.4 mm hardened steel nozzle e3d v6 full on a prusa mk2.. i bought the steel nozzle for a project for a friend, printing copperfill. since then i have ran everything through it (pla, petg, metal composites, nylon)... and the one thing i truly love.... the minimal thermal expansion. i can go from pla to nylon without having to re-adjust the nozzle height from the bed. needless to say for me brass is a thing of the past.
One tip that is worth mentioning; a large contact surface on a hot heater block, from a wrench or similar will often cause it to cool down, even causing a firmware heater error and machine shut down. Keep contacts short, or watch what happens to the temperature while you've got it grasped. The danger here is that the heater shuts off and you don't notice ... doing damage during the reinstall.
Hi Tom, I'd advise against holding the heatsink rigidly (loosely is fine) in the vice as that is the easiest way to break the heatbreak (no pun intended). I'd rather rest the heatsink in a narrow glass or similar object so it doesn't move around much but where you can't unintentionally apply torque to the heatbreak. You should only apply torque between the block and the nozzle - never between block and the heatsink. As the nozzle screws into the block it'll press up on the heatbreak in a safe way that can't damage it. I like your videos very much. Keep up the good work.
I have been loving printing with a e3d .8 mm nozzle. I have been printing larger objects in PETG, and it really speeds things up. Although i get more stringing with the .8, and while i have fiddled with retraction without it helping much, i have not fiddled with any kind of coasting. Right now i just live with a little post print work. I change the nozzle right on the printer without removing the extruder or heatbreak. (e3d bigbox). The only problem is you dont realize how fast you can crank through a roll of filament. A two hour print will use up a quarter of the 1kg spool.
Thanks, some useful information. I have a small lathe so I make my own nozzles from 8mm hex brass bar. I use a 0.4mm carbide pcb drill to make the hole, and a regular 1.8mm twist drill to make the path for the (1.75mm) filament. As you say, a 0.4mm nozzle bore is a good trade-off between quality and speed. Also, a 0.4mm drill is not too difficult to use, anything smaller tends to break when you look at it. Before changing filament, or removing the nozzle, I clear it out with a simple tool I made, a length of stainless steel, 1.5mm diameter and ~125mm long, fitted into a wooden file handle. Pushing it into the throat after withdrawing the filament will push nearly all the remaining material out of the nozzle, and any contaminants are likely to stick to the stainless and come out when you withdraw the tool. Tip: Never try to clear a blocked brass nozzle by poking something into the hole, unless you want to make it the hole bigger, because that's what will happen. Tip: Wrapping your hotend block with cotton insulation will decrease warm-up time, and use slightly less energy to print!
A review of that ruby nozzle would be awesome as I'm having trouble with my nozzles degrading and might just go all out and fix it with the new ruby nozzle. Also how often should you replace your nozzle and what are some obvious signs of your nozzle degrading?
a heavily worn out nozzle will cause stringing, poor overhangs, and in extreme cases voids in your prints. the ruby nozzle is good for heavily abrasive filaments, but a poor nozzle for general printing. I've had good luck with plain old hardened steel nozzles, even printing a lot of carbon fiber and glass filled filaments.
Can You make Nozzleween. I would like to know what nozzle makes best print and what nozzle allows fastest feedrates. Use 0.4 nozzles because it is most common size.
Jukka-Pekka Ylitalo my company is working on a premium nozzle design at this point, which will come standard with 0.5 nozzle. In my opinion, 0.5 is optimal size for any application. As a CAD designer and engineer, i dislike 0.4 size, because when i design objects and models I tend to have them scaled to whole 1mm, so my wall maybe 1mm or 2mm, in first case it will always require extra gcode tuning and making sure layers actually go without gaps. So I am a big believer in 0.5mm size. We are gonna produce some crazy over-engineered hotend, I am sure it will surprise a lot of people. I totally rethought all hotend idea from the clean page. It will be nothing like anything on a market :) I will be glad it Tom decides to take our prototype for a run.
I've stuck with the classic brass nozzles with a range of .25mm to .5mm. I'm not printing any exotic materials yet and they seem to stand up to the job well enough. Plus, they're dirt cheap. Thanks for the video!
I have switched to stainless steel as a compromise between getting a 20 dollar hardened nozzle and the brass ones. So far I am really liking it and have had to replace a lot less often. It seems to me that it makes a cleaner crisper print. A pack of 5 of them cost me like 8 buck on Amazon, and I bet if you go the Aliexpress route you can get them much cheaper. I have also not really noticed any temperature issues, meaning I have not had a need to increase the hot end temps any higher it seems to work just fine. I have already done some abrasive prints so far with iron filled PLA, as well as a little bit of Bronze fill and the nozzle did not seem to have an issue, still prints nice clean prints. Do note that I only used about half a pound of the Iron filled PLA so it has not really gotten the brunt of a full Kilo sized roll yet, but I'll circle back and fill you in if I notice any major issues. There is one other positive that I have noticed. If by mistake if you have the bed too close because of a leveling issue, the stainless does not flatten like the brass ones. I notice that the brass kinda flattens out and acts more like an iron with a bigger flatter area rather than a sharp tip. The stainless survives this better and does not leave a streak on the bed as bad as the brass ones.
Stainless steel is *NOT* wear-resistant. At all! I ran only 100g of glow-in-the-dark filament through a 0.4mm stainless steel nozzle and literally doubled the nozzle's bore size in the process. You really need to get properly *hardened* steel (e.g. the ones that E3D make) for use with abrasive materials :)
I tend to stick with 0.35mm or 0.4mm as they are a good compromise between detail and speed. I usually upgrade to the Microswiss hot end when I can for long ABS prints and the ability to run PETG. Nozzles I use: Makergear M2 - They have a proprietary hot end, but it works really well. Standard is .35mm brass. I also have 0.25mm for detail work, and an 0.5mm for big pieces. Wanhao i3 (no longer have) - I had the Microswiss stainless all-metal hot end on that with a .35mm nozzle. It ran great in between bearings going out on me......seriously I got every bad bearing that the company had. Imagine That Titian (an Afinibot A31 with several upgrades) - Thus far I have a Microswiss all-metal in it as well. 0.4mm. I am getting a Wanhao D6. I plan on upgrading that to the Microswiss as well. My singular complaint with the Microswiss hot ends is that they will only tolerate 1.5mm of retraction before they start clogging. I get a lot of stringing with PLA, but I'm playing around with coasting to see if I can reduce it.
Thanks Thomas, nice overview. I use 0.4mm brass nozzles as I print mostly PLA. I share an experience which might be helpful fpr others: I recently purchased a nozzle from a new source which gave rise to bad printing results: the surface of my test wallprinted with my usual parameters showed an irregular shape of individual layers whereas the wall created with the original nozzle was perfect. Inspection with a stereo microscope showed that the hole was not perfectly round and inside the nozzle the walls were not smooth at all.
