Extruder and Hot End advise...

Hello, and greetings to everyone here! This post could have gone in several spots but one has to start somewhere, so here goes:

I recently acquired an essentially new Prusa 10 i3v off craigslist. It has a Greg's Wade's extruder and genuine E3D V6 hotend and works great at everything I can through at it. If there is one downside, it is that it's setup for 3mm filament. That's easily enough solved though. I'll give you a quick background of myself then ask my question(s). Although I'm relatively new to 3D printing, I have many years experience in all the separate elements that surround it (3d design, CAD/CAM, CNC, programming, electronics, Arduino et al, motors, computers, and so on...) I've built CNC mills and lathes but knew it was time to dive into printing. I did a fair amount of research before purchasing and was just going to buy an Ultimaker 2 but saw the deal on CL and couldn't pass it up, as it came with not only the 10" i3v, but a ton of filament, and a 6" Prusa kit as well for a couple hundred bucks total. Hard to pass up. As mentioned the working Prusa printed perfectly from the start and has done everything I can through at it perfectly. So this is my question for all the experts here: (I know there's no single correct answer but I welcome all your opinions, views, and expertise...) I've built the Prusa 6" up with frame, power supply, RAMPS 1.4, Marlin firmware, belts, pulleys...basically everything but the extruder and hot end. It also came with an 8" frame so it could be an 8" model with just a larger heat bed and firmware changes. I'd like to use this printer as my "experimental" unit so I can try various things, both hardware and software. From what I've read, to print 'anything', and fast, you need a high-temp hot end a direct-type extruder (opposed to Bowden). So.....What would you all suggest for a hot end and extruder? Since I saved so much money I have funds to get the good stuff here The E3D seems to be a real winner, and with their volcano pack their speed seems pretty respectable too...But I've seen all in one units like the Geeetech MK8 extruder/Hot end, the Hexagon units, There are J-heads, many extruder types you can print or buy....The list goes on and on, so I welcome any advise you can offer.

Thank you all in advance!

-Joseph

I would recommend you to go for e3d v6/volcano 6, to achieve faster prints not only you need to extrude the plastics much faster but you also need to melt them fast as well to keep up with the speed.

Sure the gtech mk8 package would be good, bought their heat break (metal) hoping to replace my clone e3d v6 heat break (teflon tube inside) but turned out it is m7 to m6 heat break, another proprietary from e3d, althought there's cheap e3d v6 heat break from china as well, unsure about the quality though.

About the gtech mk8 package, you got to watch out (well, not really) for the thermistor sleeving, compared to e3d products which they used a fiber glass sleeving (correct me on this) for the legs, most hot ends uses teflon sleevings instead which will start to melt/break at 260'c.

Basically if you're buying e3d clone from china or any hot end that uses teflon in the heater block, you can't get past 250'c (correct me here too).

As for extruder, basically you can go with any extruder type, mk8 extruder style however can be converted to bowden easily. I created an extruder/hot end mount for groove mount style at this link [www.thingiverse.com] should fit mk8 and wade extruder(not tested since I use mk8), but can be converted into bowden style too. The design focuses on compatibility and maximises z axis print volume (low profile type)

Thanks for the response, I will definitely check out your link!

-Joseph