I just changed my stock Ender 3 hotend to a Volcano to get back to a more durable printhead after wrecking my Creality Spider head and have gotten it to where I can print something monolythic (like a brick or boot dryer type thing that doesn’t have much actual detail) without much issue, but printing something with any detail, such as a character piece for DnD results in an absolute whispy disaster. I’m still trying to print stock recommended speeds and stock temperatures (PLA at 200C, PETG at 240C, etc at 50 to 75mm/s) and retract from none to 9mm trying to find something that works. Nothing does so far, even when I go to playing with temps (PETG 200-260C, PLA 180-240C) Where should I set my baseline settings to be able to get close to the CR-10 head that I started with? I originally upgraded to the Spider, which is now discontinued, because of printing ASA and the CR-10 creating a lot of jams as the bowden tube degrades inside. I have also heard good things about the Volcano and was curious about them. I’m still running the stock extruder, btw. I’m betting my problem is simply that I don’t know how to use this head yet, though I guess I could have gotten a dud.
Your wispy problem probably isn’t a hardware one, it’s more likely your filament is wet. Dry it out and try again.
woefkardoes@lemmy.world 1 year ago
To be honest the Volcano HE is the wrong thing for printing small detail like a DnD character. If you do all the calibrations it can print quite well but will never have the control thats needed for high detail prints. Your best bet is to have an extruder setup that makes it easy to change out the HE. I run both the volcano and normal E3D v6 and swop them out when needed with a EVA extruder.
Thurkeau@lemmy.world 1 year ago
While I know I’m not going to get SLA level detail (which I have given up on for now as I keep busting the LCD of my resin printer every set of prints) I am still hoping I can get to something recognizable, usually at 3x size for the figure, which I could do with the CR10 head and the Spider. Problem is, haven’t been able to even begin to dial in the calibrations, which is what I’m asking for assistance with. Where is a good place to start my tests at?
woefkardoes@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The volcano was made for high volume prints and has a bigger melt zone. Ideally it’s best for bigger nozzles, high layer hights and faster printing.
If you want to print small and detail a normal e3d or other hotend gives you better control. For smaller characters you can use a standard hotend with a 0.3mm nozzle and switch on arachnid or similar in your slicer. That will give you pretty good results provided your cooling is good.
fhein@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I like Teaching Tech’s calibration guide.
And if you don’t mind me asking, where have you heard good things about volcano hotends, and what things specifically? Unfortunately it can be difficult to know who to trust nowadays as there’s a lot of affiliate links disguised as buying advice, paid “reviews”, and well meaning people who confidently repeat what they’ve heard without knowing anything about how true it is. Personally I’ve always thought of volcanoes as a niche item for increasing your print speed while potentially sacrificing some quality, but I’ve never used one myself so don’t trust me either :). Some people appear to be able to calibrate them properly but oozing seems like a very common problem. If you bought some random cheap hotend off amazon there’s definitely a risk that you got a dud, as you said.