I'm just sitting with a standard E3D V6 Nozzles made of Brass. Currently I have a .3 mm nozzle in because I need better details and almost never print above layerheights of .2mm.... But one question still is open to me: Why leave a gap between the nozzle and the heater block? I make them flush since "printing day one" to enhance the heat transfer to the very tip of the nozzle... (my way of doing it is: unscrew everything from the heater block, clean threads, screw nozzle back in until hand tight, now unscrew 1/3rd turn, screw heatbreak in until hand tight, check if nozzle is still hand tight. heat up to 240°C and tighten the nozzle until flush)
I tried a stainless nozzle on my MK10 extruder, and it sucked. It was as if I was running 50C lower temp. Yes, *50C*. Needless to say, I'm sticking with brass for now. Honestly, it was my bad, because my hotend is pretty bad to begin with, lol. I'm just going with cheapo ebay nozzles for now, they seems to be working fine for me.
Not sur if you’re still reading comments on this old video but here is another one. I have been changing brass nozzles without any problem using more or less your technic. But lately I’m having a weird problem. I have replaced my nozzle with the nozzle X and used it for almost a year. Then one day I had a problem with a filament stuck inside and removed it for cleaning. But since then, it keeps leaking after a couple of weeks time. I ordered a torque wrench to make sure I was tightening enough. But it keeps loosing up after a couple of weeks again. I now tight it to 3nm and still having the same issue. Any idea what can cause this?
Sweet set up! I'm using an ice cream cone, with a hole stabbed in the bottom with a pencil to roughly the size of what I think 0.4mm looks like. So far my prints have come out all yellow and flakey.
I'm using an Anet A8 with 0.4 mm brass nozzle but it keeps clogging which is pretty annoying. And yes, it was my fault this time as I switched between ABS and PLA without properly cleaning it. I am going to stick with PLA from now on and have ordered an E3D Hardened Steel nozzle and a couple E3D V6 copper heat blocks, then some cheap PTFE lined screws to mount it to my standard Anet extruder. After I go through the painful process of installing it and leveling the bed, I think it should work great compared to what was there. EDIT: I broke the thermistor wire while installing the new parts so I have another on the way... It's a nice printer with great results but it has very cheap and poorly made parts.
I'm now using the Prometheus V2 hotend, so I'm stuck with the one piece nozzle that came with it (0.4mm). It's a nice hot end, but changing out the nozzle for a larger (or smaller) one would involve totally rebuilding the hot end, so it actually makes more sense to be able to swap out the entire hot end assembly. I can actually do that on my printer thanks to the way I ended up designing the hot end mounting, but I'll probably rarely wish I had the next larger or smaller size (0.6 or 0.3).
I am still using the standard E3D V6 brass nozzle on my 3D printers. Just got a hardened nozzel from E3D and will try it out this afternoon to print thom colorfab xt-c20.
I bought a cheap stainless steel nozzle for my TAZ 4, it clogged up. Instead of getting mad I used a 2.1mm drill bit to drill out the bore and I now have a nozzle that comes in handy when printing really large parts. Kind of similar to the MOARstruder from Lulzbot, except the modification cost me about 2 dollars instead of 395.
A general rule is never expect more than 80% flow of the diameter.. so yea 0.4 will not give you 0.4 due to many factors. also make sure you never damage the tip when cleaning.. if you rough/scratch it.. you increase the chance of blockages and also the filament will not flow as well and will curl as it comes out. it's best to clean your tip without shoving anything in it... so do not drill it... Generally hand feeding filament with some pressure does best.. I do this when ever i change filaments and since have never had a blockage.
I switched to a micro swiss hotend and found the steel nozzle inferior for producing nice prints with PLA so I switched back to brass. I'm sure it can be dialed in to get similar results as brass but I didn't want to bother with that as the brass one is much easier and more forgiving and produced great results no matter the speed or temperature settings. I plan on using the steel one in the rare occasions I need to print something abrasive or very high temp.
I just deinstalled my nozzle to clean it out, but man that thing was not coming loose easy! So i heated it up to a 110 degrees and right away it came off with no force at all. What a difference!
Do you mean you tried unscrewing the nozzle when it was cold? That will never work after the first time you've printed through it, because there will be molten plastic sticking it to the heater block and/or the heat break. As this video says, heat the hotend up to around 240°C (or the printing temperature of the filament you last used in it) and then unscrew it :)
Could you consider doing a video that compares genuine nozzles to cheap generic ones? There's a 24-pack of assorted nozzles on Amazon for $15 that I can't find any reviews about! thanks.
this video was supper helpfel with my cheap Tronxy x5s hotend, i had a jam in the treaded screww that has the teflon tub in it, replace that part, rebuilt my hotend made Sure to tighten it the way You showed, have not had any issues with jams. Thank you for this Great info. I do plan on changing from brass nozzle to steel. Damian
really great guide about handeling them but i would like a comparison cheap vs expensive. you can get nozzels for less then a few cents each but are they worth anything ? and what to judge them by ? also: i have a problem were exspecially the first layer kinda well looks teared from above at one engde of the extruded filament it makes my prints look weird "is as if the nozzel kinda tears it litterly up one side" and i imagne it not being that good for my adhesion as well i think it might have to do with the nozzel so thats one of the reasons im aksing the above i wonder if its wear or just a low quallity nozzel
This video just gave the right amount of information. I didn't know about using the Snti Size compound. I would love video about your workflow. Basic information... I can't believe you guys are printing one print then fixing a bunch of stuff printing another print fixing some more Stuff Etc. I know you have to do maintenance on your printer from time to time but I'd like to get to the point where I am printing more than I am trying to fix. Like clogged nozzles, misfeeding filament from the coldend extruder, etc. So combined the above with some maintance tips would be nice. Right now I would never leave the house with a print running.
Yeah I'm using an E3D V6 with a classic brass. Looked at their copper heat blocks and specialised nozzles at different diameters and the pricing was reasonable. Then I went to checkout and VAT and £4 of postage were dumped on. Needless to say I decided there's currently no need for me to replace or upgrade my nozzle.
Really wanna get tungsten carbide nozzle. Might be overkill, but I plan on printing some abrasives as well and thought of never having to switch nozzle is tempting. Also I love TC because it's such a great material.
Funny thing. Not many of these seem to be available (talking about FULL tungsten, not inserts ones) in europe. At the moment i only seen Phaetus X Primacreator nozzles.
I haven't bothered swapping out the brass 0.4 from our Prusa MK2 yet as it's suited the prints done so far, but I do have hardened ones and a Volcano waiting for when we need them.
Even though i don’t need it, I think i am going to go for the ruby for the sake of filament flexibility and never needing to worry about the tip again. for me personally, worth it.
