Volcano hot-end, any good on normal size printer?

Hi,

I bought some new gizmos amongst which a V6-like hotend. It came with both a normal and a Volcano heater thing. I would like to stick to my 0.4 mm nozzle size, 0.2 mm layer height and my printer is not very big, although bigger than regular at 400 x 400 x 250 mm. Does the Volcano set-up add anything? Should I be able to increase speed, any other advantages? I print regular 1.75 mm PLA.

Cheers,

Hugo

Sure why not? If you like to fill your print volume then a volcano will always help. A print that fills your print volume will still take 24+ hours with a normal nozzle so volcano will be advantageous.

It also depends what you print.. Smooth mechanical parts will be great, detailed models not so much. I'd rather keep the 0.4 nozzle personally for its versatility

Edit - just seen what you are asking. The volcano will add a larger melt area. Filament could end up being overheated, retraction could be an issue. You will want to print fast, you should be able to print faster (in theory, your actual printer may not let you though). Do you find yourself currently limited by a standard heater block?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2018 04:41PM by Origamib.

I have a volcano on UMMD with a 0.8 mm nozzle. I've been struggling to get decent print quality out of it. It works fine for things like spiral vases, but there some odd behavior with retraction that I'm having a lot of trouble fixing. I think the problem is the nozzle size, not the heater block. It's probably fine with a 0.4 mm nozzle.

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Son of MegaMax 3D printer: [www.instructables.com]
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

The volcano is great for PETG. It seems to need more energy to melt fully. I also believe, layer seperation issues you see with ABS and 0.4 nozzle are less with the bigger nozzles. I can finally print massive parts from ABS without cracking. And it makes my 0.8mm Prusa almost as fast as my Delta with 0.4mm.

Hmmm, so basically there is no real reason if I stick to PLA, 0,4mm nozzle and normal printing. I'll keep it asside and might fool around with it a bit later.

Cheers,

Hugo