| There's a number of clone E3D extruders out there, and they can all give excellent results. There are, however, a few things that you need to keep in mind. While the main benefit of improving load on the X carriage still exists, the clone hotends are often shipped with a PTFE tube continuing right into the hotend. While this is fine (it's how a lot of hotends work), it does mean that temperatures above 260 degrees Celsius may cause the PTFE tube to break down, releasing neurotoxins (this is also the reason why they recommend not to leave Teflon coated frying pans on the stove unattended for too long). So make sure you don't crank it too hot! In addition, the insulation between the metal junction position on the hotend is increased, meaning the benefit for the V6 is reduced. A genuine E3D hotend will have the PTFE tube stop before it enters the 'hot' part of the hotend, so that the hotend is truly all-metal. If you want a cheap alternative that's a proper E3D hotend, you can replace the throat, block, nozzle and electronics with genuine E3D parts. | There's a number of clone E3D extruders out there, and they can all give excellent results. There are, however, a few things that you need to keep in mind. While the main benefit of improving load on the X carriage still exists, the clone hotends are often shipped with a PTFE tube continuing right into the hotend. While this is fine (it's how a lot of hotends work), it does mean that temperatures above 260 degrees Celsius may cause the PTFE tube to break down, releasing neurotoxins (this is also the reason why they recommend not to leave Teflon coated frying pans on the stove unattended for too long). So make sure you don't crank it too hot! In addition, the insulation between the metal junction position on the hotend is increased, meaning the benefit for the V6 is reduced. A genuine E3D hotend will have the PTFE tube stop before it enters the 'hot' part of the hotend, so that the hotend is truly all-metal. If you want a cheap alternative that's a proper E3D hotend, you can replace the throat, block, nozzle and electronics with genuine E3D parts. |