Volcano

Hi,
Just made a Volcano with a 1.0mm nozzle. All metal parts selfmade, nozzle included.
All is ready to make Volcano's with even larger nozzles. Planning to go as large as 1.5mm and if possible I'll make make me a Volcano with a 2mm nozzle.
When the parts cooling funnel is ready I'll print a 'Spiral Vase' testcube with the Vocano to find out about settings for that 1.0mm nozzle
Anyone using large nozzles and willing to share tips to work with these large nozzles...?

Thanks in advance.
Chris

I'm using a 0.8 mm nozzle on a volcano heater block. Getting it to work well is difficult. In normal sized nozzles, the filament tends to drool when it sits. In the 0.8 mm nozzle, it not only doesn't drool, it seems to suck filament back up into the nozzle and will not leave a blob at the end of a layer, but leaves gaps at the start of new lines/layers even without retraction turned on. I'm experimenting with setting retraction to 0.01 mm and extra length on restart to 0.5 mm to try to eliminate the gaps, but it seems to vary with the travel distance, etc. It will work fine for spiral vases- there's no retraction once it finishes the solid bottom layer(s).

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

I already used a 0.7mm on a V6 block, gave me excellent prints, spotless perimeters.
Only problem was I could not exceed 75mm/s speed with that 0.7 nozzle. To do that 75mm/s I had to print PLA at 245°C(I know to high, but it works).
I hope to go even faster with these large nozzles in a volcano and drop temp again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2018 11:35AM by chriske.

First test : Volcano + nozzle 1.0mm

[youtu.be]

I'm curious how a "Volcano" differs from an ordinary-but-large-diameter-nozzle hot-end.

For example, I've been using a 0.5mm nozzle on my Chinese-clone E3d v6 hot-end, and have bought a 0.6mm and a 0.8mm nozzle to try out. Is there something wrong with using large nozzles like these (or even bigger) on an ordinary hot-end? Is the problem in getting enough heat to melt the volume of filament fast enough? If so, I guess, I could change my heater cartridge to a higher wattage.

A larger nozzle will not work in a classic (V6) heatblock, even with a higher higher wattage heater. I have used a 0.7mm nozzle in a V6 block but had to reduce speed to allow a smooth print or raise temperature for smooth perimeter. I like to print very fast, so my solution was raising temp.
That problem is solved using a Volcano heater block. That block is higher and the heater cartridge itself is mounted vertically instead of horizontally like in the V6. So in the heaterblock there's a longer 'path' to melt the filament.

Quote

I'm curious how a "Volcano" differs from an ordinary-but-large-diameter-nozzle hot-end.

The contact area between heater block and nozzle is larger. That can't be compensated with a more powerful heater element in a V6 block.

I'm using 0.6 and 0.8mm nozzles on my printers with cloned volcano blocks. They both ooze until the melting chamber is empty, but they also print very nice. ( just add 2 lines of skirt to build up chamber pressure )

@DD
do you use direct drive or Bowden?

Find the differences ...?...

First one is printed with 1mm nozzle, 0.8mm layer, temp 240° speed:55mm/s Time : 16min
second is printed with 0.4mm nozzle 0.2mm layer, temp 225° speed:80mm/s Time : 1h52min

Time to make me a hotend with a even larger nozzle...

I often thought to make a nozzle with 4 small holes in a narrow square pattern, instead of one big hole. That would reduce oozing, but still allows wide perimeters.

It crossed my mind also. But it is rather difficult to make, four small holes very near.
But what I surely will test is this one: The one with that 2mm nozzle. [3dsolex.com]
That company claims that this 2.0mm nozzle can be used with 1.75mm filament.
Well, I doubt it if this particular one is feasible with a 2mm nozzle. The body of the nozzle itself is to short imo. Or you should go VERY slow, and that is not what I have in mind. A 2.0mm nozzle can( or should I say 'could') be used with a longer shaft, like the one in the E3D-Volcano hotends. Like I said before that longer nozzle helps heating the filament over a longer distance. Still, I need to push the temp of my 1.0mm nozzle (that I'm using right now) to 240°C(PLA!) to print at 55mm/s with a rather good result. As I like to go fast I need to find a solution to all this. I'm thinking of making a hotend with a dual heater cartridge and maybe a longer nozzle still. So I would probably need to design my own heaterblock, something like the Volcano, but even higher.

Right now I'm making myself a hotend with a 1.5mm nozzle.
In the picture a 0.4 and a 1.5 mm side by side.

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In the picture a 0.4 and a 1.5 mm side by side.

Which is which?

I didn't think of drilling four holes next to each other. There are other ways to do that. ( Don't know the english terms )
It wouldn't have to be deep either, just the last mm or so.

Etching or maybe sputtering...??

First test with a 1.5 mm nozzle this time.
Perimeter looks very good in fact almost perfect. Except that the 'Z' axis does not move in a continuous motion like it always does like in all my previous 'Spiral Vase' tests. Very strange.
This behavior result in a rather strange regular pattern at the corners of this testobject.
Very first test is done at 55mm/s but that did not went well. So I had to lower speed to 35mm/s. Some extra tests are needed here to find out how to raise that printing-speed again.

[youtu.be]

Forgot to mention : layer height a whopping 1.2mm..!

Earlier versions of Slic3r tend to crash regularly, when I started with one of my own printer profiles to change nozzle diameter and/or change from normal- to vase-mode. ( although they were developed from the default profiles )
I always use the default simple_xxxx profiles to establish a new nozzle size.

Good to know, I'll inform my pals. Although it crashes regularly also they still use Slic3r.
Thanks for the info...!

Why that strange pattern at the corners..?

The lift at the 'corners' of that testcube in the movie is a normal phenomenon. The reason I discovered it only now is because my pal Guy was intrigued too and performed a simulation with a regular nozzle, say 0.35 or 0.4mm.  The result is exactly the same only on a smaller scale, hardly visible.

To perform a Spiral Vase test I always quickly draw a real cube. This time I drew a cube with rather large fillets at the corners. When printing a 'real' cube the lift occurs exactly at each corner and will pass unnoticed. But in my case the lift is spread over the entire fillet, resulting in that strange pattern at the corners.
I discovered also that the lift is continuous over the perimeter of the entire cube indeed, but lift during straight walls is very small, almost negligible. Most of the 'Z' lift do occur at the corners. Very strange behaviour. That path is only visible while zooming in(on screen) during simulation.
If I had chosen a cylindrical shape for my 'Spiral Vase' test I would not have noticed that fenomenon at all, neither would I have seen it with a regular cube, with 'real' corners.

What I discovered also is that this strange pattern in these 'corners' make these cubes lots stronger, very stiff.
​​​​​​​And what's more I think that pattern looks good too..