Around 6:00, you state that you should have a gap between the nozzle and the block. I presume you mean the hex-head of the nozzle and the block. Can you tell me the purpose of that gap?
One more nozzle i wait to come out that in my opinion is worth to take a look is tungsten alloy ,not sure if it is out yet, but for abrasive filament etc looks promising and in good price :)
I mainly print with pla. e3d brass .4mm nozzle. my success with abs has been awful, delaminating layers and prints warping off heated bed. pla, no problem ever. Nylon - as long as its taulman, no issues.
I have been using the standard brass but just ordered a hardened tool steel one from Maker Geeks. I have some abrasives samples that I want to try out and figured I would give this one a try.
Tom, you make everything look so easy... I've subbed and liked every video of yours I've seen, however I still, after about 100hrs, cannot make a decent print... =/ I'm using a TEVO Tarantula model printer, with all the basic stuff that was shipped with it. Thanks for all the great help videos and sharing your plethora of knowledge about the industry.
Tried hardened steel - kept having a lot of problems. Uneven layers, failed prints, etc. I'd have to crank the temperature up and the speed down quite significantly to make it work. Switched back to brass, my printer prints like it's in factory condition. I do wish it was easier to find videos on how the different nozzle materials affect performance, and what adjustments you might have to make. I don't think I'll be using hardened steel again unless I want to work with some exotic filament.
Great video! I just want to know that if I print with a larger nozzle what would be the smallest layer height I could do? What percentage of the nozzle size would it be? My printer the Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus has a stock 0.4 mm nozzle and I am printing fairly large parts, like a full-size instrument kind of parts. My printer can get down to 0.1 mm layer height with the stock nozzle, so it's about 25% of the nozzle size. So let's say I get a 0.8 mm nozzle, would the max layer height be 0.2 mm? I would like to know. Thanks!
You can do the same height as the nozzle diameter, but then you need to use 1.5 times the width. For example, max height of 0.4 nozzle is around 0.4mm with a line width of 0.6mm. You must use wider lines for larger layer heights so that it is pressed down to the previous layer.
Great video and helpful. Decided I needed a project for the summer and brought an Anet A8 to get started. Construction was easy and I am learning a massive amount on how these printers work. As it's a cheaper option, I am manually checking hot bed level and testing different filament types. Any recommended upgrades people know about, please let me know. Happy to test and try anything to make this process easier
The Flashforge Adventurer 3 3d printer has heated itself up to 300 degrees Celsius, but I do not know how to get it to come down from that number. I was about to do a cold clean out of the nozzle.
Hi, Is there any way to use combination of different nozzle diameters installed in a dual extruder setup so that we can reduce printing time without losing outer surface finish ..
I would use a "Zangenschlüssel". I think it Is called plierwrench english. It is a lot safer than normal pliers. I use that a lot on expensive parts that are fragile. It is one of the most important tools at my home. Use the plierwrench to hold the hotend and a 7mm wrench to remove the nozzle.
I have a Prusa i3 mk2 kit on order. I added a hardened steel nozzle to my order so I could occasionally print the exotic filled fillaments, but will mostly print PLA and non- abrasive fillaments. Should I print everything through the steel, or just swap in the steel nozzle on the rare times I actually need it?
Super late reply, but just in case it still helps you/anyone else: it's really up to you. A hardened steel nozzle will print everything that a regular brass nozzle will print. The only slight downside is that steel conducts heat slightly less effectively than brass, meaning that you might not be able to print quite as fast with a steel nozzle than with a brass nozzle (you won't be able to pump heat through the nozzle and into the plastic as quickly). Personally I've never found that to be a problem, but I always print quite slowly anyway as, like Tom's said before, I prefer higher quality prints that take a bit longer over fast jobs that give mediocre results. I tend to switch between nozzle sizes fairly frequently (I've just spent this weekend trying out E3D's experimental 0.15mm nozzle, printing a Benchy at 10% scale - that's 6mm long - and 0.08mm layers and having it still come out looking like a Benchy rather than a big blob of plastic), and so there's a reasonable chance that I'll have to swap out the nozzle for a given print regardless of the material being used. Just be very careful when initially screwing in a nozzle - I've accidentally cross-threaded an E3D nozzle before which actually ruined the heater block, requiring a replacement! :(
Question: Is it necessary to remove the entire hotend from the printer to change a nozzle? Or is Tom just showing it this way for clarity? Seems it'd be easy to do this without fully disassembling everything. Anybody?
There are minor difficulties with removing a nozzle while it's still connected to the printer. When twisting the heat block, you are limited in how much you can twist it by the wires to the heater and the thermistor. You should only need to twist the heater block about 1/10th to 1/8th of a full rotation to disengage the nozzle from the heat break, so this isn't a problem if you're careful. I'm looking to pick up hex-shaped heat sinks so I can rotate the heat sink instead of the block.
I always leave it on the printer when I remove a nozzle, it hasn't failed me yet. With that said, I use a Delta Smart Effector which has a very fragile plate. So keep that in mind if you have a delta with one of them.
Great Video! I'm looking towards a buying a new nozzle so I thought that I might ask you if the following nozzle specifications with a glass bed on an ender 5 pro could print abrasive materials such as carbon fiber or nylon. Specs: Model: MK8 hardened steel nozzle Mounting type: external thread connection Working temperature: 220℃ Size: 0.4/0.6/0.8mm Filament suitable: 1.75mm For: 3D printing
I'm new at this, so I'm still using the standard 0.4mm nozzle that came with my E3D Lite6. I did get a 0.35mm nozzle to compare with the 0.4mm one but I have not tested it yet. I'm only printing in ColorFabb PLA/PHA so far too, so a brass nozzle should last a while, I think?
Molydenium should work out nice. Harder than steel but same conductivity as brass. The strongest advantage of saphire should be that the resign does not sticks on it.
If I wanted to machine my own steel nozzles, what type of steel/alloy would be best for heat transfer and durability against wear? 316SS? Inconel 625? Others??
Thanks Tom, you earned my subscription. I didn't realize that the heater block also needed to be loosened and then tightened along with tip after heated up. Also will start setting temp to 250. Thanks Dave.. PS: new to printing, I have a Anycubic Kobra printer and have been trying to find a replacement silicone cover, any suggestions?
I would have liked some elaboration on the different available shapes, since that's what has me a bit lost. IE, "ed3" vs "mk8" or "standard" vs "volcano", etc. AFIK they all have the same thread, but different lengths, volcano being the longest by far. What I am most confused about is the MK8 vs ed3 though, look completely different but close enough in size to be confused with each other. Are they interchangeable? Would it hurt to have the threads not quite bottomed out if the nozzle is a few MM longer than the heatblock was designed for? How can you even tell which 'standard' a given heater block meant to use? (For volcano this is obvious, but not the others)
I recently came across your channel and I think ur doing a great job. I will recommend you in my future videos. I ordered a brass heater block. Maybe it's better than aluminium, with regards to wear. Also, I got some titanium nozzles. Who knows, right ?
