Custom hot ends for the Zim

#102

For those of you that requested a longer throat piece, I’ve worked out a solution which I’m hoping will resolve your issues.

This solution adds a small bushing to the bottom of the throat piece. The bushing goes in between the nozzle and the throat piece inside the heat block. It effectively extends the throat by about 4.3mm; while still leaving enough threads for the throat piece to attache. To install the bushing you have to remove the Teflon liner from the throat piece and insert the extended Teflon liner with the bushing.

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Anyone placing a new order will get these bushings included in their order of each hot end. If you want to order these bushings, they’re available on the 3dPrintermods.com site beginning later today. They’re just $3 each including shipping via regular post.

As most of you probably know, the throat pieces I use are standard RepRap parts. They’re commercially available anywhere that sells 3d printer parts. These throat pieces are available in 2 sizes, 26mm and 30mm. The only way to get a longer throat piece would be to custom manufacture them. In the quantities we need, it would be prohibitively expensive. This leaves me with 2 remaining options. 1, I could redesign the heat block. A redesigned heat block in order to extend the throat would see a price increase of about $12 each. A side effect of this redesign would see the nozzle height become easier to adjust. Option 2 would require custom machining the throat pieces to about 36mm in length. The price of the throat pieces would increase to about $16 a piece. The final option is the bushing. This is the lease expensive option and does not require replacing any current components. The only downside to this approach is I’m only able to provide an extension of about 4.3mm.

If anyone has any comments, please let me know, the bushings will be available on 3dprintermods.com starting this afternoon PST. I only have a limited number of these ready to ship, so if stock is low, check back.

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#103

Damn! You “stole” my idea! :wink:
I thought about this solution yesterday!

Due it´s pretty complicated to recieve goods from non-EU companies (customs sometimes takes random samples and want you to explain what it is and how expensive it is… had this sh*t with the hotends before) i´ll make some myself.

Thanks! I wonder if the zeepro-guys somtimes check in to see that we can solve most of our problems.

#104

Hey Insomina, where should I sent the hot end to for the ones that have broken insulation.

mine comes with the red-ish insulation. also have shorting problem.

#105

@winstondon, Is that the prototype I sent you?

@all, please email 3dprintermods with any repair requests.

#106

@J_Schmidt, The parts are very small. I’ve been mailing them out in plain envelopes with standard postage. If you change your mind, I think we can get it through.

#107

The pins from the old connector are still stuck in the board, I have no idea how to get them out. Getting the new wire soldered in seems like something I can do. I tried heating up the tiny solder point but the things wouldn’t budge, and I’m scared of wrecking something so I didn’t heat it too much. I saw a couple guides on using ‘solder wick’ to pull off the solder, is this something I should try? Also I think the point on my iron isn’t small enough so I may need to buy something else but I want to be sure I need it.

Any suggestions? I’m one step away from donating this printer to the local maker spare and walking away from 3d printing forever, it’s been such a frustrating experience so far.

#108

Hey!
I had the same problems with desoldering. It is because the original pins seem to had to be pushed (was that right??) into the pcb. I also couldn´t get them out. Even after melting the solder all through, the pins were mechanically stuck in the PCB. So I decided to simply solder the wires to the points. Some kind of “surface mounted wire”. Works perfectly,
If you already fu*ked up the soldering points, you still can follow the pcb track some millimeters, scratch away the insulation and solder directly to the copper of the track, or follow the Track to the connector and solder directly to that. Fortunately, the PCB at the Printhead does not contain any components (except the blue LED) and is just used as splitter for the ribbon cable to hold the different connectors.

#109

I don’t know if I’ve messed up the soldering points yet, I pretty much ave two stumps sticking out and haven’t touched the solder around them. I’m hesitant to solder the wires to the stumps (actually tried but they broke off before I could turn printer on) as they were never well connected.

Has anyone else had the same experience not being able to remove the pins? I was going to try again this weekend but if they are not going to come out I’d prefer to not waste the time/money.

