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General Discussion / ZT-HE Hot End Experience
« on: March 07, 2018, 03:13:14 PM »
I’ve been having problems with my Zortrax M200 printing large parts using Z-ABS and Z-ULTRAT due to warping. After doing a lot of research I decided to switch to PLA since it was a common enough material and wasn’t as susceptible to warpage. The Z-PLA Pro was expensive and took a long time to ship, so instead I looked for 3rd party materials and settled on eSUN PLA+ due to the good reviews, cost, and ability to buy off Amazon (2-day shipping).
At first, the material was printing, but I had to use high temperatures. I was printing at 255°C and it was printing okay, but a little stringy and it wasn't smooth (at all). Anything cooler and the extruder would click and wouldn’t feed material through. The material would load/unload with no problems, but once it started printing it wouldn’t work anymore. I was messing around with the settings for about 2 weeks and didn’t have any luck. I was also having problems separating the raft from the print. I experimented with the first-layer gap setting and that didn’t help. The raft was either part of the print that need to be cut off with a razor or it wasn’t attached. Eventually the prints got worse and I had to keep increasing the temperature up to around 270°C to get anything out of the extruder. Soon after that nothing worked.
I decided to give the ZT-HE a shot and I also replaced the thermocouple and heater element. Once it arrived I’ve been printing non-stop for a couple days using eSUN PLA+ with no problems at all! The models are nice and smooth and the look and feel like how 3D printed models should be. I printed a few calibration cubes and found 210°C works the best. The settings in Z-Suite (version 2.3.2.1) are the standard PLA based filament settings with a 210°C hot end and a 65°C bed temp. My raft is now much easier to separate from the print with a good first layer appearance.
I want people to know that if they want to use a 3rd party material with a Zortrax printer, you need to get a ZT-HE hot end. The Zortrax V2 hot end simply does not work. My personal experience is with the eSUN PLA+ (only used black so far). I’m sure other brands and colors would work just as well, but I haven’t tried them yet. I couldn’t find user reviews like what’s on Amazon, just what’s on this forum, so I wanted to include a first-hand experience review on this product to help anybody else having problems with 3rd party material and don’t want to drop $100 on something they’re not sure about. Hopefully this will help you decide and make your life a bit easier. Get a ZT-HE hot end.
At first, the material was printing, but I had to use high temperatures. I was printing at 255°C and it was printing okay, but a little stringy and it wasn't smooth (at all). Anything cooler and the extruder would click and wouldn’t feed material through. The material would load/unload with no problems, but once it started printing it wouldn’t work anymore. I was messing around with the settings for about 2 weeks and didn’t have any luck. I was also having problems separating the raft from the print. I experimented with the first-layer gap setting and that didn’t help. The raft was either part of the print that need to be cut off with a razor or it wasn’t attached. Eventually the prints got worse and I had to keep increasing the temperature up to around 270°C to get anything out of the extruder. Soon after that nothing worked.
I decided to give the ZT-HE a shot and I also replaced the thermocouple and heater element. Once it arrived I’ve been printing non-stop for a couple days using eSUN PLA+ with no problems at all! The models are nice and smooth and the look and feel like how 3D printed models should be. I printed a few calibration cubes and found 210°C works the best. The settings in Z-Suite (version 2.3.2.1) are the standard PLA based filament settings with a 210°C hot end and a 65°C bed temp. My raft is now much easier to separate from the print with a good first layer appearance.
I want people to know that if they want to use a 3rd party material with a Zortrax printer, you need to get a ZT-HE hot end. The Zortrax V2 hot end simply does not work. My personal experience is with the eSUN PLA+ (only used black so far). I’m sure other brands and colors would work just as well, but I haven’t tried them yet. I couldn’t find user reviews like what’s on Amazon, just what’s on this forum, so I wanted to include a first-hand experience review on this product to help anybody else having problems with 3rd party material and don’t want to drop $100 on something they’re not sure about. Hopefully this will help you decide and make your life a bit easier. Get a ZT-HE hot end.