Hi Tom, great information as always. What's the name of the liquid you are using before inserting the nozzle? Thanks in advance. Continue like you do 👍👏
ive been using BIQU Metal Reprap I3 3D Printer With MK3 Heatbed and Anti-Curling Edge Antislip Heat bed Sticker , Printing Size 8.7" x 8.7" x 10.04" i found glass build plate gave me better builds but i want do more with it .
HI, My name is Shashidhar and I just want to know what type of nozzle should I use for my 800*800*800mm 3d printer, I want my product output to be smooth
I'm useing the stock nozzle on the select mini v2 and i was wondering if theirs a limit on how much you should really spend on buying a decent nozzle. Prefriably .4mm
I'm currently using an A2 Hercules E3D style nozzle from 3DXtech I was interested In the copper ones from E3D but I wanted to find out how they'd fare w/ abrasive filaments first, as I've been using a lot of GFR PETG lately
great vid, I always looks forward to your advice. but why not put the heater block into the vise when removing the nozzle? seems like less chance of breaking the things
Ok, I just installed a new nozzle yesterday, a .6mm nozzle. When I fed filament though, everything looks like it’s fine, it is coming out of the nozzle perfectly I even did a small test print. I am still worried about if I may have done something incorrectly, how soon would I know if I messed up on nozzle instillation and what would be the early signs of it?
At 1:49 he says "completely invisible layer lines and super fine detail". That's what I'm going for! What else do I need besides a small nozzle? Is there a video where he talks about what you need for high-accuracy and not care about print speed? Thanks!
You will want a direct drive printer, do not go bowden, as bowden puts a larger distance between your extruder stepper and your hotend, causing increased flow while not driving, and inconsistent retractions. You will also want a drive gear for your extruder that has a semi-circle section for where the teeth are, these grab your filament a lot better and reduce slipping, which would cause your layers to be uneven (a much larger problem at smaller layer and nozzle sizes) You will also want to consider kapton tape, and ACME Z-axis leads, the kapton so you get better adhesion since your prints will be sitting on the bed for a lot longer, and have more time to detache, and the ACME leads because you will want to make smaller, finer steps on your Z axis If you care more about quality than you do structural integrity, print a little colder. The layers will snap apart and break easier, but your extrusions tend to stay intact to the shape you originally wanted You will want a printer with the highest possible distance between the tip of the nozzle, and the heater block. You will also want to wrap your heater block in some sort of insulator, like a high-temp silicone sleeve, or some fiberglass batting/kapton combination. This will reduce thermal radiation, which will help your parts warp less, and have cleaner extrusions Do not get bed auto-level. This is a feature that would put a huge amount of stress on your Z-steppers at low layer heights, instead, get a very flat print bed, and carefully adjust the heights by hand. imo, auto-level has it's place in printers that get moved a lot, or are at hacker spaces and schools, but not for high precision home/work machines.
Oh, and a good controller for your steppers. You don't want to fry your controller when you put a high amount of amps to your steppers. PLA is also a material that's more conducive to quality prints, as it has less of a warping issue, and can be printed cooler. I am of the impression that a hotend with a heatsink (J-head style) is a plus, but make sure to get one with a PTFE liner, it puts less resistance on the filament, and would only be damaged if you were printing high-temp exotic filaments.
I'm just using what came with the Lulzbot Mini. Had trouble printing out parts that required high precision like gears and things with screw holes and nut pockets. Could the 3mm nozzle be the issue?
What's the best company/manufacture to buy from. Price ranges from about $14us for one to $6.00 for a pack of 20. Looking at Brass nozzles. Ruby nozzles are in the hundreds of dollars.
Hello, My 3d Printer (Creatily CR10S) has stopped working properly today, the nozzle is not melting anything although it is heater properly. The Filament is being pushed and everything is working perfectly. I cleaned the nozzle today morning after the problem started occurring, do you have any suggestion what could be happening?
Hab bei mir Teflon Band um das Gewinde, damit es nicht leckt. Sonst ein MaPa Heatbreak, hat eine Beschichtung die das PTFE ersetzt und eine normale Messingdüse.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
I printed my own nozzles in PLA
Sold them to all my friends
Don't have any friends now
print some friends as well, then
Nipuna Gunarathne Repeat the process and you’re immortal.
So that's how you get rid of your friends!!! good to know :)
i laughed soo much hahah made my day
I grab all my idling friends and squeezed then on a 0.00000001 nozzle, now I feel so free and relaxed :-D
.4 mm hardened steel nozzle e3d v6 full on a prusa mk2.. i bought the steel nozzle for a project for a friend, printing copperfill. since then i have ran everything through it (pla, petg, metal composites, nylon)... and the one thing i truly love.... the minimal thermal expansion. i can go from pla to nylon without having to re-adjust the nozzle height from the bed. needless to say for me brass is a thing of the past.
One tip that is worth mentioning; a large contact surface on a hot heater block, from a wrench or similar will often cause it to cool down, even causing a firmware heater error and machine shut down. Keep contacts short, or watch what happens to the temperature while you've got it grasped.
The danger here is that the heater shuts off and you don't notice ... doing damage during the reinstall.
Wow, wouldn't have thought of this. Thanks for the handy info!
Hi Tom,
I'd advise against holding the heatsink rigidly (loosely is fine) in the vice as that is the easiest way to break the heatbreak (no pun intended). I'd rather rest the heatsink in a narrow glass or similar object so it doesn't move around much but where you can't unintentionally apply torque to the heatbreak. You should only apply torque between the block and the nozzle - never between block and the heatsink. As the nozzle screws into the block it'll press up on the heatbreak in a safe way that can't damage it.
I like your videos very much. Keep up the good work.
I have been loving printing with a e3d .8 mm nozzle. I have been printing larger objects in PETG, and it really speeds things up. Although i get more stringing with the .8, and while i have fiddled with retraction without it helping much, i have not fiddled with any kind of coasting. Right now i just live with a little post print work. I change the nozzle right on the printer without removing the extruder or heatbreak. (e3d bigbox). The only problem is you dont realize how fast you can crank through a roll of filament. A two hour print will use up a quarter of the 1kg spool.
Thanks, some useful information.
I have a small lathe so I make my own nozzles from 8mm hex brass bar. I use a 0.4mm carbide pcb drill to make the hole, and a regular 1.8mm twist drill to make the path for the (1.75mm) filament.
As you say, a 0.4mm nozzle bore is a good trade-off between quality and speed. Also, a 0.4mm drill is not too difficult to use, anything smaller tends to break when you look at it.
