If necessary, heat the hot end in order to remove any filament from the hot end and Bowden tubing. Take any spools off the spool holder.

Turn off the printer and unplug the power cord.

Move the delta carriages to the bottom of their towers so the arms point up and the hot end is supported.

Unscrew and disconnect the Bowden tubing from the top of the hot end.

Remove the fan shrouds from the end effector.

• These will not be reused for the E3D v6 and can be discarded.

Cut the wires to the heat sink fan, leaving enough length to add a new connection.

Strip 3mm off the end of each wire.

Unscrew the three screws securing the upper melamine plate to the end effector.

• You'll need to hold on to the nuts on top with a wrench or pliers.

The hot end will now come off of the end effector.

Cut the four wires leading to the thermistor and heat cartridge as shown. Strip 3mm off the ends to prepare them for soldering.

Remove the connector from the end of the Bowden tube.

For the E3D v6 HotEnd assembly instructions, click here.

Cut all the hot end wires down to about 20mm from the end of the red insulation on the blue heater cartridge wires.

Strip 3mm off the ends of the thermistor, fan, and heat cartridge wires.

Solder all six wires to their matching counterpart:

• Blue heater cartridge - thick red
• Blue heater cartridge - thick black
• Red thermistor - thick white
• Black thermistor - thick green
• E3D fan red - thin red
• E3D fan black - thin black

Fit the spacer mount piece onto the hot end.

Stand the mount up on top of the end effector platform and line up the screw holes with the spacer holes.

Insert the 2-1/2" screws through the holes in the end effector platform.

Place the other mount piece on top of the spacer stand down over the protruding screws.

Tuck the wires into the side of the platform.

Screw on the wing nuts to the top of the screws and hand-tighten.

• A 7/64" hex key might be necessary to hold the screw steady while tightening the wing nut.

Insert the Bowden tube into the top of the new hot end.

Attach the new layer cooling fan shroud to the end effector platform and press fit the fan into it.

Route the fan wires through the side of the platform with the other wires.

Open the Repetier.ino file in the Arduino IDE version 1.0.6 and edit Configuration.h:

• Change the value of EXT0_TEMPSENSOR_TYPE to 8. The line should read:

  • #define EXT0_TEMPSENSOR_TYPE 8
• Change the value of MAXTEMP to 300. The line should read:

  • #define MAXTEMP 300

Upload the edited firmware to the printer.

Move the printer's delta arms back into operating position.

Connect the printer to MatterControl and set the extruder temperature to 260°C.

• The hot end fan should start up once the temperature is set to any temperature higher than 50°C.

Using a 7mm socket wrench and an adjustable wrench or tongue-and-groove pliers to hold the heat block steady, tighten the nozzle.

• Do not over-tighten; one firm adjustment in the right direction is sufficient.

While the hot end is still hot, use MatterControl to heat the bed to 60° C.

• Both the hot end and bed must be hot so they expand as they would during printing.

Once the bed is hot, press the knob-button next to the built-in LCD display on the printer and navigate to Advanced Settings -> Calibrate Z Height.

Select Z Position.

Using the knob, lower the nozzle close enough to the bed that a piece of paper barely moves underneath it.

• If the paper moves freely, the nozzle is too far away.
• If the paper doesn't move at all, the nozzle is too close.
• The value should be somewhere around -8mm, as that is about the difference in height between the old hot end and the new.

When you're satisfied, press the knob button.

Use the knob to navigate to Set new Z=0.00.

Press the knob to store the new height.

Follow the PID tuning guide to calibrate the new hot end.