Hi! Am searching opinions on the Hexagon hotend from Lulzbot.

3D Printing
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Hi! Am searching opinions on the Hexagon hotend from Lulzbot. I would use bowden and mostly PLA, but would like to try PC and nylon in the future. How does it work with PLA? Does it improve with oil? Does it behave better with PLA that E3D v6 do?
Thanks!

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E3D is a pretty good hot end. I definitely like the hexagon as well. I’ve seen it spit out ABS, HIPS, and PLA with ease. I’d check with lulzbot directly about the oil thing: Helpdesk@lulzbot.com

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We had to oil all of ours to use pla consistently at work. We have alot of them. I still prefer the E3D for most things.

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Oil? Can someone explain?

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@Aaron_Helmick in order to print PLA, most all metal hotends need a couple of olive oil drops

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Search thingiverse for “filament oiler”.

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^ no no no. You dont need or want a constant flow of oiled filament. Just dip the tip in, heat the hotend to about 260 and burn it in for a few seconds. Push it through so you get the burned stuff out and pull it out. Clip it and repeat a couple times. Should be good for months.

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@Joe_Spanier
That is not at all something annoying :smiley: Thanks so much! How is its quality??

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The oil is more of a seasoning effect where you polymarize the oil into a slick coating on the surface of the nozzle to greatly reduce friction against the metal surface and provide a thermal barrier to prevent scalding.

Doing the manual seasoning works well but needs to be redone every so often/

An oiler can help, with a tiny bit of oil though. Too much oil and it causes buildup

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I’ve had issues with oil in bowden tubes screwing up other filaments like ABS and nylon too which is why I dont like it now.

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If the oil is only for lubricating the melt zone, why is it only needed in all-metal hot ends? I thought it had to do with filament sticking where a PTFE liner would be in a PEEK hot end or the e3d v6 lite.

Reports of jams and wily behavior are what’s kept me from upgrading to metal so far, but I don’t really understand why it happens.

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@Tim_Visible ​ interesting, because I’ve had fewer jams on a metal hot end.

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I don’t have any first-hand experience, but this isn’t the first place I’ve seen people write about problems with PLA in all-metal hot ends (usually the e3d v6). I haven’t seen anything other than anecdotes, though. It’d be nice to see some research.

Wasn’t the v6 Lite partly created for better PLA printing?

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@Tim_Visible
Yes because it has PTFE, but it is limited by temperature

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…because a PTFE liner keeps PLA from sticking to the metal tube before it gets to the nozzle.