So the V6 clone hot end was not the fix I was hoping for. In fact it was just another time sucking detour, since I had to try (and fail) to fix a problem with the clone. The trouble was with the heatbrake, which has some burs or roughness inside that is stopping the filament and clogging the works. I tried to polish the feed ramp inside the tube but it only helped a small amount. I never did get a good print from the new hot end, and found that what it did print had poor layer adhesion, even after pushing temps to 270 deg C on ABS (bed at 110). I think that should be in the upper range for ABS, but it was clearly not heating properly. I took out the thermistor (which was just recently swapped), and tested it using some boiling water, and then compared it's readings to my cooking thermometer. The values were within 2-3 degrees so the thermistor seems to be good. Next I pulled the heating cartridge (which I retained from the stock Ender 3) and found that it was measuring 13.5 Ohms (ideal is 14.4 Ohms for a 40W cartridge on a 24v system). I am not sure if that could be related to the layer adhesion but I am swapping it with one that measures at 14.5 ohm. The heater cartridge that shipped with the V6 clone hot end measured at 15.4 Ohms, so there is probably a good deal of variation in these cartridges. None of this fixes the problem with the clone V6 heatbrake though, and I have no spares.
In the end I have ordered a (hopefully) genuine E3D heatbrake which cost as much as this whole hot end. I also went ahead and ordered the E3D upgrade kit for the V6 which includes a new block and cartridge thermistor. Although I am sure the thermistor is working, I don't know if it is making good contact with the block which may be skewing the results. The clone V6 blocks just have a small hole to push the thermistor bead into. On the V6 clone, I added some thermal paste to help with the "connection" between the thermistor and the block but that did not help with the problem. So, with all the problems I have been having, it is one less variable if I can be sure there is good contact, which the cartridge type on the genuine E3D V6 block should have.
In the end I have ordered a (hopefully) genuine E3D heatbrake which cost as much as this whole hot end. I also went ahead and ordered the E3D upgrade kit for the V6 which includes a new block and cartridge thermistor. Although I am sure the thermistor is working, I don't know if it is making good contact with the block which may be skewing the results. The clone V6 blocks just have a small hole to push the thermistor bead into. On the V6 clone, I added some thermal paste to help with the "connection" between the thermistor and the block but that did not help with the problem. So, with all the problems I have been having, it is one less variable if I can be sure there is good contact, which the cartridge type on the genuine E3D V6 block should have.
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