Volcano Hot End Fitted to v4?

[pyronaught]

Anyone try to adapt an E3D Volcano hot end to attach to the v4 frame?

[insta]

It doesn't fit. The V4 is 8mm, the volcano is 7mm.

[pyronaught]

It's too bad the difference is so small, otherwise an adapter could be made for it. It still might be possible to hold it on using a nut from the top and then redesign the extruder drive with a shorter funnel on the bottom to make room for the part sticking out above the clamp plate.

[pyronaught]

This is what I came up with. I turned an adapter which has 7mm threads on one end and the 7.7mm diameter shaft on the other end which fits into the v4 bracket. The fan position was then adjusted so that it blows on this adapter in order to keep it from conducting heat up into the motor bracket, since it is aluminum and not steel like the v4 shaft is. I could make one out of steel too, but this just seems like the logical placement for the fan anyway. I have an old V6 hot end here that I'm testing it with, although the thermistor in it is flakey so I can't do an actual print with it due to frequent max temp shutdown errors but it extrudes fine and the motor mount doesn't get hot. I've got a volcano kit on order so I can swap this out with that once it gets here and do some testing. I can't think of anything that could cause a problem here and it is easy to switch back to the original v4 head and no extruder change is required.

[insta]

If you want volcano speeds, switch back to the V3b, and put a 0.5mm nozzle on it. The long brass tube will slam filament, and it's a mechanism the M2 is already familiar with. Plus you can get used V3b's by the pound, more or less.

[pyronaught]

I really like the v4 though and want to be able to easily switch back to that for normal printing. The v3b also couldn't do high temps.

[pyronaught]

Here's the Volcano attached to a V4 frame. Tested and worked. I tried a 1.2 nozzle, boy THAT is going to require some playing around to get right. Seeing an extrusion come out that is almost the same diameter as the filament going in is strange looking. That thing really lays a log!