How To: Assemble the Mosquito Hotend

New from Slice Engineering: the Mosquito Hotend. This 3D printer hotend platform has been designed to easily fit into 3D printers you already have, but it’s biggest benefit is how well it keeps heat localized to the heater block and avoids having heat creep as readily as other hotends might. Rather than require you to use proprietary hardware, you can instead choose to use parts you already have from other 3D printers.

Thermistors

Glass Bead Thermistor

If you have the older, glass bead thermistor that E3D hotends used to come with, it's fairly easy to install in the Mosquito heater block. Simply fill the thermistor hole in the heater blow with the thermal paste, then insert the glass bead. Be sure to provide strain relief using the included cable tie with the Mosquito, and wait for the paste to dry. If you'd rather not wait, you can also heat up your finished Mosquito hotend to solidify the thermal paste.

E3D Thermistor Cartridge

If you have the newer thermistor cartridge that E3D hotends now come with, it is fairly easy to install into the Mosquito. The Mosquito hotend was designed to be compatible with this E3D component, but the hole for the thermistor cartridge is significantly longer than that of E3Ds. This slop is not something you want in the part that will detect whether or not your 3D printer is actually at the right temperature, so here’s what you’ll need to set it right.

• E3D thermistor cartridge
• Mosquito hotend
• Slice Engineering thermal paste
• 2mm Hex driver for set screw (included with Mosquito Hotend)

Once you have your tools and supplies:

• Unscrew the set screw from one side of the heater block
• Apply the thermal paste to the smaller, 3mm diameter hole in the hotend.
• Enough to make contact with the thermistor on all sides and hold it securely.
• You don’t want too much, just enough to allow the thermistor cartridge to make contact with the heater block.
• While wet, insert thermistor cartridge until it reaches past the set screw
• Install heater cartridge of choice (as described in directions below)
• Wipe away excess thermal paste
• Set aside and allow thermal paste to dry.
• Reinstall set screw.

After an hour or so the thermal paste should be fully dry, and you should be ready to install the mosquito hotend onto your 3D printer.

Slice Engineering Thermistor

While very similar to the E3D thermistor, Slice Engineering uses measuring devices to make sure it has a consistent diameter, and it’s longer to give it more surface contact with the heater block to give you a more accurate reading of the 3D printer’s hotend temperature.You’re going to need:

• Slice Engineering thermistor
• Mosquito hotend
• Slice Engineering thermal paste
• 2mm Hex driver for set screw (included with Mosquito hotend)

Once you have your tools and supplies:

• Unscrew the set screw from one side of the heater block
• Apply a small amount of thermal paste to the smaller, 3mm diameter hole in the hotend.
• Enough to coat the thermistor bu not have it squeeze out the other side/
• While wet, insert thermistor until roughly centered in hole.
• Install heater cartridge of choice (as described in directions below)
• Set aside and allow thermal paste to dry.
• Reinstall set screw.

After an hour or so the thermal paste should be fully dry, and you should be ready to install the mosquito hotend onto your 3D printer.

Heater Cartridge

E3D or Generic Heater Cartridges

Heater cartridges have for the most part been standardized in their diameter (6mm) but that’s more of a loose dimension and isn’t usually precisely measured. If you have a heater cartridge that does fit, but isn’t from Slice Engineering, you may notice it won’t be long enough to match the hole in the Mosquito hotend. For that, you’ll need a little preparation:

• E3D or generic heater cartridge
• Mosquito hotend with thermistor installed
• Slice Engineering thermal paste
• 2mm Hex driver for set screw (included with Mosquito hotend)

Once you have your tools and supplies:

• Apply a small amount of thermal paste into opening of 6mm hole in hotend
• Slide heater cartridge until there's room for the set screw
• Wipe away any thermal paste that oozed out
• Set aside and allow thermal paste to dry.
• Reinstall set screw.

After an hour or so the thermal paste should be fully dry, and you should be ready to install the mosquito hotend onto your 3D printer.

Slice Engineering Heater Cartridge

Slice Engineering uses a gauge that’s been machined to measure that the outer diameter of every heater cartridge does not exceed 6mm. This means that you won’t run the risk of trying to jam your heater into a heater block where it just won’t fit. Installing it is about the same as any other with just a slight difference. First, gather the tools and supplies necessary:

• Slice Engineering heater cartridge
• Mosquito hotend with thermistor installed
• Slice Engineering thermal paste
• 2mm Hex driver for set screw (included with Mosquito hotend)

Once you have your tools and supplies:

• Apply a small amount of thermal paste into opening of 6mm hole in hotend
• Slide heater cartridge until roughly centered hole
• Wipe away any thermal paste that oozed out
• Set aside and allow thermal paste to dry.
• Reinstall set screw.

After an hour or so the thermal paste should be fully dry, and you should be ready to install the mosquito hotend onto your 3D printer.

Mounting

The Mosquito Hotend doesn't have a groove mount like you might expect. Instead, there are multiple hole patterns to allow you to customize how you want it mounted; two on the top of the heatsink, one on the bottom of the heat sink, and the thread pattern on the side of the heatsink. There are a variety of different mounts you can find on Thingiverse or collected all together on Slice Engineering's website to get you started, with some being simple adapters to groove mount it just like you would with an E3D hotend, while others modify the hotend assembly parts to fit the rectangular profile the Mosquito hotend has. One adapter won't work for every condition, so you will need to pick and choose what mount works best for you.

General Firmware and Slicer Settings

Once you have everything assembled and mounted, you will need to run a PID calibration for your printer, that way your printer can more accurately heat up your extruder without swinging passed the temperature you set it to. You can find a handy guide on how to do that here. You'll also want to do some retracting testing, using the same procedure as normal, as described in this article here.