Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend Kit
Well, here it is! The Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend CR10 kit which was supplied by J-supplied.co.uk Thanks, guys! This will also work on most of the Cr10 clones as well as the Cr10 mini!
The packaging is neat and the contents are also packaged nicely. It gives you the sense of a premium quality product!
Here is what you get in the Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend kit:
- Silicone sock
- Spanner
- Allen key
- Grub screws
- Clips for bowden tube
- Hotend assembly
- 0.4mm Steel nozzle
Removing your existing hotend
On the packaging, there is a QR code which takes you to the Micro Swiss site itself of which it has a handy installation video for you to follow. Installation is really easy and only took me around 15 minutes! Here is the direct link to the video.
The first thing to do is to preheat your nozzle as you will need to remove this first.
Once at the temperature and the nozzle has been removed, choose the “Cooldown” option in your printer settings and once cooled, turn off.
We can now unscrew the fan assembly
Remove the Bowden tube – If you do struggle, just heat up the hotend again slightly which will make it easier to pull out.
The next thing is to remove the heat block. If you did heat the hotend again to remove the bowden, make sure it has cooled again!
The Kapton tape should easily pull off. Check to see if you have 2 extra bolts securing the heat block to the heatsink. Mine was a bit crudded up, but just scrape this away so you can access the bolts. – Remove these. You can now unscrew the heat block from the heatsink with a counter-clockwise twist.
Now we can remove the heater cartridge and thermistor. The heater cartridge is held in place by 2 bolts which tighten the heat block to secure it. This should easily pull out. With the thermistor wires, be very careful with these. It is basically 2 wires held together at the end with a glass bead. This is what sensors the temperature of the heatblock. I wasn’t able to pull mine out easily, so I just got a flame torch and heated the heatblock til it came out.
Time to install your Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend
First thing to do is install the heater cartridge and thermistor. When it comes to the thermistor, ensure the wires aren’t twisted and that the screw secures both wires ensuring the bead at the end is securely in the heat block. Secure all the bolts.
Screw in the thermal break into the heat block and tighten with the enclosed 7mm spanner
Now install the nozzle
The next step is to now install the heat sink to the carriage of the printer itself and don’t forget to insert the grub screw, but only ever so slightly at this point so it doesn’t fall out.
Now you can insert the nozzle end into the heatsink ensuring it is all the way in and then tighten the grub screw so it hold this in place. Make sure it is straight.
Now insert the bowden tube as far down as it will go and then secure with one of the red clips provided
Now, we can power on the printer and pre-heat the nozzle
Once it has reached temperature, get a spanner on the nozzle and one on the thermal break and tighten these together. Tighten the other bolts too for the heater cartridge and thermistor. If it does not reach temperature, check all your wires and connections
Power down the printer and let it cool.
We can now stick the fan housing back on and put on the silicon sock. If easier, you can remove the hotend and install the silicon sock first as for me, it was a bit tight on one of the corners due to a bolt in the way,
The installation is now complete!
This is what is left of my old hotend.
Just to note
This was installed on my Creality CR-10S.
When printing it is advised to have your nozzle temp 5 degrees higher than normal and to also ensure to reduce your retraction amount to no more than 4mm, however, this is entirely up to you as you know your printer best and what settings would work for you.
I did print a small 2020 clip which for me had more stringing than normal, but after changing retraction settings and speed (I set mine to 5mm/s retraction and 90mm/s retraction speed) which seemed to work for me first off, but I have more tinkering to do to get optimal results.
This article will be updated with more prints over time so you can see how the Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend performs
I hope you have enjoyed this review of the Micro Swiss All Metal Hotend Kit. If you did want to purchase this kit, you can do so by clicking here.
Please feel free to leave a comment, or if there is anything you’d like to see in the future, please let us know! Be sure to check out my overview of the Cr10 mini!
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