Thanks to all of you! Ordered the new power supply and E3D hot end and hobb goblin. So here we go!

Best of luck! You'll be glad you did it!

The mechanical aspect is simple and very fun. If the firmware side is scaring you a little, again, use the search feature on the forum and you will find a massive surplus happy confused users who are now happy customers. I am one of those
Nothing will make you understand the ins and outs of your machine like modding.

Here is a link to firmware instructions. This is for the Printrboard REV-E (later SD2/3 units, all SD4/Press/WB)
And here is my writeup for the Hobb Goblin mentioned earlier.

If you have the all metal extruder on your SD4, you probably want to keep that.  All you have to do is remove the lip from the E3D heatsink and it will slide right into the hole where the original hotend went.  You will have to extend the Z-height setscrew which engages the Z limit switch as the e3d is taller, but that's all you have to do (except, maybe check to see that the correct thermister is selected in the firmware).

He has the original solidoodle hotend.

Dave -

To answer your questions, everything in the wiki will be the same. The new v6 does look a little different, but everything goes together and wires up the same. The only difference is the thermistor gets a screw instead of tape, and you will need a different mounting bracket (again, provided by filastruder).

You will only be replacing the hotend and the mount. The motor won't change. To be clear, a hotend is the heated block, heater, nozzle, thermistor, and heat sink combo. The extruder is technically the motor/bearing/hobbed bolt combo but it can also mean the entire setup (hotend + motor/bearing/bolt)

The firmware is easy - and there's lots of people here to make sure you do it right.

You can check the Soliwiki page for the E3D For a full list of instructions.

All E3D hotends are sold as a DIY kit. The assembly is a breeze, but you will still want to familiarize yourself with the wiki instructions. That was made for the v4/v5. The v6 is even easier and there are many of us who would be more than happy to walk you through should you need any help.

Aside from the mechanical assembly, you will have to update your firmware. This is not optional . You have a different type thermistor and you are now capable of reaching much higher temps. So you will have to tweak this, and then heat the hotend to 290c for a final tightening. Once again, if you would need help with this, many would be happy to help, but there are already many many threads answering virtually any question you may have regarding the E3D.

Azerate,

I followed the link and read it through twice. My concern is the E3D v.6 looks quite different from what is shown in the wiki. What instructions do I keep? What do I leave out? Am I just replacing the hot end or the whole extruder? They seem to interchange the terms in the instructions. Does the E3D come with the drive parts to push the filament through the hot end? Also the firmware update scares the shit out of me! How would I know whether the firmware installed properly until its too late and I fry it? This doesn't appear to be something you can do in an hour and I fear if I can't get all done in one evening I'll screw it up.

Then there is all the chatter in the wiki about upgrading the power supply and other stuff.

Where do I send it to have all this done and they send it back to me working? )

Thanks for all your help!

Dave

Take this opportunity to upgrade to an all metal hot end such as the E3d.  You can buy them on filastruder.com.

+2

I recently upgraded the hotend on my airwolf to the E3D v6. Best decision I ever made.

Also, you can buy the mount parts directly from Filastruder along with the E3D v6.

All E3D hotends are sold as a DIY kit. The assembly is a breeze, but you will still want to familiarize yourself with the wiki instructions. That was made for the v4/v5. The v6 is even easier and there are many of us who would be more than happy to walk you through should you need any help.

Aside from the mechanical assembly, you will have to update your firmware. This is not optional . You have a different type thermistor and you are now capable of reaching much higher temps. So you will have to tweak this, and then heat the hotend to 290c for a final tightening. Once again, if you would need help with this, many would be happy to help, but there are already many many threads answering virtually any question you may have regarding the E3D.

Take this opportunity to upgrade to an all metal hot end such as the E3d.  You can buy them on filastruder.com.

^Yep...probably the best upgrade you can do!...throw in a Hobbed Goblin while you're at it...

In RH, under Config / Printer Settings; the Printer Tab is where you can instruct the Bed Heater to shut off after print completion:

Thanks Josh!

Glad to help!