Before changing filament, or removing the nozzle, I clear it out with a simple tool I made, a length of stainless steel, 1.5mm diameter and ~125mm long, fitted into a wooden file handle. Pushing it into the throat after withdrawing the filament will push nearly all the remaining material out of the nozzle, and any contaminants are likely to stick to the stainless and come out when you withdraw the tool.
Tip: Never try to clear a blocked brass nozzle by poking something into the hole, unless you want to make it the hole bigger, because that's what will happen.
Tip: Wrapping your hotend block with cotton insulation will decrease warm-up time, and use slightly less energy to print!
You can build your own hot end and assembly..Good stuff.
A review of that ruby nozzle would be awesome as I'm having trouble with my nozzles degrading and might just go all out and fix it with the new ruby nozzle. Also how often should you replace your nozzle and what are some obvious signs of your nozzle degrading?
a heavily worn out nozzle will cause stringing, poor overhangs, and in extreme cases voids in your prints. the ruby nozzle is good for heavily abrasive filaments, but a poor nozzle for general printing. I've had good luck with plain old hardened steel nozzles, even printing a lot of carbon fiber and glass filled filaments.
Just get the Nozzle-X
Can You make Nozzleween. I would like to know what nozzle makes best print and what nozzle allows fastest feedrates. Use 0.4 nozzles because it is most common size.
Jukka-Pekka Ylitalo my company is working on a premium nozzle design at this point, which will come standard with 0.5 nozzle. In my opinion, 0.5 is optimal size for any application. As a CAD designer and engineer, i dislike 0.4 size, because when i design objects and models I tend to have them scaled to whole 1mm, so my wall maybe 1mm or 2mm, in first case it will always require extra gcode tuning and making sure layers actually go without gaps. So I am a big believer in 0.5mm size. We are gonna produce some crazy over-engineered hotend, I am sure it will surprise a lot of people. I totally rethought all hotend idea from the clean page. It will be nothing like anything on a market :) I will be glad it Tom decides to take our prototype for a run.
@@VladOnEarth maybe you should tell us the name of your company then :D
@@VladOnEarth It has been a year now. Where is this hotend?
I've stuck with the classic brass nozzles with a range of .25mm to .5mm. I'm not printing any exotic materials yet and they seem to stand up to the job well enough. Plus, they're dirt cheap. Thanks for the video!
I have switched to stainless steel as a compromise between getting a 20 dollar hardened nozzle and the brass ones. So far I am really liking it and have had to replace a lot less often. It seems to me that it makes a cleaner crisper print. A pack of 5 of them cost me like 8 buck on Amazon, and I bet if you go the Aliexpress route you can get them much cheaper. I have also not really noticed any temperature issues, meaning I have not had a need to increase the hot end temps any higher it seems to work just fine. I have already done some abrasive prints so far with iron filled PLA, as well as a little bit of Bronze fill and the nozzle did not seem to have an issue, still prints nice clean prints. Do note that I only used about half a pound of the Iron filled PLA so it has not really gotten the brunt of a full Kilo sized roll yet, but I'll circle back and fill you in if I notice any major issues.
There is one other positive that I have noticed. If by mistake if you have the bed too close because of a leveling issue, the stainless does not flatten like the brass ones. I notice that the brass kinda flattens out and acts more like an iron with a bigger flatter area rather than a sharp tip. The stainless survives this better and does not leave a streak on the bed as bad as the brass ones.
Stainless steel is *NOT* wear-resistant. At all! I ran only 100g of glow-in-the-dark filament through a 0.4mm stainless steel nozzle and literally doubled the nozzle's bore size in the process. You really need to get properly *hardened* steel (e.g. the ones that E3D make) for use with abrasive materials :)
I'm glad I found this video. I just encountered my first clog on my Robo C2 and I'm going to replace my hotend with a fresh one
I tend to stick with 0.35mm or 0.4mm as they are a good compromise between detail and speed. I usually upgrade to the Microswiss hot end when I can for long ABS prints and the ability to run PETG.
Nozzles I use:
Makergear M2 - They have a proprietary hot end, but it works really well. Standard is .35mm brass. I also have 0.25mm for detail work, and an 0.5mm for big pieces.
Wanhao i3 (no longer have) - I had the Microswiss stainless all-metal hot end on that with a .35mm nozzle. It ran great in between bearings going out on me......seriously I got every bad bearing that the company had.
Imagine That Titian (an Afinibot A31 with several upgrades) - Thus far I have a Microswiss all-metal in it as well. 0.4mm.
I am getting a Wanhao D6. I plan on upgrading that to the Microswiss as well.
My singular complaint with the Microswiss hot ends is that they will only tolerate 1.5mm of retraction before they start clogging. I get a lot of stringing with PLA, but I'm playing around with coasting to see if I can reduce it.
Thanks Thomas, nice overview. I use 0.4mm brass nozzles as I print mostly PLA.
I share an experience which might be helpful fpr others: I recently purchased a nozzle from a new source which gave rise to bad printing results: the surface of my test wallprinted with my usual parameters showed an irregular shape of individual layers whereas the wall created with the original nozzle was perfect. Inspection with a stereo microscope showed that the hole was not perfectly round and inside the nozzle the walls were not smooth at all.
Thanks, i will take it as a warning while purchasing this.
I'm just sitting with a standard E3D V6 Nozzles made of Brass. Currently I have a .3 mm nozzle in because I need better details and almost never print above layerheights of .2mm....
But one question still is open to me: Why leave a gap between the nozzle and the heater block?
I make them flush since "printing day one" to enhance the heat transfer to the very tip of the nozzle... (my way of doing it is: unscrew everything from the heater block, clean threads, screw nozzle back in until hand tight, now unscrew 1/3rd turn, screw heatbreak in until hand tight, check if nozzle is still hand tight. heat up to 240°C and tighten the nozzle until flush)
I tried a stainless nozzle on my MK10 extruder, and it sucked. It was as if I was running 50C lower temp. Yes, *50C*. Needless to say, I'm sticking with brass for now. Honestly, it was my bad, because my hotend is pretty bad to begin with, lol. I'm just going with cheapo ebay nozzles for now, they seems to be working fine for me.
I personally like Micro-swiss nozzles. Brass core and wear resistant coating.
I am using an E3D Lite6 in my DIY 3D printer and never had a single problem! Very happy with it :-)
For holding the heater block, medical forceps (Adson forceps, fancy tweezers basically) work great.
Not sur if you’re still reading comments on this old video but here is another one.
I have been changing brass nozzles without any problem using more or less your technic. But lately I’m having a weird problem. I have replaced my nozzle with the nozzle X and used it for almost a year. Then one day I had a problem with a filament stuck inside and removed it for cleaning. But since then, it keeps leaking after a couple of weeks time. I ordered a torque wrench to make sure I was tightening enough. But it keeps loosing up after a couple of weeks again. I now tight it to 3nm and still having the same issue. Any idea what can cause this?
