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.
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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.
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?
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.
Looks like I may be going back to an all metal hotend. I had some decent luck with a Creality Spider, though I’ve found that it isn’t in production and the choice of nozzles limited to pretty much the 04 nozzle that comes with most printers. What’s the CR-10 all metal hotend that is popular and useful and with a good variety of nozzles?
Could it be the Micro Swiss you’re thinking of? AFAIK it is ok, though a bit over priced. Personally I would stay away from the cheap clones you find on Amazon/Aliexpress/Wish as the quality can be a bit of a gamble. Other CR-10 compatible hotends that I’ve heard good things about include Phaetus Dragonfly BMS, Mellow NF Zone, Slice Copperhead. If you just want an all metal CR-10 style hotend I would get one either from Trianglelab or Mellow, who are known to have relatively good manufacturing quality. They’ve gone up quite a lot in price so they’re almost as expensive as a Micro Swiss. Best value option is probably to just buy a high quality all-metal heatbreak and reuse the cooler and heat block from the stock hotend, in case you still have those.
Vulcano are a V6 with large meltzone. Meaning they are very prone to oozing/strings.
Maybe trash the vulcano and try a CHC nozzle first (or the aliexpress version with insert). They have the same length as a V6 but an additional insert/separation to increase material flow/“melt rate”. Diamond nozzles can also improve flow rate but they are expensive and probably disappointing if you buy them just for the flow rate.
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.
For calibration its best to watch a few videos as its a lot to discuss over a post like this. But you are looking to do e-steps, flow-rate, temperature tower and retraction. Also know that this may change when you change the filament or speed you are printing at so try and keep things as consistent as possible.