. The results are fantastic... but it was quite an ordeal getting it going.
My first mistake was over-handling the hot end and breaking a lead to the thermistor. The wires are very delicate... and too much flexing and stretching will definitely weaken or break them. So how do I fix this?
First I tried the thermistor in my old hot end... but it was permanently cemented into the block. So that was a no go. Was I finished? No. Let me look at the broken lead again...
Well it was about half an inch long.
I can't solder a new wire to extend it. My only choice is to physically tie the wire to the short, incredibly fragile lead. Needles to say, I managed it... and actually managed to secure the full signal wire to match the other lead. Test it with the multimeter... 9.9Kohms... great... it still works and the connections are holding.
So I then installed the hot end and fired up the printer. The temp worked fine... but it would not heat! Check the voltage.... 12V... good. Check the connections... good. It was a bad heater cartridge. Great!
I thought... wait I can use the old one! I disassemble the hot end, try to remove the bad cartridge... and bingo... one of the grub screws holding it in is stripped! I can't win for losing. Was I finished now? No. Let's get the drill out.
And I drilled the damn grub screw into non-existence! With that, I was able to install the old cartridge and assemble the whole thing again.
This time it worked!
I had an even more fun time learning how to use the new metal hot end, must the printing has improved greatly. Maybe, I will complain about that later.
Parting shot...
No comments:
Post a Comment