Sanjay from E3D here.
Oh god. I cannot believe I left that out of the documentation, huge oversight.
Thanks for pointing that all out guys - documentation has been updated appropriately.
Cheers,
Sanjay
E3D V6
Re: E3D V6
Don't feel bad, Sanjay. You guys have some of the best documentation I've seen on any site.
Re: E3D V6
Jim, I printed out your E3DV6 filament drive and fan attachments in black ABS. Came out great. The only change I made was to print the fan mount upside down from the orientation you had. I thought it would need less support that way. The effect was that the M2 logo didn't print as nice, since it had to have support under it and that marred the surface finish. But otherwise everything looks good.
The fits are tight! I like that for the hot end but to get it out of the drive I found it helps to rotate it while pulling. Otherwise I was wary of putting too much force on the metal fins, since I heard they were delicate and prone to bending.
For the fan mount and shroud, I'm thinking the fits may be a tad tight, at least in ABS. It's great when you snap them in place, but then a bear to get them off. One side of the fan mount broke the first time I tried it. But it doesn't even matter since each piece still fits so snugly in the dovetail mount I can use them separately.
About the fans- is it correct that I don't need the M2 extruder fan if I have the fan that comes with the E3D running? I assume in that case I would just wire the E3D fan to the existing extruder fan leads. Otherwise if I need both, how do I wire in the E3D fan? Or could I skip the E3D fan and just use the M2 fan by itself?
This was the first time I had a chance to try the hairspray/diluted elmer's mixture with ABS. Definitely worked but it's hard to say if it's better than hairspray alone. I got no curling on either of the fan parts, and just a tiny insignificant curl in one corner of the filament drive.
The fits are tight! I like that for the hot end but to get it out of the drive I found it helps to rotate it while pulling. Otherwise I was wary of putting too much force on the metal fins, since I heard they were delicate and prone to bending.
For the fan mount and shroud, I'm thinking the fits may be a tad tight, at least in ABS. It's great when you snap them in place, but then a bear to get them off. One side of the fan mount broke the first time I tried it. But it doesn't even matter since each piece still fits so snugly in the dovetail mount I can use them separately.
About the fans- is it correct that I don't need the M2 extruder fan if I have the fan that comes with the E3D running? I assume in that case I would just wire the E3D fan to the existing extruder fan leads. Otherwise if I need both, how do I wire in the E3D fan? Or could I skip the E3D fan and just use the M2 fan by itself?
This was the first time I had a chance to try the hairspray/diluted elmer's mixture with ABS. Definitely worked but it's hard to say if it's better than hairspray alone. I got no curling on either of the fan parts, and just a tiny insignificant curl in one corner of the filament drive.
Re: E3D V6
toby, couple things....
you only need the 30mm e3d fan. you dont need an additional one blowing on the top of the filament drive. that stays room temp up there. for the hot end that is silvers drive which is a little tight the first time you use it but i grab the hot end gently with pliers and put it in and out and twist it a few time and it will give you a nice mated fit that isnt so tight anymore. for the dovetails, did you read the instructions on thingiverse? it is a tad tight because you are supposed to sand the layer marks out so the male and female part are nice and smooth. even if its loose i found a sliding action is tough because of the layers grabbing. they make like teeth. if i make it any looser then by the time you sand everything smooth it will be too loose. a little 220 grit sand paper on all the sliding parts to smooth them out makes a world of difference. mine slides on and off easily with just 2 fingers. print all the parts 90-100% solid.
you only need the 30mm e3d fan. you dont need an additional one blowing on the top of the filament drive. that stays room temp up there. for the hot end that is silvers drive which is a little tight the first time you use it but i grab the hot end gently with pliers and put it in and out and twist it a few time and it will give you a nice mated fit that isnt so tight anymore. for the dovetails, did you read the instructions on thingiverse? it is a tad tight because you are supposed to sand the layer marks out so the male and female part are nice and smooth. even if its loose i found a sliding action is tough because of the layers grabbing. they make like teeth. if i make it any looser then by the time you sand everything smooth it will be too loose. a little 220 grit sand paper on all the sliding parts to smooth them out makes a world of difference. mine slides on and off easily with just 2 fingers. print all the parts 90-100% solid.
Re: E3D V6
Ah, my bad. You're right, sanding the surface smooth makes the fit work great. It may also have been worse in my case because I was at 240 degrees for ABS. It prints fine but I can see it's not flowing as smoothly as I'm used to with PLA, so it might have made the layer marks more pronounced.
Anyway it's a good trick to know in case you ever want a dovetail fit that can't come out- just print at a low temp and leave the layer marks in place.
I only printed the filament drive at 50% infill and the fan mounts at 35%. But I have some PET+ coming tomorrow so once I get the E3D installed maybe my first project will be to print a new set of spare parts.
Anyway it's a good trick to know in case you ever want a dovetail fit that can't come out- just print at a low temp and leave the layer marks in place.
I only printed the filament drive at 50% infill and the fan mounts at 35%. But I have some PET+ coming tomorrow so once I get the E3D installed maybe my first project will be to print a new set of spare parts.
Re: E3D V6
yeah i like all my extruder parts printed pretty much solid. in abs they are super hard, rigid and never break. as much as i like the pet i think i prefer the abs for the extruder parts. the abs has no flex where the pet is strong and durable but also a bit flexible. solid abs reminds me more of a machined aluminum part. maybe a bit overkill but who doesnt like overkill 
Re: E3D V6
Tim, it looks like the spare parts that came with my M2 are just enough to get the job done on the E3D, provided I reuse the hardware from the filament drive. There's two extra molex connectors for the thermister and the hot end heater, and wire inserts for each. I have an extra molex for the fan because my original extruder fan died and Makergear replaced it. Only thing is, having already pulled the wires out of that molex connector, is there any way to get the inserts out also? How do those inserts work when you put them it? You just push them in and the barbs get caught?
