I could not get a 0.6 to stop oozing and stringing with petg and pla. Just couldn't so switched back to 0.4. Dragon hot end w. Bowden tube after titan extruder.
can't believe it - I was stringing and clogging with 0.4 (likely trouble with retraction but tuned to hell and back) but running same parts at 0.8 (granted not detailed, but functional big parts) without stringing, same retraction settings, and 40% print time it's wild
as @rambos said, line width, layer height, and speed. I'm still working on getting the speed up - not that anything has failed on me just worried my hotend won't keep up and haven't tested max volumetric flow yet
Larger nozzles do kick ass. I personally use my 0.6 nozzles pretty heavily. As others have mentioned though, there are definitely scenarios where you'll really want or even need to drop to a smaller size. My printer hates trying to print PETG at higher sizes for example, maybe my hot end isn't powerful enough.
it also consumes way more filament- especially on single-wall parts or parts that have x perimeters rather than a perimeter thickness. They're great for structural prints, and large prints that you want done quickly. For comparison, a .4mm nozzle will have a nozzle area of about 0.125 mm^2, where a 0.6mm is .28 mm^2. and .8mm is .502mm^2. More than double the extrusion width.
like basically everything else in 3d printing, it's all about compromise and which compromises are acceptable.
10-20 % comes out to $3-6 extra for the same parts across a 2kg reel. For parts that are structural or large (and not meant to be seen, or will be post processed anyway,) the advantages in strength and speed could be worth it.
But, that 3-6 adds up significantly over time.
I do agree that .6 and .8mm nozzles have a place in anyone’s kit. I don’t agree that this excludes .4mm or smaller nozzles from a similar place
I printed some tiny but detailed board game pieces recently, I don't think I'd get the detail I wanted with a 0.8. I also have Revo installed so I'm okay with swapping nozzles frequently.
Until you need to print something small and accurate that is. I had to build a second 3d printer to be able to do that even with just a 0.6mm nozzle on mine. Though I might have gone just a bit too far to the other end.
Also 0.8mm nozzles need quite the hotend to be usable. The standard Creality hotend would struggle to do 0.3mm layers at 50mm/s, and even a V6 would max out at around 0.4mm layers.
question... how are you dealing with extrusion pressure on the tiny nozzle? I tried going to a .2mm and found my printer didn't like the nozzle pressure. at all.
I'm not so sure about that. I have gone all-metal (and bimetallic) on my 3V2 for the, uh. The bit connecting the heater to the heat sink. The HEATBREAK. Right. But the heater block, sensor, heat sink are all original and they have absolutely no problem with 1.0mm, at least up to 220. I've done various power measurements and it's not having to work hard to do it, either.
The other changes I've made to the hot end assembly have been adding more cooling, not more heat. (It's dual fan now and has better airflow to the heatsink.)
I mean, it could all be due to the bimetallic heatbreak. But, well... 1.0mm is 100% absolutely fine on my 3V2.
So. speaking of cooling..... I've been floating an idea around for a bit now. Ever play with an airbrush kit (like for painting minis?)
hear me out here. Imagine setting up a plennum pressure chamber fed by an airbrush compressor, then using servos or something to control conic plug valves (as in the airbrush itself.) Now, imagine something similar to a bowden tube running to the hot end from said plenum chamber... directing the air exactly where you want it.
seriously, most the weight of the hot end is now in fans. At least, for me. (heater cooler, nozzle cooler, the other nozzle cooler.)
Imagine how fast we could get with bowden-air... (yeah, I'll have to work on that name...)
It's not just the nozzle size alone. Each hotend has a limit to the volumetric output, how much plastic it can melt in the time it takes the filament to travel through the hotzone in a certain time, which is roughly calculated by line_width x layer_height x print_speed, e.g 0.6 x 0.3 x 50 = 9. That the limit is varies depending on your print temperature and it also isn't linear - you start underextruding up to 50% before you hit the point where the extruders starts skipping for example - but there is a limit - for standard hotends it's usually around 15mm^(3)/s.
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