DIY MK6 Plus-ish Heating Block

thingiverse

After a brief and well, fiery romance with http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9234 I said my goodbyes, bit the bullet and looked at my old MK6. "Hello MK6 hotend." I said "I hate you." Came the reply "I wanted to love you, but you came apart at the seems." "As if you would know, when was the last time you touched me." She countered "I could see it, your resistors cracking and going to bits." (Tearful dialogue continues, segway into abrupt technical jabble) This is a rework of the stock MK6 that embeds the power resistors in the steel in an MK6 PLUS-esque fashion. It heats up quickly and gives a bit more room for a cooling fan. It has printed spectacularly for 12 hours, but I cannot speak for the long term success so keep that in mind, should anything happen as I continue printing that would be pertinent I will update. This is an all or nothing process that cannot be undone. Once you start, you must finish or have a backup plan ie. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8094 . Instructions Completely disassemble your hotend Power Resistor Prep: Gently and firmly so as not to break your resistor leads, tap/wiggle your resistors out of their chassis Crack off the insulation surrounding them Use a ohm-meter to confirm they still read 5 ohms Measure the maximum diameter, mine was .2". Your's is probably the same but be certain Heating Block: Using a 7/32" (1/4" if daring) drill through your heating block as shown in the picture, taking care to avoid choosing a spot that drills through your thermocouple mount screw. I used a drill press and bought a nice fancy bit specifically for this task, you can skimp on these but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm not familiar enough with drilling this kind of material to give some good tips on method so if you've only drilled wood, do some research on cutting a big thick hole through stainless steel. Put it all together: Wrap your resistors in kapton tape to insulate them and beef up their diameter so they fit snugly in their newly drilled home. Use that ohm-meter again to check the your resistors are electrically isolated from both each other and the heating block. Check it twice. Kapton a bit around the heating block where your resistors poke out if your nervous like me and don't entirely trust the solder your using from deciding it should goop about a bit while printing. Using solder with a melting point higher than your operating temperature, solder your resistors as in the MK6 assembly instructions. Reassemble your heating block Carefully monitor your new hotend during its first few prints JUST to be sure your house won't go down in a fiery blaze. You're done, AND awesome. How cool is that, huh?