Being new on 3D printing I use the stock brass nozzles, so I will try this tonight and hopefully this takes back at printing. Thanks.
im using unicorn horn nozzles lined with plasticized dolphin tears
Sweet set up!
I'm using an ice cream cone, with a hole stabbed in the bottom with a pencil to roughly the size of what I think 0.4mm looks like. So far my prints have come out all yellow and flakey.
Lucky! I could only find the one with sloth tears :/
harry potter be like
Noob, you should be coating it with leprechaun tears 😁
Rip your wallet
That Tamiya tool is a star! I will always have it around.
Still rocking the standard nozzle on my e3d lite6. Replaced the original ubis on my Simple Metal and the print quality increased hugely. e3d ftw!
I'm using an Anet A8 with 0.4 mm brass nozzle but it keeps clogging which is pretty annoying. And yes, it was my fault this time as I switched between ABS and PLA without properly cleaning it. I am going to stick with PLA from now on and have ordered an E3D Hardened Steel nozzle and a couple E3D V6 copper heat blocks, then some cheap PTFE lined screws to mount it to my standard Anet extruder.
After I go through the painful process of installing it and leveling the bed, I think it should work great compared to what was there.
EDIT: I broke the thermistor wire while installing the new parts so I have another on the way... It's a nice printer with great results but it has very cheap and poorly made parts.
I'm now using the Prometheus V2 hotend, so I'm stuck with the one piece nozzle that came with it (0.4mm). It's a nice hot end, but changing out the nozzle for a larger (or smaller) one would involve totally rebuilding the hot end, so it actually makes more sense to be able to swap out the entire hot end assembly. I can actually do that on my printer thanks to the way I ended up designing the hot end mounting, but I'll probably rarely wish I had the next larger or smaller size (0.6 or 0.3).
How does your design look?
I am still using the standard E3D V6 brass nozzle on my 3D printers. Just got a hardened nozzel from E3D and will try it out this afternoon to print thom colorfab xt-c20.
I bought a cheap stainless steel nozzle for my TAZ 4, it clogged up. Instead of getting mad I used a 2.1mm drill bit to drill out the bore and I now have a nozzle that comes in handy when printing really large parts. Kind of similar to the MOARstruder from Lulzbot, except the modification cost me about 2 dollars instead of 395.
I am using the Olsson Ruby. :) Pretty happy with how things are turning out on any material I choose
A general rule is never expect more than 80% flow of the diameter.. so yea 0.4 will not give you 0.4 due to many factors. also make sure you never damage the tip when cleaning.. if you rough/scratch it.. you increase the chance of blockages and also the filament will not flow as well and will curl as it comes out.
it's best to clean your tip without shoving anything in it... so do not drill it... Generally hand feeding filament with some pressure does best.. I do this when ever i change filaments and since have never had a blockage.
"it's best to clean your tip without shoving anything in it" Yeah, that's advice I generally live by.
I switched to a micro swiss hotend and found the steel nozzle inferior for producing nice prints with PLA so I switched back to brass. I'm sure it can be dialed in to get similar results as brass but I didn't want to bother with that as the brass one is much easier and more forgiving and produced great results no matter the speed or temperature settings. I plan on using the steel one in the rare occasions I need to print something abrasive or very high temp.
still using airbrush nozzels with the merlin hotend. that fine tip allows much greater details in tiny parts.
I just deinstalled my nozzle to clean it out, but man that thing was not coming loose easy! So i heated it up to a 110 degrees and right away it came off with no force at all. What a difference!
Do you mean you tried unscrewing the nozzle when it was cold? That will never work after the first time you've printed through it, because there will be molten plastic sticking it to the heater block and/or the heat break. As this video says, heat the hotend up to around 240°C (or the printing temperature of the filament you last used in it) and then unscrew it :)
Could you consider doing a video that compares genuine nozzles to cheap generic ones? There's a 24-pack of assorted nozzles on Amazon for $15 that I can't find any reviews about! thanks.
To torque up the nozzles i use the slice engineering torque wrench. Takes the guessing out of tightness without over-tightening.
this video was supper helpfel with my cheap Tronxy x5s hotend, i had a jam in the treaded screww that has the teflon tub in it, replace that part, rebuilt my hotend made Sure to tighten it the way You showed, have not had any issues with jams. Thank you for this Great info. I do plan on changing from brass nozzle to steel.
Damian
Didn’t see this video until today. A really nice guide as always. Great work!
really great guide about handeling them but i would like a comparison cheap vs expensive. you can get nozzels for less then a few cents each but are they worth anything ? and what to judge them by ?
also: i have a problem were exspecially the first layer kinda well looks teared from above at one engde of the extruded filament it makes my prints look weird "is as if the nozzel kinda tears it litterly up one side" and i imagne it not being that good for my adhesion as well
i think it might have to do with the nozzel so thats one of the reasons im aksing the above i wonder if its wear or just a low quallity nozzel
This video just gave the right amount of information. I didn't know about using the Snti Size compound. I would love video about your workflow. Basic information... I can't believe you guys are printing one print then fixing a bunch of stuff printing another print fixing some more Stuff Etc. I know you have to do maintenance on your printer from time to time but I'd like to get to the point where I am printing more than I am trying to fix. Like clogged nozzles, misfeeding filament from the coldend extruder, etc. So combined the above with some maintance tips would be nice. Right now I would never leave the house with a print running.
Kossel Delta Rev B I am sticking with the 0.4 brass for now.Thank you for this informative video.
I backed the Tungsten nozzle on Kickstarter (looking forward to getting it in the mail!)
Zak Kazee just tungsten or tungsten carbide? and link pls?
Chimaeria www.kickstarter.com/projects/dddmaterial/3d-printer-tungsten-premium-nozzle-reloaded
says tungsten alloy
Yeah I'm using an E3D V6 with a classic brass. Looked at their copper heat blocks and specialised nozzles at different diameters and the pricing was reasonable.
Then I went to checkout and VAT and £4 of postage were dumped on. Needless to say I decided there's currently no need for me to replace or upgrade my nozzle.
Not a ruby but am buying a diamond lined nozzle. Started by a Kicstarted project it made ita gol and will start selling them in November-
december.
Any thoughts on Tungsten nozzles? I hear they are super hard for abrasive filament, can get really hot and are good thermal conductor
Learned a lot from this video, just picked up a anycubic mega zero. Stoked to get printing woop woop
Really wanna get tungsten carbide nozzle. Might be overkill, but I plan on printing some abrasives as well and thought of never having to switch nozzle is tempting.
Also I love TC because it's such a great material.
Funny thing. Not many of these seem to be available (talking about FULL tungsten, not inserts ones) in europe. At the moment i only seen Phaetus X Primacreator nozzles.
I haven't bothered swapping out the brass 0.4 from our Prusa MK2 yet as it's suited the prints done so far, but I do have hardened ones and a Volcano waiting for when we need them.
