3D Printer hot end tips

January 26, 2016

The original hole in the tip that came with my printer got widen over time that that prints started looking pretty bad. Not to mention I could tell it was using much more filament. I decided to get a couple  more from banggood which worked. I thought they were marked as they were shown, but there were no stamping of their size on them as the pictures showed. Although those tips worked, I also ordered some tiny drill bits to unclog the tips and also so that I could measure the size as well since I had no way of doing that. I had a few clogs here and there and a few days ago I was printing with the glow in the dark filament and was getting a few clicks, even with the bed leveled before the prints. So I decided to order two stainless steel tips from AliExpress. They were a few cents each so I thought I try them. I finally got them and here are the pictures. They look great and are also stamped with the numbers on them. Unfortunately the holes look a tiny bit larger than the other .4 brass tips I got before. Although both of these are .4 and the drill bits fits just right on the brass, but lose on the stainless steel version, this only leaves me wondering about these. There's nothing physically wrong with them, but not being the same size hole is kind of a head scratcher since I didn't get any clicking with the original when it was new with the same type of filament. This is the reason that I'm now scratching my head thinking about whether I got the right ones before or now even though I have the drill bits to check this. Anyway, here are the pictures so you can see them. They are both supposed to be .4 tips by the way. I forgot to mention that I ended up rounding one of the brass tips a while back which is the reason I wanted to get something a little bit stronger.

Here are all the new tips I have. I just got the stainless steel in the mail yesterday. 

 They came nicely stamped which I was surprised to see.

 This is the drill bit set I got of the same size which fits just right on the brass tip.

 But very lose in the stainless steel version that it won't stay upright and just tips over due to the slightly larger hole.

This is the set of drill bits I got.

Here's the link for the stainless tips. I won't actually link there so just copy and paste the text to go there. I just wanted to find some harder tips that wouldn't deform too easily. I should note that I have not used these yet, so I can't comment on how good or bad they are.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3D-printer-E3D-V6-Extra-Nozzle-Stainless-Steel-Nozzle-0-25mm-0-4mm-0-8mm-for/32564896958.html

For the other tips you can just search everywhere as these are more common.