#110

@madaman13, If you can get us a couple photos of the condition of the the area around the thermistor port on the board we’ll see if we can’t come up with a solution for you.

The pins slide out easily with some heat from the iron and a small pair of pliers or tweezers to pull them out, but If you’re having difficulty, depending on the condition of the pins, perhaps we can come up with an alternate solution.

#111

Was this circuit board proprietary? or can I buy a new one? I’ve pretty much completely destroyed it.The pins came out on one side but the hole is completely clogged with either solder or pieces of the pin (they broke off both sides).

Do I have any options left? or is this thing scrap?

#112

It’s proprietary, but there are always options. Work on the vias with solder wick. Never hurts to feed more solder into the via to help remove solder with solder wick. If you need to, scrape off one of the traces and run a jumper wire.

#113

Hi Guys,

If anyone is experiencing issues with their hot end and believe it requires repair, please email me through 3dprintermods and I’ll be happy to help. If you have an issue and want to try a repair yourself, please consult with me first. However I have to ask that you don’t request repair for hot ends that have been modified. In other words, if you fixed it yourself first, please don’t request repair service.

Thanks!

#114

I gave up on my zeepro and packed it up, the stress of trying to get this dud working just isn’t worth it. Going to spend the time building a reprap style printer instead, thanks for all the help though everyone.

I have a heated bed still in the box if anyone is looking to buy one (or any random parts from the printer), send me a message.

edit I gave the printer away to a friend who wants to try and get it up and running, no parts to sell anymore unless he gives up and returns it.

#115

What parts do you have available?

Thanks

#116

@madaman13 would you sell your zim?

#117

Hey @Insomnia, I tried emailing you through 3dprintermods a couple of days ago, but I haven’t heard anything back, so I wanted to make sure my message wasn’t caught in a spam filter or something.

I had asked about a replacement thermistor for one of the hot ends, as the one I have appears to have a short.

Also, great work on creating a replacement part! Thanks for contributing so much to the community!

Thanks!

#118

I usually order them at Aliexpress and always hold several in stock - but you will have to solder the connector onto your cable:
http://de.aliexpress.com/item/5Pcs-lot-100K-ohm-NTC-3950-Thermistors-with-cable-for-3D-Printer-Reprap-Mend-Free-Shipping/1687658003.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_2_79_78_77_80,searchweb201644_5,searchweb201560_8

To mount the probe in the aluminium block I simply use high termperatur silicone like this one (Available in Germany and Austria): https://www.google.at/search?q=uhu+hochtemperatursilikon&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=PixYVrjDNKbcywP-wKX4CQ

#119

Hi Everyone,

I know some of you have been experiencing issues with your Custom Hot Ends and I wanted to comment on the current stage of development. The most common issue reported is failure of the thermistor. In the majority of cases, this is due to a failure of the insulation between the thermistor wires and the Hot End body. This issue has been solved in the current version of the Hot End. As always, I’m more than happy to repair any Hot Ends that are experiencing issues. For those of you who would prefer to service the Hot End yourself, I will be making repair kits available on 3dprintermods.com. They should be available for purchase in the coming days.

I have a limited number of Hot Ends still available for purchase. I haven’t decided if I’m going to make another run of the parts in the foreseeable future as the parts are time consuming to produce and demand has slowed to a trickle. I’ll be deferring to the community to determine whether a continued supply of Hot Ends is needed or not.

I hope everyone had a Great Thanks Giving and wish everyone Happiness for the coming Holidays!

#120

I’ve been interested in a set of these since you posted but it’s hard to justify the cost when I don’t need them yet. Kind of like a Zim life insurance policy.

Demand will trickle to a halt, that’s inevitable considering the limited number of Zims out there. If you do stop, please consider open sourcing the design files and BOM… not that I have the means to CNC them, but someone will. Thanks!

1 Like
#121

I have a hotend purchased in November that won’t heat up (the other 2 I have purchased are all great and have breathed life again into my Zims so thank you!) I tried to email @Insomnia through the site but it appears down. Hoping its just temporary… Thanks