Even though i don’t need it, I think i am going to go for the ruby for the sake of filament flexibility and never needing to worry about the tip again. for me personally, worth it.
Around 6:00, you state that you should have a gap between the nozzle and the block. I presume you mean the hex-head of the nozzle and the block. Can you tell me the purpose of that gap?
got the olsson ruby in the mail today. can't wait to install it
Use a wider wrench and hold the short sides of the heat block which are free of any wires to avoid accident damage to them
One more nozzle i wait to come out that in my opinion is worth to take a look is tungsten alloy ,not sure if it is out yet, but for abrasive filament etc looks promising and in good price :)
I mainly print with pla. e3d brass .4mm nozzle. my success with abs has been awful, delaminating layers and prints warping off heated bed. pla, no problem ever. Nylon - as long as its taulman, no issues.
I have been using the standard brass but just ordered a hardened tool steel one from Maker Geeks. I have some abrasives samples that I want to try out and figured I would give this one a try.
Tom, you make everything look so easy... I've subbed and liked every video of yours I've seen, however I still, after about 100hrs, cannot make a decent print... =/ I'm using a TEVO Tarantula model printer, with all the basic stuff that was shipped with it.
Thanks for all the great help videos and sharing your plethora of knowledge about the industry.
Does it make sense to buy a dual head printer and use one thick and one thin nozzle to work on fine details?
Tried hardened steel - kept having a lot of problems. Uneven layers, failed prints, etc. I'd have to crank the temperature up and the speed down quite significantly to make it work. Switched back to brass, my printer prints like it's in factory condition. I do wish it was easier to find videos on how the different nozzle materials affect performance, and what adjustments you might have to make. I don't think I'll be using hardened steel again unless I want to work with some exotic filament.
Great video! I just want to know that if I print with a larger nozzle what would be the smallest layer height I could do? What percentage of the nozzle size would it be? My printer the Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus has a stock 0.4 mm nozzle and I am printing fairly large parts, like a full-size instrument kind of parts. My printer can get down to 0.1 mm layer height with the stock nozzle, so it's about 25% of the nozzle size. So let's say I get a 0.8 mm nozzle, would the max layer height be 0.2 mm? I would like to know.
Thanks!
You can do the same height as the nozzle diameter, but then you need to use 1.5 times the width. For example, max height of 0.4 nozzle is around 0.4mm with a line width of 0.6mm. You must use wider lines for larger layer heights so that it is pressed down to the previous layer.
@ 6:04 - Why need the gap between nozzle & the block?
Great video and helpful. Decided I needed a project for the summer and brought an Anet A8 to get started. Construction was easy and I am learning a massive amount on how these printers work.
As it's a cheaper option, I am manually checking hot bed level and testing different filament types.
Any recommended upgrades people know about, please let me know. Happy to test and try anything to make this process easier
Has it gone up in flames yet
@@treekotreeko3487 already upgraded to a prusa Mk3s and sold the old one
@@darrenholloway930 what a legend responds after 5 years
@@treekotreeko3487 I got an email so felt it was only fair lol
@@darrenholloway930 👍
Good video. There was a lot of interesting information that I was not aware of, thank you.
Still just using a basic brass nozzle but I'm just printing PLA, PETG and ABS.
Many thanks. Have been using MK10 Brass nozzles. Will try a steel one, next.
The Flashforge Adventurer 3 3d printer has heated itself up to 300 degrees Celsius, but I do not know how to get it to come down from that number. I was about to do a cold clean out of the nozzle.
Hi, Is there any way to use combination of different nozzle diameters installed in a dual extruder setup so that we can reduce printing time without losing outer surface finish ..
I would use a "Zangenschlüssel". I think it Is called plierwrench english. It is a lot safer than normal pliers. I use that a lot on expensive parts that are fragile. It is one of the most important tools at my home. Use the plierwrench to hold the hotend and a 7mm wrench to remove the nozzle.
I have a Prusa i3 mk2 kit on order. I added a hardened steel nozzle to my order so I could occasionally print the exotic filled fillaments, but will mostly print PLA and non- abrasive fillaments. Should I print everything through the steel, or just swap in the steel nozzle on the rare times I actually need it?
Super late reply, but just in case it still helps you/anyone else: it's really up to you. A hardened steel nozzle will print everything that a regular brass nozzle will print. The only slight downside is that steel conducts heat slightly less effectively than brass, meaning that you might not be able to print quite as fast with a steel nozzle than with a brass nozzle (you won't be able to pump heat through the nozzle and into the plastic as quickly). Personally I've never found that to be a problem, but I always print quite slowly anyway as, like Tom's said before, I prefer higher quality prints that take a bit longer over fast jobs that give mediocre results. I tend to switch between nozzle sizes fairly frequently (I've just spent this weekend trying out E3D's experimental 0.15mm nozzle, printing a Benchy at 10% scale - that's 6mm long - and 0.08mm layers and having it still come out looking like a Benchy rather than a big blob of plastic), and so there's a reasonable chance that I'll have to swap out the nozzle for a given print regardless of the material being used. Just be very careful when initially screwing in a nozzle - I've accidentally cross-threaded an E3D nozzle before which actually ruined the heater block, requiring a replacement! :(
Question: Is it necessary to remove the entire hotend from the printer to change a nozzle? Or is Tom just showing it this way for clarity? Seems it'd be easy to do this without fully disassembling everything. Anybody?
There are minor difficulties with removing a nozzle while it's still connected to the printer. When twisting the heat block, you are limited in how much you can twist it by the wires to the heater and the thermistor. You should only need to twist the heater block about 1/10th to 1/8th of a full rotation to disengage the nozzle from the heat break, so this isn't a problem if you're careful. I'm looking to pick up hex-shaped heat sinks so I can rotate the heat sink instead of the block.
I always leave it on the printer when I remove a nozzle, it hasn't failed me yet. With that said, I use a Delta Smart Effector which has a very fragile plate. So keep that in mind if you have a delta with one of them.
Great Video! I'm looking towards a buying a new nozzle so I thought that I might ask you if the following nozzle specifications with a glass bed on an ender 5 pro could print abrasive materials such as carbon fiber or nylon.
Specs:
Model: MK8 hardened steel nozzle
Mounting type: external thread connection
Working temperature: 220℃
Size: 0.4/0.6/0.8mm
Filament suitable: 1.75mm
For: 3D printing
I'm new at this, so I'm still using the standard 0.4mm nozzle that came with my E3D Lite6. I did get a 0.35mm nozzle to compare with the 0.4mm one but I have not tested it yet. I'm only printing in ColorFabb PLA/PHA so far too, so a brass nozzle should last a while, I think?
Is it possible to use some boron nitride paste at the hardened steel nozzles-thread to improve their heat conductivity or is this not recommended?
