These silicone boots available from E3d are great little gadgets that will help your hot end retain heat and prevent thermal runaways due to your cooling fan cooling down your hot end. The problem is, simply installing them as they are they will likely fall off or slide down and fill with blobs of filament rendering them totally useless.
Have a look at the illustration below
If you follow along, you’ll be able to have great success with them as I have.
You’ll need a thin wire, you can use any wire, from an old project, from a spool if you have it or like I did I simply used one from an old bread twist tie.
Make sure you’ve removed any plastic skin that may be on the wire so that it’s just bare wire.
Once you have the boot in place wrap it from the top so it’s snug and pinching the boot securely in place.
You do not need to disassemble your hot end carriage assembly to do this
Be careful when you wrap the wire around the top of the boot that it does not come in contact with any exposed electrical wiring on your extruder.
Also to prevent melted filament from entering the boot take a razor and cut away the area as shown above. This will prevent any back flow of filament from filling up the boot and rendering it useless.
These silicone boots are available from E3D here for US customers. And other locations for Non US Customers. Search google by clicking this link.
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Hello, my name’s Rush Chapman. I’m a 3D printing enthusiast. I started this site to help people choose 3D printing projects and select the best 3D printer for your needs, whether you’re a hobbyist or a pro!
