The Great Big Nozzle Debate

Ok so I started out with a .4mm nozzle, and usually print at .2 mm layer height. Prints. take. forever. Mostly because I do not run the machine at uber high speeds (~60mm/s, 120mm/s max). It is a mini kossel, so higher speeds means more vibrations..

So I installed a .35mm nozzle, it is shaped differently, more pointed than the .4. It prints sooo much nicer! I'm kinda surprised by the difference in quality. But still slow of course.

Then I took one of my other .4mm nozzles and drilled it out to .8 and started testing various settings and layer heights. I was really pleased with the .5mm layer height, very fast print (what took 40 minutes before now takes 16 mins). Yah you lose some resolution but for making 3d printer parts, resolution is less important that strength. The parts printed with big fat nozzle are much more sturdy.



The part on the left is less than ideal, I was having some extrusion issues, but it was printed with .35mm nozzle, at .2 mm layer. The part on the right was printed using the .8mm nozzle with .5mm layer.

I have printed a part at .2mm layer and it was very nice until I tried to up the speed beyond my arduino's capabilities (insert dc42 plug for 32 bit modern electronics board here hahaha, yeah its on order....).

Anyway, what I'd like to gather here in this thread is perhaps some settings from others who may be using "larger than usual" nozzle sizes on their printers. I'm using Cura slicing in Repetier Host.

I'll post mine when I get them fine tuned probably later tonight.

That part on the left has the same small blobs that I get with some filaments with since changing my hot end. Did you ever manage to get rid of them using the 0.35mm nozzle? What hot end are you using?

I haven't tried a 0.8mm nozzle, but my Ormerod uses a 0.5mm nozzle and I am happy with the print quality. So I'm wondering why 0.4mm seems to be the standard outside of RepRapPro.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

So yeah those blobs. I believe this has to do with the changing direction of the print head, and "infill overlap" vs "x/y jerk"

I'm using an e3d v6 clone.

This is my theory.

printer moves ---------------->o<----------changes direction caused a blob.

I intend to play with this more because I really like the .35 mm nozzle. But my nozzle is taking an acetone bath at the moment.

this is the nozzle i'm using:

[www.polyprinter.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2015 02:44PM by thetazzbot.

I´ve seen 0.6 and 0.8mm nozzles for standard hotends on the bay. But I was looking for some other parts, so I don´t remember who sold them.
No need to drill them ourselves. Our extruder steppers will love bigger nozzles, not so sure about the heater element.
The E3D-volcano isn´t out there for no reason...
-Olaf

Just found a lot of bigger nozzles, but with a longer thread ( for the volcano? )
Only one was regular length:
[www.ebay.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2015 01:29AM by o_lampe.