Using the hardened steel. Works great since i print with fiber pla alot
What is that tool you use to remove the hotend? I've been trying to find one but haven't had good luck.
Is there somekind of coating to insulate the hotend?
Molydenium should work out nice. Harder than steel but same conductivity as brass. The strongest advantage of saphire should be that the resign does not sticks on it.
Gonna try vase mode using a 1mm nozzle
If I wanted to machine my own steel nozzles, what type of steel/alloy would be best for heat transfer and durability against wear? 316SS? Inconel 625? Others??
Thanks Tom, you earned my subscription. I didn't realize that the heater block also needed to be loosened and then tightened along with tip after heated up. Also will start setting temp to 250. Thanks Dave..
PS: new to printing, I have a Anycubic Kobra printer and have been trying to find a replacement silicone cover, any suggestions?
What about the residual particles of the material left on the nozzle while heating it up for the tightening? Does it have to be spot clean for that?
I would have liked some elaboration on the different available shapes, since that's what has me a bit lost.
IE, "ed3" vs "mk8" or "standard" vs "volcano", etc.
AFIK they all have the same thread, but different lengths, volcano being the longest by far.
What I am most confused about is the MK8 vs ed3 though, look completely different but close enough in size to be confused with each other. Are they interchangeable? Would it hurt to have the threads not quite bottomed out if the nozzle is a few MM longer than the heatblock was designed for? How can you even tell which 'standard' a given heater block meant to use? (For volcano this is obvious, but not the others)
Is that a traxxas wheel nut tool you used to unscrew the nozzle?
im still trying to work out the difference between v6 and mk8 nozzles and if they are cross compatible or not
Tamiya hex wrench ;)
Avanti 2001 vs The Grasshopper.
Place your bets.
grapsorz it took me a second to realize why that wrench looked so familiar.
I recently came across your channel and I think ur doing a great job.
I will recommend you in my future videos.
I ordered a brass heater block. Maybe it's better than aluminium,
with regards to wear. Also, I got some titanium nozzles. Who knows, right ?
Hi Tom, great information as always. What's the name of the liquid you are using before inserting the nozzle? Thanks in advance. Continue like you do 👍👏
Tom, this was done a LONG time ago, how about reviewing nozzle materials, especially the Diamond and Titanium.
ive been using BIQU Metal Reprap I3 3D Printer With MK3 Heatbed and Anti-Curling Edge Antislip Heat bed Sticker , Printing Size 8.7" x 8.7" x 10.04" i found glass build plate gave me better builds but i want do more with it .
HI, My name is Shashidhar and I just want to know what type of nozzle should I use for my 800*800*800mm 3d printer, I want my product output to be smooth
i tried some stainless steel nozzles and i havent had to change it for over 4 months, doesnt glog (YET) and runs smooth
I'm useing the stock nozzle on the select mini v2 and i was wondering if theirs a limit on how much you should really spend on buying a decent nozzle. Prefriably .4mm
I'm currently using an A2 Hercules E3D style nozzle from 3DXtech I was interested In the copper ones from E3D but I wanted to find out how they'd fare w/ abrasive filaments first, as I've been using a lot of GFR PETG lately
great vid, I always looks forward to your advice. but why not put the heater block into the vise when removing the nozzle? seems like less chance of breaking the things
The vice will draw all the heat away from the hotend
Ahh good point
Ok, I just installed a new nozzle yesterday, a .6mm nozzle. When I fed filament though, everything looks like it’s fine, it is coming out of the nozzle perfectly I even did a small test print. I am still worried about if I may have done something incorrectly, how soon would I know if I messed up on nozzle instillation and what would be the early signs of it?
If detail is not important, but material strength is . what do you recommend? I need impact resistant.
plain brass works fine for me.. i use a blow torch to burn out the old plastic and clean it up from time to time
At 1:49 he says "completely invisible layer lines and super fine detail". That's what I'm going for! What else do I need besides a small nozzle? Is there a video where he talks about what you need for high-accuracy and not care about print speed? Thanks!
Time, lots and lots of time.
Is that it? What about the quality of the rest of the hotend? What about where you buy it from? I really would like to know.
You will want a direct drive printer, do not go bowden, as bowden puts a larger distance between your extruder stepper and your hotend, causing increased flow while not driving, and inconsistent retractions.
You will also want a drive gear for your extruder that has a semi-circle section for where the teeth are, these grab your filament a lot better and reduce slipping, which would cause your layers to be uneven (a much larger problem at smaller layer and nozzle sizes)
You will also want to consider kapton tape, and ACME Z-axis leads, the kapton so you get better adhesion since your prints will be sitting on the bed for a lot longer, and have more time to detache, and the ACME leads because you will want to make smaller, finer steps on your Z axis
If you care more about quality than you do structural integrity, print a little colder. The layers will snap apart and break easier, but your extrusions tend to stay intact to the shape you originally wanted
You will want a printer with the highest possible distance between the tip of the nozzle, and the heater block. You will also want to wrap your heater block in some sort of insulator, like a high-temp silicone sleeve, or some fiberglass batting/kapton combination. This will reduce thermal radiation, which will help your parts warp less, and have cleaner extrusions
Do not get bed auto-level. This is a feature that would put a huge amount of stress on your Z-steppers at low layer heights, instead, get a very flat print bed, and carefully adjust the heights by hand. imo, auto-level has it's place in printers that get moved a lot, or are at hacker spaces and schools, but not for high precision home/work machines.
Oh, and a good controller for your steppers. You don't want to fry your controller when you put a high amount of amps to your steppers. PLA is also a material that's more conducive to quality prints, as it has less of a warping issue, and can be printed cooler.
I am of the impression that a hotend with a heatsink (J-head style) is a plus, but make sure to get one with a PTFE liner, it puts less resistance on the filament, and would only be damaged if you were printing high-temp exotic filaments.
I'm just using what came with the Lulzbot Mini. Had trouble printing out parts that required high precision like gears and things with screw holes and nut pockets. Could the 3mm nozzle be the issue?
What's the best company/manufacture to buy from. Price ranges from about $14us for one to $6.00 for a pack of 20. Looking at Brass nozzles. Ruby nozzles are in the hundreds of dollars.
Hello, My 3d Printer (Creatily CR10S) has stopped working properly today, the nozzle is not melting anything although it is heater properly. The Filament is being pushed and everything is working perfectly. I cleaned the nozzle today morning after the problem started occurring, do you have any suggestion what could be happening?
Hab bei mir Teflon Band um das Gewinde, damit es nicht leckt. Sonst ein MaPa Heatbreak, hat eine Beschichtung die das PTFE ersetzt und eine normale Messingdüse.
what do i do if my nozzle is completely stuck to the heatblock? I'm just scraping the metal when trying to unscrew it. Yes i heat the nozzle.
I want to know how I should find the thread size.