Re: E3D V6
Yes, the barbs get caught, and because they are barbs, they can make it extraordinarily difficult to pull the inserts out without damage. You might be able to wedge a wire or something down in there to flatten the barbs, and let you pull the insert out easily, but I wouldn't count on it. Even then, if you get it out, you have to uncrimp it. . . it's just a pain. You'd be better off just taking the old connector, cutting if off with a length of wire still attached, then splice the wires. I was trying to do the job and still keep my MakerGear v3a intact.
By the way, everything from Digi-Key and Amazon descended on me today, so I was able to finish the job and get the E3Dv6 mounted. Everything fit together well, although the E3D fan clip is a bit loose. I threaded some filament through and could feel it catch slightly as it entered the heatbreak and again as it hit the interface between the heatbreak and the nozzle. So tolerances aren't perfect. It took only a little force to get past the catches, but I wonder if that's going to be too much for flexible filament.
I ran into the same issue as others have already mentioned on E3D hot-ends, which is that the PID tuning aborts due to high overshoot, and I took the recommended action from the thread on the MakerGear google group, which was to set PID_MAX in the firmware to 175 (from 255), and recompile/upload the firmware. In the end, I got a PID result of P=11.9, I=1.1, and D=31.3.
Having done all that, I hooked up a new spool of gray PET+ I just got from MadeSolid, and it had no problem running it through the hot-end. I then started a print, but being a new spool, I didn't really have the values dialed in right and stopped it after a few layers to tweak parameters, and probably won't run it again until tomorrow (getting late, and thunderstorms are rolling through). But, apart from minor adjustments needed for the new filament, it was looking okay. I probably should have started with a filament I already knew the parameters of, so I could compare the settings, but I need to first print a few things in PET+, like the fan mount and a new motor mount. Tentatively, I'd say that given the excess of material I was getting at 90% fill, it probably needs to maintain the same extruder multiplier value of 0.9 (S3D changed that back to 1.0 when I changed the nozzle size from 0.35 to 0.4 for the E3Dv6). Temperatures seem to be the same as before (that is, comparable to the MakerGear v3a, NOT the v3b). Overall, looks pretty successful!
By the way, everything from Digi-Key and Amazon descended on me today, so I was able to finish the job and get the E3Dv6 mounted. Everything fit together well, although the E3D fan clip is a bit loose. I threaded some filament through and could feel it catch slightly as it entered the heatbreak and again as it hit the interface between the heatbreak and the nozzle. So tolerances aren't perfect. It took only a little force to get past the catches, but I wonder if that's going to be too much for flexible filament.
I ran into the same issue as others have already mentioned on E3D hot-ends, which is that the PID tuning aborts due to high overshoot, and I took the recommended action from the thread on the MakerGear google group, which was to set PID_MAX in the firmware to 175 (from 255), and recompile/upload the firmware. In the end, I got a PID result of P=11.9, I=1.1, and D=31.3.
Having done all that, I hooked up a new spool of gray PET+ I just got from MadeSolid, and it had no problem running it through the hot-end. I then started a print, but being a new spool, I didn't really have the values dialed in right and stopped it after a few layers to tweak parameters, and probably won't run it again until tomorrow (getting late, and thunderstorms are rolling through). But, apart from minor adjustments needed for the new filament, it was looking okay. I probably should have started with a filament I already knew the parameters of, so I could compare the settings, but I need to first print a few things in PET+, like the fan mount and a new motor mount. Tentatively, I'd say that given the excess of material I was getting at 90% fill, it probably needs to maintain the same extruder multiplier value of 0.9 (S3D changed that back to 1.0 when I changed the nozzle size from 0.35 to 0.4 for the E3Dv6). Temperatures seem to be the same as before (that is, comparable to the MakerGear v3a, NOT the v3b). Overall, looks pretty successful!
Re: E3D V6
Awesome. Nice to have you a few steps ahead of me clearing the way, so to speak.
I gave up on salvaging that molex and am now eyeing the other extra one I have on the M2 case fan, which got replaced at the same time as the extruder fan. All in a desperate attempt to save ordering a couple 22 cent parts from digikey. Radio shack does not stock Molex connectors unfortunately.
Jim's fan mount and blower duct for the E3D are definitely worth printing. Just make sure to sand the flat surfaces before you join it to the filament drive. Otherwise, what goes in with a satisfying "click" comes out with an unsatisfying "crack". I'm thinking his advice on ABS vs PET+ for the filament drive also makes sense, since any flexing would not be good in that part.
I gave up on salvaging that molex and am now eyeing the other extra one I have on the M2 case fan, which got replaced at the same time as the extruder fan. All in a desperate attempt to save ordering a couple 22 cent parts from digikey. Radio shack does not stock Molex connectors unfortunately.
Jim's fan mount and blower duct for the E3D are definitely worth printing. Just make sure to sand the flat surfaces before you join it to the filament drive. Otherwise, what goes in with a satisfying "click" comes out with an unsatisfying "crack". I'm thinking his advice on ABS vs PET+ for the filament drive also makes sense, since any flexing would not be good in that part.
Re: E3D V6
tim, i have noticed that everything with the e3d is very similar setting wise to the makergear v3b hot end. really i left everything exactly the same except for the ooze controls. retraction and coast were reduced about 30-50% with the e3d. other then that i think thats the only difference. that and nozzle size of course.